
President Obama Claims He Cannot Pardon Snowden; He's Wrong - lisper
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161118/17160636087/president-obama-claims-he-cannot-pardon-snowden-hes-wrong.shtml
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Neliquat
More hand waving. Pardon this patriot.

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squozzer
Whether Snowden receives a pardon or not, it's worth reviewing the following
two questions:

1) Would the intelligence community have policed itself otherwise? Probably
not, intel agencies prefer gathering more data over less.

2) Would Congress have changed its oversight posture otherwise? Probably not,
as intel agencies do as much as possible to withold info from oversight
committees, including lying; and the public would have remained in the dark,
so no pressure from that quarter.

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kazinator
Yes, he is wrong for values of "cannot" meaning "not being legislatively
capable".

But, you know, why should Obama be motivated to tell the truth when the public
has elected an egregious liar to replace him?

And anyway, the America that wants Snowden pardoned isn't that one that
elected Trump.

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drdeca
I don't see why "trump was elected" would be a reason to not pardon Snowden.

Like, accepting the claim "Trump is an egregious liar" I don't see how that
follows.

Trump is terrible and apparently unwilling to do the thing that ought to be
done (the pardon), and therefore, ???

That seems like a reason to make the pardon when he still can, not like a
reason to not do the pardon.

Can you explain your reasoning?

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nojvek
I think the answer Obama gave had some merit to it. If Obama pardoned people
left and right, trump would start doing the same. If presidents started
behaving above the law it could get dirty very fast.

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patall
I am sorry but Obama does not mention any of that. He argues that intelligence
is needed and that there is nothing you can do about it.

Anyways, I wonder why he still keeps with the story that Mr. Snowden should
have contacted his superiors first before going public. We all know what would
have happened in that case (i.e nothing); why does he answer like we are
stupid?

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xupybd
Yes but then he left to Russia and promptly gave them all the intelligence
he'd collected. Most had nothing to do with what he'd whistle blew on. If you
dump everything you can gather and give it to another nation you're going to
have a hard time getting a pardon.

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cyphar
[citation needed]

Snowden never intended to go to Russia (it's the fault of the US that that
happened). And as far as I know there's no proof that he revealed anything to
the Russian government. In fact, he claims to no longer have the documents (he
deleted them after giving them to journalists).

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sjtgraham
Expect Obama to forget about this when it comes to pardoning HRC.

