
Why President Obama Can't Pardon Edward Snowden - lisper
http://www.newsweek.com/why-obama-wont-pardon-edward-snowden-nsa-538632
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RichardHeart
He should have said "Won't" instead of "Can't."

tldr; Whether Snowden’s theft was an idealistic attempt to right a wrong, a
narcissistic drive to obtain personal recognition, an attempt to weaken the
foundations of the surveillance infrastructure in which he worked, or all of
the above, by the time he stepped off that Aeroflot jet in Moscow, it had
evolved, intentionally or not, into something much simpler and far less
admirable. He was disclosing vital national secrets to a foreign power.
Conjectures about Snowden’s motives matter less than the undeniable fact that
he was greatly assisted in his endeavors by powerful enemies of the United
States."

I bet if you had a program where whistle blowers were honored instead of
destroyed internally, you'd have less exfiltration of data, and less external
whistle blowing.

The 4th amendment has been getting curb stomped for quite a while now, I'm
curious as to when it'll be declared deceased. You currently have no
expectation of privacy at a border, or too close to a border, or with any data
at your phone carrier, or isp, or email provider, so really where does this
"persons, houses, papers, and effects," really exist anymore? Hell, even if
you think the 5th amendment protects you from being coerced with prison into
telling your passwords, it often doesn't.

Maybe I'm missing something, and the 4th amendment is doing a great job
somewhere, if it is I could use a reminder, I'm getting jaded.

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maehwasu
The author's argument boils down to: 1\. Snowden didn't come back to the US,
so he must be a traitor (rather than a non-idiot who knew exactly what had
happened to Chelsea Manning). 2\. Putin allowed him to come when the passport
had been cancelled, so Snowden must have agreed to sell Russia state secrets.

This feels very much like a deep state smear job, especially given the weirdly
adulatory photo of Obama.

~~~
asveikau
But as the article points out, Putin is not a warm, fuzzy, lovingly altruistic
person. He wouldn't do favors if he didn't get something in return.

I always assumed it was more PR reasons, rather than anything Snowden knows.
How can the US accuse the Russian Federation of human rights abuses or lack of
individual freedoms if they have a walking, talking example of a citizen who
cannot go home to the US but lives free in Russia? It's farcical, as Putin's
Russia is less free than the US, but it does shut down debate.

And in a slight change of topic, I have been really shocked in the last 6
months how willing ordinary Americans are to defend Putin in political
discussion. Something is working over there.

~~~
Spooky23
Putin built a pretty good PR image over here that appeals to certain segments.

The Russians aren't a bunch of idiots. They have a need to be players on the
global stage, but cannot compete on military hardware.

So they fight for perception and impressions, which is more effective than
bombs anyway. I've even heard laudatory comments about Putin's attempts to
curb violence in Syria! (After propping up Assad for years)

Meanwhile, we've had a series of presidents that either couldn't put a
sentence together (Bush 2) or couldn't make a timely decision (Obama).

~~~
asveikau
Say whatever you want about Bush 2 or Obama. They both step down when term
limits say so and I never heard anyone accuse them of murdering their
political opponents. Neither is true of Putin.

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JackC
One new allegation (as far as I know) in this article is this:

"Obama also knows that NSA documents Snowden copied and removed but did not
give to those journalists in Hong Kong were used to embarrass America’s allies
in NATO well after he arrived in Moscow. For example, the explosive revelation
that the NSA targeted the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel was
released in September [2013]. _In June 2015, NSA documents stolen by Snowden
on WikiLeaks_ caused further trouble by revealing that the phones of three
presidents of France—Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François
Hollande—had also been targeted. These embarrassing revelations—made long
after Snowden claimed he had no more documents—put Obama in a very bad spot
with America’s European allies."

It's an important part of Snowden's history that he gave all the documents he
had to Glenn Greenwald, and didn't keep access himself. Bruce Schneier
believes that Snowden was not the source of the September 2013 leak,[1] and I
can't find anyone (before this article) even suggesting that Snowden was the
source of the June 2015 leak. There's no source for the claim in this article,
other than "Obama knows."

So that seems significant if true, but it's a pretty nasty smear if not -- I
hope it doesn't stand as an unsourced rumor.

[1]
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/08/the_us_intell...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/08/the_us_intellig.html)

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firmgently
"my book, How America Lost Its Secrets: Snowden, the Man and the Theft."..
well that sounds balanced

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CPLX
I read this entire thing through and it's literally like vapor, there's
nothing to it whatsoever that supports it's headline, and no counter narrative
that upends the basic story Snowden and his journalist contacts have laid out.
I assume this writer is now owed a favor by his buddies at the NSA who he
worked with on this story.

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imjustsaying
Why President Obama Can't Pardon Edward Snowden: because they're not on the
same team.

Snowden sacrificed a cushy job in Hawaii and risked life in prison because
he's a hopeless romantic True Believer in the American style philosophy of
freedom.

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na85
Character assassination.

So rife with innuendo, appeals to emotion and straw men and so utterly devoid
of fact that I don't know where to begin.

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gm-conspiracy
_A president can pardon anyone from any crime for any reason, or no reason at
all..._

I thought it was only federal crimes that can be pardoned, no?

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netsharc
And I thought the pardoned person had to have been convicted of the crime.

Except if it's Nixon...

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LargeWu
Well, that's called a blanket pardon, and the fact that it was granted to
Nixon establishes it as precedent.

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andrewclunn
Not convincing. Really tried to read with an open mind, but there was
literally no new info here, just a narrative spin.

~~~
qubex
”Projective speculation”

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xutopia
The only thing he shows is that Snowden was premeditated. We already knew
that.

