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 ...
He outed himself to protect himself from being rendered or “disappeared” by the CIA. The guy lives in constant fear.
Last I checked Snowden’s revelations haven’t resulted in any deaths. When OweBowMao and Plugs leaked info about the bin Laden raid it resulted in a CIA agent getting killed. And then there was that plane crash that resulted in over a dozen Seals getting killed.
Not to mention letting an ambassador and 3 other Americans get killed in Benghazi.
Just because it’s a law doesn’t make it Constitutional. Rand Paul wants the Supremes to review the Patriot Act.
The oath this man took, first and foremost, was to "protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic, and to bear TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE TO THE SAME."
As I see it, that is precisely what he did.
Therefore, in my estimation, it is the people asking him to break THAT OATH who are the traitors. Who are fundamentally violating very specific and clear provisions and amendments to the Constitution because it is they who think they are smarter and have a higher morality than the people whom they serve.
Kudos to this man for having the strength to stand up to the criminal kabal that has infected our government. God bless and protect him for so doing...and may tens of thousands more stand up and do the same.
Snowden will become a powerful symbol against Obama and the democrats. He was a believer in the hope thing, but became disillusioned. His arc sums of his generation. If republicans can figure it out, they can win the youth.
I think that, technically, Bolton is correct. It’s pretty black and white.
However, the devil’s in the details.
FWIW everyone whose name appears on the Declaration of Independence was guilty of Treason.
I would rather die at the hands of a terrorist a free man than live my life as a slave to the gummit.
Pray for America to Wake Up
I believe that the ambassador could be suffering other imagination deficit the others who recently commented are suffering from
He ascribes good intentions to the NSA and their operatives. NSA is getting a ton of support from otherwise conservatives since this broke who ignore tha Susan rice was just appointed as its head
Closed minded former staffers don’t get it they are ignoring the big picture at an alarming level
>> If Snowden is not committing treason, then is there even such a thing as treason?<<
Agreed. What we’re witnessing is a phenomenon of “one man’s traitor is another man’s whistleblower.”
This time the whistle was blown on the Left so to the Right, he’s a whistleblower, not a traitor. Of course, that’s nonsense. Bolton is just being consistent, as he usually is.
That said, someone certainly needed to blow the whistle on this entire matter, even if he had to commit treason to do it.
And that, of course, is the real issue: Did he really have to commit treason to accomplish what he did? If so, changes are needed so that insiders can safely step forward when our laws are being perverted beyond recognition, as I think has happened here.
There is no question that Snowden’s acts were treasonous. The real question is whether his treasonous acts were justified given his range of options for accomplishing what I think most of us would agree needed to be accomplished.
We’re getting too damn close to an Orwellian world, only today’s world has a hell of a lot more tools available than Orwell ever dreamed possible. All he imagined were cameras; we’ve got digital fingerprints all over the place, plus the cameras.
Are we certain that the government hasn’t figured out a way to turn on the smartphone in your pocket and listen to your private conversations, or better yet, film you as it sits on the table nearby? Probably, but how about tomorrow, or next year? And is there any doubt that our government would use that technology if it were developed, and (given the evidence) use it indiscriminately?
We need clearer laws, and people need to go to jail when they violate those laws. Enough with bureaucrats being allowed to “interpret” 2000 page laws that no one understands.
Another Big Government lover heard from. No doubt he’s worried that the sheeple may start to question why their families are suffering while fat cat government types cash in their fat pensions and then become “experts” on TV.
Most people don't know the difference between flat files, relational databases and cube storage. They don't realize that, on the home database, a lot of personally identifiable information is embedded in the cell phone number (which is also the account number). They don't realize that a data manager with the appropriate authorities can drill down to that data.
Most people defending the program reference court rulings issued during a more primitive time where a line of data was all that there was. I am not convinced that from numbers, to numbers, time and duration are the real metadata being collected. I am not convinced that PII isn't being mined. That PII when combined with other readily accessible information can create a personal profile on a person that the government has no right to.
For me the weekend raised more questions than it provided answers...
Many here have posted what many more here have thought: What did he tell us that we didn’t already suspect was true? It’s not a secret if everybody already believes it without having to be told. That’s a lot different than specific emails about people that few in the general public has ever heard about.
Bolton is a Beltway Establishment guy.
So he is doing what comes naturally....circle the wagons and protect the establishment.
Bees gotta buzz, birds gotta fly...
(2) If Snowden is not committing treason, then is there even such a thing as treason?
Snowden’s whistle blowing did not jeopardize lives and missions, Snowden wasn’t in the military service. Big difference.
“Snowden could of done all of this anonymously ala “Deep Throat”.”
Given the data the DOJ, NSA and FBI are mining and collecting, I doubt that would play in today’s world.
Don’t forget Bolton back domestic partnership. ie gays.
To me Bolton is socially liberal.
Well, maybe. Here is quote from Snowden:
"I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you, or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President if I had a personal email."
Personally I don't believe he could do this. But he claims he could and, if so, this is definitely new news. But if, in fact, he couldn't then I think it puts much of what he has told us in doubt.
I believe that the "authorities" will deny that such a capability exists. Will we believe them? I doubt it. Even if they are telling us the truth I think the mood of the country and certainly here on FR is to doubt everything and anything we hear from the Obama Administration or, in this particular case, the pro-defense arm of the GOP.
Sad to say but then again it's probably a healthy development. Maybe a few Dems will wake up.
I still can’t find the logic in the governments assertion that this is old news
I don’t think Snowden is completely immune to a charge of treason, but there’s certainly a distinction between the kind of thing he’s done vs. a Bradley Manning or The Rosenbergs (or, for that matter, John Kerry, the Clintons and Obama).
You could hang the vague “aid and comfort” charge onto him, I suppose, but Snowden hasn’t taken up arms against the U.S., and he hasn’t revealed specific classified material. The secret he’s revealed is essentially that there are no secrets. And I believe that his defense would be pretty solid in stating that violations of the Constitution cannot be protected by “classified” status or an oath of secrecy imposed by the violators.
Actually he likely outed himself for safety.
If he gets whacked now the whole world will know our intel did it. Before he could have just disappeared into the aether.
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