

Snowden Criticizes U.S. Panel Overseeing Surveillance - kunle
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/12/22/snowden-criticizes-u-s-panel-overseeing-surveillance/?mod=WSJ_hpsMIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

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spodek
When the U.S. Government realizes that Snowden has more credibility than it
does on spying, it may come to realize better ways to improve its stature. The
tried-and-true method for handling huge PR gaffs is to come clean and state
everything you've done the public might consider wrong so no one else can,
state you understand you shouldn't have done it, and take responsibility for
doing it better.

The problem for the U.S. Government for doing anything remotely like that is
that the decision to do so has to come from the top, which is Obama, and Obama
doesn't seem to agree with the public that the government did something wrong.
Or that somehow the system isolated him or twisted his understanding to where
he doesn't understand the public's perspective, odd as that may sound
regarding a lawyer who would understand the Fourth Amendment.

~~~
digitalengineer
Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos
in which they exist. ~ Richard -I am not a crook- Nixon

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digitalengineer
“Their job wasn’t to protect privacy or deter abuses, it was to ‘restore
public confidence’ in these spying activities. Many of the recommendations
they made are cosmetic changes,” Mr. Snowden said in an email exchange with
the Globo TV channel."

Likewise when someone does step forward and leaks, their first action is to
ridicule the person doing the leaking.

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scardine
AFAIK Brazilian law forbids extradition of criminals to countries that have a
death penalty, so I guess he would be safe if he gets here.

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rgbrenner
I haven't heard anyone talk about the death penalty for Snowden. Manning got
35 years. I'm sure the US gov would be happy to lock Snowden up for the rest
of his life (instead of the death penalty) if it meant they could get him back
on US soil.

~~~
grey-area
Just in the last week a few prominent and influential figures have said just
that:

“I think giving him amnesty is idiotic,” Former CIA Director James Woolsey
said. “He should be prosecuted for treason. If convicted by a jury of his
peers, he should be hanged by his neck until he is dead." [1]

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton: Edward Snowden
'Ought To Swing From A Tall Oak Tree' [2]

That's not the administration's official line of course, and might be Fox News
or the administration just floating the idea, but these are very senior
figures in the Washington establishment.

[1] [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/17/ex-cia-
director-s...](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/17/ex-cia-director-
snowden-should-be-hanged-if-convicted-for-treason/)

[2] [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/john-bolton-
edward-...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/john-bolton-edward-
snowden_n_4461196.html)

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jeynepoole
I sincerely hope that he gets asylum from Brazil. It worries me that there
still has not been sweeping reforms in NSA

~~~
furiousGeorge
I hope so too, but I see sweeping reforms in the NSA around never.

