Bolton: NSA leaker Edward Snowden is guilty of treason

WLS ^ | June 10, 2013 | John Dempsey

[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".

[Eagle of Liberty]

it is the people asking him to break THAT OATH who are the traitors.

Agreed. We currently have a President who actually goes out in press conferences and speeches and gives reasons for why these scandals should be labeled as absurd, because he FEELS CONFINED by the rules laid out by our Forefathers! Meaning that he WOULD ACT AGAINST HIS OATH if those shackles could be removed. Doesn't give me a warm, fuzzy feeling that he is looking out for the well-being of Americans with that kind of thinking.

[lepton]

There are a lot of things illegal and legal, constitutional and unconstitutional, all getting mixed together.

Some of this is serious allegations that we should be very concerned about. Some of this is agitprop that we should be very concerned about its being used to destroy legitimate intelligence-gathering.

I think the Verizon meta-data screaming falls into the latter, as it is analogous to someone noticing when you receive visitors...annoying, and perhaps a bit creepy if you don’t trust them, but not a violation of the 4th amendment. Digging into unsecured captures of personal electronic communications without a warrant is the former. Capturing communications and locking it in encrypted boxes until a warrant is granted is in-between.

[SE Mom]

Bolton is suffering from what he says O suffers from- his WORLD VIEW. We all have one. .but at times they conflict with reality. I like Bolton but he, Rove ,Peter King etc.are focused on security. Period. No amount of persuading will change their minds. Freedom and liberty are ideas to them. .but not foundational.

[abb]

Actually he likely outed himself for safety.

I agree. It was his only course of action. Were he to stay underground, he wouldn't last a week.

[jiggyboy]

Excellent point. I’m reminded of the doctor (?) in Pakistan who was jailed for helping us with OBL after an Obama operative leaked that part of the story for political gain.

[boxlunch]

I’ll give Bolton the benefit of the doubt at this point and say the information is only used to combat terrorism. However, Bolton apparently doesn’t understand the immense power we are giving the government. Frankly, I just don’t trust the government to never use that power against US citizens, even if it’s being used against us.

After the latest IRS and DOJ scandals how can you have any doubts that they could and would use it against American citizens and most likely already are?

[volunbeer]

Google and Yahoo do not carry the power of the state to audit, harass and prosecute.

---

Agree. However, they are bound by law to provide the data they collect about me and you to the government if asked. It can be a blanket NSA order (with the permission of congress to be legal) or a subpoena or court order.

Result is the same - the government does not collect the data, but they can and do access it.

The biggest question to me is not what NSA has been doing - it is who approved it on the oversight committee. Few folks seem to understand this. Congress has the legal authority to provide oversight and approve such programs - not the President.

If congressmen were angry about this it would tell me the executive branch overstepped it’s bounds. If congress were upset at the leaker it tells me they knew about this and condoned it.

[CitizenUSA]

central_va: “Look, a lot of civilians at Verizon knew what was happening...”

Why is that relevant? Are you saying it’s OK, because the companies were either strong armed or volunteered to release private information to the federal government? In other words, the government didn’t directly collect the information itself?

That still has nothing to do with Snowden and whether or not he’s guilty of treason. A whistleblower is a hero if he reveals illegal or corrupt activities. I think Snowden has revealed the government is routinely violating our 4th Amendment protections.

[B212]

after the military soldier walked away with half million secret documents, how come one individual, has access to the complete archived files....and how come he can download such a great amount...

[Truth29]

"Snowden could of done all of this anonymously ala “Deep Throat”. He outed himself for the 15 minutes of fame."

That's one view. Another is that he knew he would be discovered and is trying to avoid being disappeared.

[flaglady47]

“Far from a traitor Snowden may well have saved our liberty. I think the reason why every-body’s private phone records, e-mails etc. are being monitored is due to insidious political correctness. We cannot profile the bad guys so like the TSA we body search little old ladies in wheelchairs, toddlers and everyone else in the hopes that we might find a terrorist. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack by examining every piece of straw rather than using a metal detector since we know needles are metal.”

Bingo, my FRiend. Very well put and bares repeating, so I just did so.

[who knows what evil?]

Then where are they? Who are they? I don’t see any.

[DTogo]

"If this be treason, make the most of it!" ~Patrick Henry

"...But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

[angcat]

I was thinking Snowden is a great American!!!!!!!!!

[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.

[bigdaddy45]

And I assume you feel the same way about Bradley Manning?

[lepton]

The Verizon screamy fit isn’t the 4th amendment issue. At most it is a canary on the FISA rubber-stamping of requests without due diligence. In the discussion as ongoing in the public, it’s primarily a vehicle for confusion.

[dirtboy]

However, they are bound by law to provide the data they collect about me and you to the government if asked. It can be a blanket NSA order (with the permission of congress to be legal) or a subpoena or court order.

A blanket NSA order violates the 4th Amendment. The other situations entail due process and I do not have a problem with such.

[Lou Budvis]

Snowdec clearly broke the law, but I am not sure he committed treason. I don’t see how he aided and abetted Al-Q. The jihadis take for granted that all their electronic communication are being intercepted. That’s why OBL did not have any electronic communication in his house and they use burner phones.

Which brings up the question of since the NSA knows that at least the higher levels of Al-Q are aware of electronis surveilance, why does it need records from every American?

[jiggyboy]

Maybe he couldn’t, but Glenn Beck had a guest at least two years ago that said that that kind of database and query structure have been operational for quite some time. Put in a phone number, get a name and address. Put that address back in, get any other phone numbers at that address. Put one of those phone numbers back in, get all the phone numbers they called. Put one of those numbers back in, get that person’s address. And so on, without limit, and keeping in mind that any or all of SSN, driver’s license, arrest record, credit history, utility bills, bank statement, credit card bill and more are in the mix as well.