New Campaign Asks Obama to Pardon Edward Snowden

[bananas]

Source: Democracy Now!

The American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights organizations have launched a campaign asking President Obama to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden before Obama leaves office. Among those who have signed onto the campaign are Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; actors Martin Sheen, Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon; writers Rebecca Solnit and Terry Tempest Williams; and Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. At an event in New York City, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero called for a pardon for Snowden.

Anthony Romero: "Edward Snowden’s case presents one for President Obama to use the presidential power of pardon proudly and unequivocally, in recognition of one of the most important acts of whistleblowing in modern history. By standing up for the privacy rights of his fellow citizens—individuals who had no idea that the government had assumed such extraordinary and invasive powers in secret—Edward Snowden should be thanked, and not punished."

Full-page ads calling for the pardon also ran Wednesday in The Washington Post and Politico. Edward Snowden himself also appeared via video stream at the event in New York City Wednesday.

Edward Snowden: "I love my country, I love my family, and I have dedicated my life to both of them. These risks, these burdens that I took on, I knew were coming. And no one should be in a position to make these kind of decisions. That’s not the kind of place that we’re supposed to be. But it doesn’t have to be. Of course I look forward to coming home, but I cannot support the persecution of those charged under an Espionage Act, when they have committed no espionage."

Read more: http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/15/headlines/new_campaign_asks_obama_to_pardon_edward_snowden

[onehandle]

1. Fat chance. nt

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. He should be pardoned, but he thought others should be "shot in the balls"? Being championed by...

some of the most despicable people on the planet, who are even more privileged than he is, certainly doesn't help his case in my mind. The hundreds of thousands of criminals, rotting away in prisons across this country, probably agree with me. Fuck Vladimir Putin's despicable spy.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Obvious, long-term Russian effort to affect US political process through hacking

Snowden ran directly to Moscow.

These things aren't unconnected.

[bananas]

4. Daniel Ellsberg: "Ed Snowden should be freed of the legal burden hanging over him."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/14/edward-snowden-pardon-bernie-sanders-daniel-ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg

Former US military analyst who released the 1971 Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam war, and who met Snowden in Moscow last year

Ed Snowden should be freed of the legal burden hanging over him. They should remove the indictment, pardon him if that’s the way to do it, so that he is no longer facing prison.

The NSA and US government have revealed no evidence that the information Ed Snowden released has caused any harm. Inconvenience, yes, embarrassment certainly, but what has truly been revealed is that the NSA itself was unquestionably committing international, domestic and constitutional crimes.

Were the government to have any evidence that Snowden revealed information that should have been protected, I think he should be judged by a jury. I was the first person to be tried for a leak under the Espionage Act, and I certainly didn’t object to my case being weighed by a jury, although it never came to that. But there has to be a public interest defense, which doesn’t exist in US law now.

As things stand, I think the chance that this or any president will pardon Snowden is zero. They wouldn’t dare to challenge the intelligence community that remains so hostile to him. Nor does Snowden have any chance of a fair trial under the Espionage Act, any more than I did.

So nothing would be gained by him coming back and standing trial unless the Espionage Act were changed to permit that public interest defense. He’s said to me that he’s willing to come back and serve one, two or conceivably three years as a result of a plea bargain arranged beforehand, but they haven’t offered him one as far as I’m aware.

[George II]

5. "I cannot support the persecution of those charged under an Espionage Act....

....when they have committed no espionage."

Come back to the US, face the charges and if determined that you did not commit espionage you'll be free to go.

If convicted of committing espionage, THEN you can be pardoned.

Back in 1974 when Ford pardoned Nixon, there was a debate about how a person who had not been convicted of a crime could be pardoned.

[hack89]

6. The President is not a stupid man. Nt

[still_one]

7. The quickest way to lose the election would be to pardon him before the election

[wysi]

8. PBO to Snowden:

"Get stuffed".

[sakabatou]

9. What about Don Siegelman (iirc)?

[bucolic_frolic]

10. I doubt this will ever happen

It would give license to all to do what they thought right and moral
at all times when they felt justified by a higher good

But who determines the higher good? What about conflicting
higher goods?

Society and government work by laws and rules and discipline

Was Martin Luther well received in Rome?

[cheapdate]

11. Seems far-fetched.

[ucrdem]

12. What a crock. Snowden didn't expose any illegal behavior and for Romero to pretend

that after 8 years of Bush-Cheney criminality there was a single individual on the planet who "had no idea that the government had assumed such extraordinary and invasive powers" is inane. If he wants to elect Trump that badly he should come clean and say so.

[Lil Missy]

13. Hell no! He's a traitor and deserves to be prosecuted. n/t