Obama suggests Snowden pardon unlikely

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Southern Guardian


Snowden committed treason against his own country. I believe that is punishable by death.

Assange did not commit treason therefore he cannot be punished the same way.

Their crimes are not the same.

Yea....no.

Treason and exposing corruption are two entirely different things.
If a quarter of the population were the patriots Snowden is, Hillary would've been hung years ago and Trump would've never been elected.
The government would possibly be doing it's job instead of being a huge frat house for corporations.

a reply to: EchoesInTime
If he uses this argument about pardoning Snowden, he ties his own hands against a pre-emptive pardon of Hillary. I'm surprised people are not making more of this point.

originally posted by: Flesh699

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Southern Guardian


Snowden committed treason against his own country. I believe that is punishable by death.

Assange did not commit treason therefore he cannot be punished the same way.

Their crimes are not the same.

Yea....no.

Treason and exposing corruption are two entirely different things.
If a quarter of the population were the patriots Snowden is, Hillary would've been hung years ago and Trump would've never been elected.
The government would possibly be doing it's job instead of being a huge frat house for corporations.

Yah..no..not the way it works in the real world.

During the six years I had my clearance if I would have done a fraction of what Snowden did I would have been fired, fined, arrested and probably served jail time and rightly so since I had agreed to not betray that clearance.

No one forced him to take the career path he did. He made his choices and maybe in his head his intentions were for the benefit of the country but that doesnt mean their arent consequences for the choice he made. To some I guess that makes him a hero but that doesnt mean he did what he did the right way.

originally posted by: Southern Guardian
a reply to: EchoesInTime

Obama needs to just come out and say it. No I won't pardon Snowden because I think he needs to serve time for what he did. Just say it. Not tip toe around.

Could be he realises a pardon isn't the way to go and knows it needs to be aired in a public court.

Personally, I think he should be pardoned and allowed free movement.

Then again, objectively it's not so simple as multi-dimensional political and social considerations must take precedence. Disgruntled employees shouldn't see Snowden as a green light for essentially 'doxxing' their employers. It's hard to distinguish the vexatious 'whistleblowers' from the honest ones. Obama will be on the pointy horns of that dilemma when he said what he said imo.

National security is a concept that can keep us all safer or it can be the shortest route to oppression. In a perfect world, there'd be some kind of neutral gov body responsible for assessing the concerns of people like Snowden so that secrets aren't given to ideological enemies. Still, we're all grown-ups and know that's not going to happen.