Hero or Traitor?

Townhall.com ^ | December 16, 2020 | John Stossel

[CodeToad]

“Intelligence” is also extremely difficult to nail down as far as budget. Those budgets are buried all over the place.

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Snowden made one crucial mistake.

He did his whistle-blowing during a Democratic Party president administration.

If he did it when a Republican was in the White House, the media would hail him as a hero.

[Ron H.]

So he really didn’t go to Russia?

[Valin]

Edward Snowden Isn’t A Hero And Doesn’t Deserve A Presidential Pardon
https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/25/edward-snowden-isnt-a-hero-and-doesnt-deserve-a-presidential-pardon/
Alex Plitsas
December 25, 2020

Edward Snowden isn’t a patriot. He’s not a hero. Most importantly, he does not deserve a presidential pardon. At best, Snowden should spend the rest of his life in the cold, dark cell of a federal penitentiary. Those calling for him to receive a pardon from President Donald Trump couldn’t be any more wrong.

By all accounts, Edward Snowden was living the American dream. As a 29-year-old high school dropout, Snowden managed to find his way into the U.S. intelligence community where he reportedly worked first as a technical analyst for the CIA, then as a contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton for the NSA. In his last role, Snowden reportedly made well over $100,000 per year — described as a “pay cut” from his previous jobs — while living in Hawaii near the beach with his girlfriend.

(Snip)

In total, Snowden is alleged to have stolen an estimated 1.7 million highly classified documents during his time working in the U.S. intelligence community. It’s impossible for Snowden to have read all the titles of the documents in question, let alone their contents, to fully understand the damage done to U.S. national security by compromising them. Though his stated purpose was to expose a domestic surveillance program, both the material he collected and his actions cast doubt on this notion.

Snowden began leaking classified information about the existence and inner workings of highly sensitive intelligence collection operations to major news publications though his identity was initially unknown. While American authorities scrambled to deal with the fallout, the damage was already done, and Snowden fled to Moscow by way of Hong Kong in an attempt to avoid being apprehended.

(Snip)

Snowden didn’t tailor his disclosures of classified material to support his alleged concerns regarding American civil liberties. He compromised the lives of assets and collection platforms and put the nation at risk. He also didn’t make use of any of the whistleblower options that were available to him. Then, instead of standing his ground and pleading his case, he fled into the arms of America’s adversaries and compromised millions of classified documents. Quite simply, his actions don’t match his words.

At this time, Snowden still resides in Moscow, where he walks the streets as a free man under the watchful protection of one of our nation’s greatest foes after committing exceptionally grave damage to U.S. national security. If he really and truly believes that what he did was right, he should return to the United States and stand trial. To date, he has expressed no remorse for the damage he has caused. Under the cumulative weight of the circumstances, he is unworthy of a presidential pardon.

[Valin]

Feel free to move.