Posted on 08/19/2020 8:40:34 AM PDT by RandFan
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL
It’s been seven years since Edward Snowden rocked the world, and in America the ground is shaking once again.
In a promising turn of events, headlines have seen an unprecedented outpouring of support for Snowden from high-ranking American officials. In a press conference Saturday, President Trump stated that he is “going to take a look at [Snowden’s case] very strongly.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and two sitting members of Congress, Reps. Justin Amash (L-Mich.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), have also taken to Twitter to support the whistleblower. Equally encouraging is how swiftly all of this has drawn the ire of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.); in my own experience, when you’ve angered someone with the surname Cheney, you’ve probably done something right.
It is an addictive tendency in politics to feel a sense of history about what it is one is fighting for. Everyone wants to believe that their heroes from ages past are smiling down on them while simultaneously rolling in their graves at the sight of whatever the opposition is doing. But the fact of the matter is that the vast network of scandal-ridden government agencies, clandestine secret courts, and diabolically unconstitutional statutes trying to destroy Snowden hails from a particularly dark, shameful chapter of America’s past.
Snowden stands accused of violating the Espionage Act of 1917, championed by then-President Woodrow Wilson. Passed just two months after America’s entrance into World War I, the law sought to silence criticism of the war effort and crush dissent within the ranks of the armed forces. In his State of the Union address just two years earlier, Wilson begged Congress to pass it, declaring, “Such creatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out… they are infinitely malignant, and the hand of our power should close over them at once.”
Now the law has withstood over a century of criticism and legal challenges from civil liberties advocates, and the misery it has inflicted on countless Americans has proven painfully obvious. In 1918, antiwar activist Charles Schenck was arrested for distributing flyers encouraging men to resist the draft. That same year, socialist Eugene V. Debs was sentenced to ten years in prison, deprived of his citizenship, and disenfranchised for life over nothing more than a speech he made criticizing the war. In January 1919, however, the Supreme Court dealt a devastating blow to freedom of speech by concluding that neither’s arrest constituted a violation of the First Amendment.
And these are far from the only people to have been victimized by the very law being used to terrorize Snowden today. A search for just a few of the more well-known cases will yield the stories of journalist Victor L. Berger, activists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, former U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning, and former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) employee Henry Kyle Frese.
Discussing recent events in an April 2020 interview with journalist and constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald, Snowden warned, “Now, the only thing we have left — our rights, our ideals, our values as people — that’s what they’re coming for now, that’s what they’re asking us to give up, that’s what they’re wanting to change. And remember that, from the perspective of a free society, a virus is a serious problem… but the destruction of our rights is fatal — that’s permanent.” With so much confusion and uncertainty about the future of liberty in America, there has hardly been a more fitting moment for our leaders to stand with freedom by denouncing the ever-expanding reach of the surveillance state.
As the curtains of tyranny close tighter, giving Edward Snowden the full pardon he deserves would provide this much-needed glimmer of hope for privacy in America.
Cliff Maloney is the president of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL)
Let's pardon Assange instead.
History doesn’t take sides.
Let the litte traitor continue to live in Moscow until Boris kicks him out.
Then pick him up, try him, and convict him. Then and only then commute his sentence but not pardon him.
Then let history run its course.
Let the litte traitor continue to live in Moscow until Boris kicks him out.
Then pick him up, try him, and convict him. Then and only then commute his sentence but not pardon him.
Then let history run its course.
Let the litte traitor continue to live in Moscow until Boris kicks him out.
Then pick him up, try him, and convict him. Then and only then commute his sentence but not pardon him.
Then let history run its course.
HE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION
He exposed that the NSA was illegally recording ALL electronic communications, for everyone.
That kind of mass data is useless in real time- but great for looking back at your history.
And Clapper lied.
Pardoning is for those who stand trial based on evidence and upon further reflection are deemed to be wrongly convicted.
Haven’t seen the evidence.
I am torn about what to do with him. Just being honest. I do think everyone should watch the movie “Snowden” and make up their own mind. It is a pretty engaging movie about things we rarely think about and a world we know little about.
Agree.
This would also be Trump showing DS who is in charge now.
Trump should pardon his political allies like Flynn who were targeted in the DS failed coup attempt as well.
paul, amash, and massie - the three stooges.
Snoeden is/was a Brenan plant to take down NSA, the only spy org not taken by black hats. NSA Mike Rogers tipped off Trump on surveillance. Shadowgate paints Brenan as a self styled spymaster bent on world domination.
You’re on the right track.
Cheney coming out against a pardon was the telltale sign. It signals the Swamp does not want him back in the USA and there’s a reason for that.
At first, I reacted predictably, emotionally, ready with a rope for his neck:
“You think Snowden is some sort of patriot? You’re in good company, so does the ACLU:”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3874751/posts?page=33#33
And I still think he’s a traitor worthy of execution. But that’s the wrong thinking. I’m still learning from Trump.
The question is not whether Snowden is a traitor, he most certainly is, the question is what useful value is he in fighting the Swamp? The Deep State?
And that’s why Liz Cheney, the ACLU, and lefties all over hell want Snowden to remain outside the US and not given a pardon.
Because a pardon is the carrot. The carrot is what is exchanged for his confessions, his information, his testimony, his giving up the goods on Brennan, Obama, and others. Even if he is damaged goods, his information can corroborate what’s already suspected and can add more to the picture.
“I don’t like Snowden. True “whistleblowers” don’t seek refuge in communist countries. They take their grievances to the appropriate authorities and stand behind their assertions.”
Bullshit. When Binney went to the AG and the intel committee, the FBI raided his house. All Snowden would have got is prison.
He is a national hero, pointing out the CIA/NSA was illegally spying at home more then the Stasi ever dreamed of and lying to Congress about it.
If the hill is for it, and The Ultimate Doucheface -aka justin amash- is for it...i would pardon assange. There is proof brennan and others set up assange. And Assange has all but admitted seth rich gave him the dnc info. But donald is busy pardoning old dead farts to please his daughter and democrat women who will never give him credit for anything and his advisors are too stupid or deep state to do the right thing.
Kinda reminds me of that American who defected to the communists. A good looking singer. Remember the name? At some point he wanted to come home and he mysteriously died during the height of the cold war. I say make Snowden stay there.
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