2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhy Snowden Won’t (and Shouldn’t) Get Clemency
He went too far to be considered just a whistleblower.
By Fred Kaplan
I regard Daniel Ellsberg as an American patriot. I was one of the first columnists to write that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be fired for lying to Congress. On June 7, two days after the first news stories based on Edward Snowdens leaks, I wrote a column airing (and endorsing) the concerns of Brian Jenkins, a leading counterterrorism expert, that the governments massive surveillance program had created the foundation of a very oppressive state.
And yet I firmly disagree with the New York Times Jan. 1 editorial (Edward Snowden, Whistle-Blower), calling on President Obama to grant Snowden some form of clemency for the great service he has done for his country.
It is true that Snowdens revelations about the National Security Agencys surveillance of American citizensfar vaster than any outsider had suspected, in some cases vaster than the agencys overseers on the secret FISA court had permittedhave triggered a valuable debate, leading possibly to much-needed reforms.
If that were all that Snowden had done, if his stolen trove of beyond-top-secret documents had dealt only with the NSAs domestic surveillance, then some form of leniency might be worth discussing.
full article
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2014/01/edward_snowden_doesn_t_deserve_clemency_the_nsa_leaker_hasn_t_proved_he.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content&mc_cid=cf4e04bfc7&mc_eid=7a8b58c8c3
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)There has been too many directions indicated, too much incorrect information revealed so I don't know if the truth is in his gang.
PSPS
(13,614 posts)This opinion piece might, at first, be perceived as only revealing the writer's naivety. But Fred Kaplan's membership in the Council of Foreign Relations tells us all we need to know about where this "opinion" comes from. Essentially, he is speaking for the very surveillance community that occupies a large part of the organization's membership roster.
Apparently, because the leaked documents also reveal that the NSA monitors foreign entities (their intended function when the NSA was formed, and already widely known for 70 years,) then Snowden must be hanged or something. That the NSA is now a rogue agency freely engaging in illegal spying on Americans is somehow nothing to worry about since the NSA also spies on foreign bogeymen.
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Worshiper/Apologist Hit Parade:
1. This is nothing new
2. I have nothing to hide
3. What are you, a freeper?
4. But Obama is better than Christie/Romney/Bush/Hitler
5. Greenwald/Flaherty/Gillum/Apuzzo/Braun is a hack
6. We have red light cameras, so this is no big deal
7. Corporations have my data anyway
8. At least Obama is trying
9. This is just the media trying to take Obama down
10. It's a misunderstanding/you are confused
11. You're a racist
12. Nobody cares about this anyway / "unfounded fears"
13. I don't like Snowden, therefore we must disregard all of this
14. Other countries do it
frazzled
(18,402 posts)"All we need to know," indeed. All you want to know. I've been reading Fred Kaplan for more than a decade. You apparently did not even read this article (because none of your 14 points addresses a single thing relevant to Kaplan's positions).
But no point in having a conversation about issues or facts or anything of that nature. There is no conversation to be had with iconoclasts who devise conspiratorial categories instead of considering analysis.