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Bolton: NSA leaker Edward Snowden is guilty of treason
WLS ^ | June 10, 2013 | John Dempsey

Posted on 06/10/2013 7:31:41 AM PDT by maggief

(CHICAGO)

(snip)

Former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft on WLS that he thinks admitted leaker Edward Snowden, is guilty of treason:

"Number one, this man is a liar. He took an oath to keep the secrets that were shared with him so he could do his job. He said said he would not disclose them, and he lied. Number two, he lied because he thinks he's smarter and has a higher morality than the rest of us. This guy thinks he has a higher morality, that he can see clearer than other 299-million 999-thousand 999 of us, and therefore he can do what he wants. I say that is the worst form of treason".

(Excerpt) Read more at wlsam.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bolton; neocon; snowden
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To: USNBandit

Treason? This guy has courageously provided a lead into how much the government has gone amok in it’s power and control over people. Treason?....hardly.


181 posted on 06/10/2013 8:52:24 AM PDT by catfish1957 (Hey NSA Goon watching FR... Suck this - > =====>)
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To: volunbeer
However, to further the debate we all have to understand the importance and responsibilities of congressional oversight. I am guessing both parties got this one wrong, but I want to know if this information was used against Americans in violation of the constitution. That would be scary.

You have a Congress conducting oversight which routinely usurps powers not enumerated to it by the Constitution during the course of its day to day business - and we are counting on them to determine if a line of Constitutionality has been crossed by the demands of the executive for petabytes of private-source data on American citizens?

You have a rubber-stamp FISA court which does not reject any government requests.

And you have an administration which is demanding information on Americans under the guise of fighting terrorism when they claim the war against Islamic terrorism is on the wane whilst there is a rising thread of Tea Party terrorism?

And the entire process is cloaked in secrecy, which means the public only finds out from whistleblowers that are made examples of to discourage others from coming forward.

There is the illusion of Constitutional oversight here. But in reality it means nothing. And that is the core problem here. And not only in this matter, but across the entire federal government.

182 posted on 06/10/2013 8:52:39 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: central_va
He outed himself for the 15 minutes of fame.

IMHO he outed himself to extend his life expectancy..........

183 posted on 06/10/2013 8:53:01 AM PDT by varon (Down with tyranny)
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To: A'elian' nation

I do wonder how the Ellsberg precedent favors Snowden should he be brought to trial?


Interesting thought and I am sure they will argue it. Snowden will be charged and convicted. It is pretty clear that he violated the legal oath and contract he made. The person he should have disclosed this information to (by law) was Congress (I would have picked Rand Paul) - not the media. If that did not work he would have had a stronger argument (and probably from the grave) for disclosing it outside of the government.


184 posted on 06/10/2013 8:53:22 AM PDT by volunbeer (We must embrace austerity or austerity will embrace us)
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To: Dead Corpse
We are under no obligation to follow illegal orders. Also, the Oath I took obligates me to protect the Republic from Enemies foreign and DOMESTIC.

This entire Administration is a Domestic enemy and a complete perversion of the Federal government outlined in our Constitution.

Well said and needs to be repeated often!

185 posted on 06/10/2013 8:53:31 AM PDT by greyfoxx39 (Thanks, Mitt.)
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To: CitizenUSA

It is straightforward...and the Verizon meta-data thing doesn’t touch it.


186 posted on 06/10/2013 8:55:19 AM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: jiggyboy

>>“I see you used to eat your share of take-out pizzas back in the 2020’s, Mr. Norseman. That makes it a little tougher to give you the ok for your heart surgery when I have a list of many people who were eating much healthier during that time, I’m sure you understand.”<<

Exactly. And with the current example of the IRS abuses staring them right in the face, you’d think it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out.


187 posted on 06/10/2013 8:55:46 AM PDT by Norseman (Defund the Left-Completely!)
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To: CitizenUSA

Snowden released essentially metadata.


188 posted on 06/10/2013 8:55:52 AM PDT by Paladin2 (;-))
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To: gaijin

disagreeing with you is insane?


189 posted on 06/10/2013 8:56:38 AM PDT by cajungirl
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Why doesn't John go after Ubama?

Because John is an Assistant VP of Sales for the Military-Industrial Complex, and Ubama is good for sales -- maybe, even better for sales than Dubya was.

We're all screwed.

190 posted on 06/10/2013 8:57:23 AM PDT by Rum Tum Tugger
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To: volunbeer
If Congress did not know this program was illegal.

How much of Congress would have to know? Is it okay if just the ELITE NOBLES such as Dick Durbin know or should the "average member" (as Durbin put it) know as well?
191 posted on 06/10/2013 8:57:46 AM PDT by Eagle of Liberty (Be the Enemy Within the Enemy Within...)
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To: central_va

central_va: “If any American can prove that their phone records and conversations were listened to without a court order then that person will become wealthy indeed.”

Well, that’s the problem. If they’re doing it, it’s likely classified. It’s also likely covered by a court order. That assumes I trust the courts to protect American’s 4th Amendment rights. I don’t.

A court order that permits the indiscriminate collection of vast sums of data on millions upon millions of Americans without probable cause is by its very nature unconstitutional. The SCOTUS might disagree, but that doesn’t mean I can’t understand the founder’s clear intent for myself. It just means the corruption is far deeper than many Americans realize.


192 posted on 06/10/2013 8:58:25 AM PDT by CitizenUSA (Why celebrate evil? Evil is easy. Good is the goal worth striving for.)
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To: greyfoxx39
Denninger finally came out with his opinion:

***

This is neither reasonable or Constitutional. In fact it is flatly unlawful and a direct violation of the rights of all citizens of the United States under color of law or authority -- and thus an act for which both civil and criminal liability attach under 18 USC 242 and 42 USC 1983.

Further, as an instrumentality of the Executive, and as these programs have featured prominently as admitted in The President's "Daily Briefing", culpability for this program reaches all the way to the President of the United States as Obama cannot claim that this program and it's breadth and depth were "conducted by staff members without his knowledge or consent."

This is an impeachable offense and, in my opinion, an indictable felony for each and every member of the government involved in it, including those members of Congress who have known about this program and not only refused to stop it but deliberately appropriated funds for its creation, expansion and continued funding.

***

The key here is that thousands of people in the federal government have committed indictable felonies. Now the big question is: what happens?

We all know of course that nothing is going to happen, which is why the revelation is nothing compared to the future. Not only will tyranny be known & understood by all, but the sheer hubris of shoving the People's noses in sh!t will further embolden ever greater acts of atrocity.

193 posted on 06/10/2013 8:58:46 AM PDT by semantic
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To: jiggyboy
I saw Bolton on Fox yesterday and was so appalled by him that I now consider him to be a “formerly solid” conservative.

He is a solid conservative.

He is conserving the status quo.

People who genuinely want to conserve the radical spirit of liberty bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers are an extraordinarily rare commodity. Around here, they usually get dismissed as "Paulistinians" or "Loserdopertarians" without any serious effort at listening to their warnings.

Next time someone claims to be a conservative, be sure to ask them just what it is they think they are conserving. The answers might be surprising.

194 posted on 06/10/2013 8:59:20 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: flaglady47

>>Yes I can actually<<

Well, Snowden is currently in Hong Kong (presumably), a part of Communist China, and is no doubt being pursued by our government.

Who’s to say that China doesn’t get him first, and squeeze him for every bit of knowledge he has regarding NSA operations, now that he’s outed himself?

So, no, you can’t, actually....


195 posted on 06/10/2013 8:59:48 AM PDT by Norseman (Defund the Left-Completely!)
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To: jiggyboy

yep there is


196 posted on 06/10/2013 9:01:13 AM PDT by cajungirl
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To: central_va
If any American can prove that their phone records and conversations were listened to without a court order then that person will become wealthy indeed. There are 1000’s of civil rights lawyers waiting to pounce on this.

And just how would they find out at the level of preponderance of the evidence in civil suits? Only way I can see is a whistleblower. You know, the guys facing prosecution if they come forward. You don't even perceive the catch-22 of your position here.

197 posted on 06/10/2013 9:02:01 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: InterceptPoint
What to make of this?

We live in very, very interesting times. I don't know what to make of it.

It's a phenomenon as old as humanity, best described in this quote:

"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." -- Robert A. Heinlein

198 posted on 06/10/2013 9:02:23 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: dirtboy

I don’t disagree with what you wrote. However, we (America) are responsible because we elected our representatives who approved of this.

This has always been my biggest heartburn with the War on Terror. This was my biggest heartburn with Bush. “Homeland Security” and the Patriot Act upset me from the beginning and many of us (yourself included obviously) saw the potential for the inevitable pendulum to swing too far in violation of the constitution.

The legality issue has been covered by a complicit congress and FISA court that is willing to sacrifice our constitutional rights for the illusion of security.

It was a problem then. It is a problem now. It will continue to be a problem. However, you won’t see anyone outside of potentially the leaker who is prosecuted for it because they most likely followed the law.

Doom on our nation for not recognizing this in 2001/2002/2003 when this structure was put in place. Doom on our nation for not passing stronger privacy laws for electronic media.

Interestingly, the courts have been pretty solid on protecting our rights against unreasonable search and seizure outside of the FISA court and the WOT. This will be an interesting debate moving forward and I have to go to work. FRegards.


199 posted on 06/10/2013 9:02:27 AM PDT by volunbeer (We must embrace austerity or austerity will embrace us)
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To: CitizenUSA

agreed!


200 posted on 06/10/2013 9:02:44 AM PDT by cajungirl
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