
Trump: 'A lot of people' think Edward Snowden 'not being treated fairly' - dsr12
https://nypost.com/2020/08/13/trump-a-lot-of-people-think-edward-snowden-not-being-treated-fairly/
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bovermyer
That sounds suspiciously like he's considering pardoning Snowden.

Also... going from calling for Snowden's execution to potentially pardoning
him is one hell of a 180.

~~~
Shivetya
I would love him to do so. We really need another wake up call in this country
that the government routinely lies to us and that trusting our officials
requires them proving they can be trusted.

Remember, Snowden has been out of this country since May of 2013 and the last
Administration did not pardon him but instead did pardon Manning whose actions
were more reckless. It really comes down to the fact Snowden really stepped on
the toes of some big time political players who are not used to being called
out.

~~~
slg
Manning stood to face her her crimes like a long line of revered civil
disobedients before her. Snowden ran away into the arms of a hostile foreign
power. That has just as much to do with pissing off the government as what
either of them revealed.

~~~
dencodev
The laws that would out Snowden and Manning in prison for life are unjust and
there's nothing wrong with what either of them did. I don't blame Snowden for
leaving a country full of idiots calling for his death

~~~
dang
Please don't take HN threads further into nationalistic flamewar. Your comment
would be fine without the swipe at the end.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

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nabla9
... Now, THEREFORE, I, DONALD JOHN TRUMP , President of the United States,
pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of
the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free,
and absolute pardon unto Edward Joseph Snowden for all offenses against the
United States which he, Edward Joseph Snowden, has committed or may have
committed or taken part in during the period from March 1, 2007 through August
14, 2020. ...

~~~
mc32
If that were to happen I can imagine at least some people who were for his
pardon in ‘14 would denounce the pardon if it came to be.

~~~
ntsplnkv2
Trump should pardon Snowden because it's the right thing to do.

He should also not be undercutting the post office, assassinating Iranian
generals, enforcing tariffs on allies like Canada and Europe.

Pardoning Snowden is a meaningless gesture, it does nothing to stop the
military industrial complex and the intelligence apparatus that he supports

~~~
mc32
The only one I disagree with is cutting funding to USPS. Europe and Canada
(nor anyone not specially exempted) should not enjoy advantage in trade.
People were beside themselves over rumors of Russian snipers, this guy was
directly responsible for troop deaths and much more instability in the ME.
We’ve just seen peace agreements begin to bear fruit in the ME —would that
have been possible with that guy stirring up hornets’s nests?

~~~
non-entity
> this guy was directly responsible for troop deaths and much more instability
> in the ME.

Should Trump then assassinate Bush and Obama?

~~~
mc32
No, only external adversaries would entertain such pointless notion. Just like
Duterte might in his dreams think of sinking Chinese ships, in reality he’d
dig his own grave if he did.

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mc32
Intelligence services used to be unassailable. They did the dirty work for the
country (and admittedly it’s a necessary thing in an unfair world), but a
couple of major problems are: they are often wrong in very bad ways: Russian
missile crisis, power of the late USSR where Reagan has to seek advice from
DoD instead, gulf war II and then the internal and political spying (remember
they were caught spying on congress?)

~~~
BitwiseFool
I'm generally distrustful of intelligence agencies because they are literally
designed to carry out underhanded and deceptive operations. If you go back and
read old WWII and Cold War declassified documents you can clearly see a lot of
"ends justify the means" operations. I've never understood why we hold these
agencies in such high regard. I guess because they're supposed to be on 'our
side'?

~~~
mc32
Unfortunately one can’t unilaterally be “the nice guy” and hope everyone else
will decide, “yeah, let’s all be nice guys”. It doesn’t happen. So everyone
who wants a more level playing field for themselves has to engage.

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bdamm
Well, he's right. Maybe this is Snowden's chance, I wonder if he'll file
another plea for immunity. Clearly Trump's election strategy should be to
paint the Democrats as pawns of the deep state whereas he is not, and freeing
Snowden would play well with that narrative.

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Miner49er
A member of Congress (Thomas Massie - U.S. Rep KY) tweeted that Trump should
pardon Snowden this morning as well:
[https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/12942523311319040...](https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1294252331131904002)

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JPKab
Why is this flagged?

~~~
JohnTHaller
Possibly for including Trump's go-to 'a lot of people'?

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hirundo
Dear President Trump: Please

1\. Pardon Snowden 2\. Commission a statue of him, perhaps to replace Columbus
on a plinth somewhere 3\. Award him the Medal of Freedom 4\. Appoint him as
the Director of the National Security Agency

In return I'll vote for you. Such a deal.

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Barrin92
>In a 2013 tweet, Trump wrote: “Snowden is a spy who should be executed-but if
it and he could reveal Obama’s records, I might become a major fan.”

good god, that's one of the most Trumpish Trump tweets ever.

~~~
_prototype_
source?

~~~
MaysonL
[https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/39568370275766272...](https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/395683702757662721)

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dorkwood
Is this article only three short paragraphs long, or is something not being
displayed somewhere?

~~~
everythingswan
I see about 10-12 paragraph indents, although short, so it might be an issue
on your end. NYPost does have an intense number of ads so perhaps a blocker
issue?

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reeealloc
Can someone explain why the GOP wants this? Isn't Snowden a disaster for them?

~~~
throwaway0a5e
In no particular order.

1) Trump is very much not of fan of the sorts of shadowy warrant-less
surveillance that snowed exposed (because he feels it was used against him) so
this could be a dig at that apparatus.

2) Obama didn't pardon him despite doing so being far more popular on the left
than right (at least up until present, no telling what will happen going
forward) and this could force Biden in a tricky situation especially with the
current public opinion situation

3) Snowden is controversial on the right (the anti-government crowd loves him)
so this might be a move to strengthen his appearance among the fraction of the
party who are alarmed by his authoritarian tendencies (cue joke about an NY
Democrat in Republican's clothing).

4) His advisors who are paid to think about this stuff 40+hr a week have
thought of something I haven't.

~~~
Alupis
> because he feels it was used against him

It's seeming like this is quickly turning from a "he feels it was used against
him" into an unequivocal "it was used against him".

~~~
derision
I've seen more than enough evidence through the reports and proceedings on
FISA abuse ala Carter Page and Peter Strzok that I'm convinced it was
definitely used against him, during and after the election.

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mrfusion
Why now?

~~~
protomyth
Well, if you start to think that there is something seriously wrong with State
and the CIA, and they hate Snowden then you might want to consider that maybe
you should look at the whole thing differently. Plus, he has some Republicans
telling him to pardon Snowden.

~~~
Alupis
That, and enough time has passed with Snowden in exile that it still carries
the message the Intelligence Community wanted sent - ie. don't do this!

So, bringing him back to the US and pardoning him with "time served in exile",
might be sufficient to make it more acceptable to a broader audience versus a
2014 pardon.

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solarkraft
Has anyone discovered a pattern in what Trump likes and dislikes yet?

~~~
dr-smooth
expediency

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HumblyTossed
Trump is about to catch a lot of heat for messing with the USPS. This is him
trying to put out something controversial so that the lame media will bite on
that instead.

Also, Trump projects. Like, a lot. So I wonder if this might be telling in
that respect as well.

Edit: I'm going to double down. Trump is setting things up so that he can say
the election is corrupt due to China and our spy agencies are not to be
believed when they say "nope", thus tying up the election in courts as long as
possible. I think he believes that come Jan 20, if no President is officially
declared, that he'll just stay President. Or at least he and Barr believe they
can challenge that.

