Official White House Response to Pardon Edward Snowden
A Response to Your Petition on Edward Snowden
Thanks for signing a petition about Edward Snowden. This is an issue that many Americans feel strongly about. Because his actions have had serious consequences for our national security, we took this matter to Lisa Monaco, the President's Advisor on Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. Here's what she had to say:
"Since taking office, President Obama has worked with Congress to secure appropriate reforms that balance the protection of civil liberties with the ability of national security professionals to secure information vital to keep Americans safe.
As the President said in announcing recent intelligence reforms, "We have to make some important decisions about how to protect ourselves and sustain our leadership in the world, while upholding the civil liberties and privacy protections that our ideals and our Constitution require."
Instead of constructively addressing these issues, Mr. Snowden's dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it.
If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: Challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and -- importantly -- accept the consequences of his actions. He should come home to the United States, and be judged by a jury of his peers -- not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime. Right now, he's running away from the consequences of his actions.
We live in a dangerous world. We continue to face grave security threats like terrorism, cyber-attacks, and nuclear proliferation that our intelligence community must have all the lawful tools it needs to address. The balance between our security and the civil liberties that our ideals and our Constitution require deserves robust debate and those who are willing to engage in it here at home."
In short: no he won't be getting a pardon from this current White House.
Yeah. Had he voiced his concerns in the "proper manner", most people would have never heard of him, or the extent of the NSA surveillance programs. The people he would have reported to were all complicate, or directly involved, and would have taken steps to silence him. This government has been increasingly active in shutting down whistle blowers, to the point of labeling them traitors and threatening them with the death penalty. Of course, he's released some things that shouldn't have been, but if there was any kind of REAL apparatus in place for government whistle blowers, that wouldn't have been an issue.
He shouldn't hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime? First of all, he's only there because the US revoked his passport.
More importantly, the US is an authoritarian regime. Case in point - Edward Snowden having his passport revoked, being charged under the espionage act, and not getting pardoned.
Spying on German Labs is needed to keep the US save? You got a problem over there guys, I am sorry for you. That declaration of ________ (<- Put something there yourself) made me cry. Just a question the NSA should answer me: Is anything legal to "protect" national secruity?
Let's get down to the roots of why these threats exist in the first place by taking a look at some documented history:
USA removes Mohammad Mosaddegh, the first democratically elected president in the Islamic world ever, because he wanted to nationalize oil and get some fair share of money for his people that they deserve to improve their quality of life and the economy. Replaces him with the Shah who is a simple dictator working for the benefit of his own thirst for power and the Western interests. The Iranian people get so god damn angry that their anger leads them to a route of full blown nationalistic religious extremism just to spite the Americans, which leads to the 79 revolution, which leads to Iran becoming what it is today. What Iran could have been had it not been for US foreign politics influenced by corporate interests more than rational thought and the "intelligent" use of all their knowledge and intelligence, is a democratic secular free Iran in the present days; serving as a stabilizing rational power for the Shiites and Islamic world in the area.
USA and the Western powers (French involvement being documented among others) support Saddam Hussein against Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. The deal is weapons in trade for any oil Saddam gets his hands on in his war with Iran. Saddam fails and then decides to turn his sights onto Kuwait for oil, another neighboring dictatorship supported by USA. USA pulls the plug on Saddam. Later in the 2000s, we all know how things went on.
USA and the West trains and funds the Taliban against the Communists during their occupation of Afghanistan. They abandon them after the big collapse of Communism, just like they abandoned Saddam. The Taliban become what we know them as today, one of the more dangerous fundamentalist terrorist groups.
USA and the West supports overthrows of simple dictators in the Middle East and North Africa only to see them substituted by a more dangerous, more extreme, more unpredictable and irrational theocratic dictatorship. A mistake that should have been learned already with regards to Iran, albeit in Iran the Shah was not only a dictator but a Western puppet, so all's good...
The USA and the West further supplies and funds fundamentalist groups indirectly, or directly, in Syria with the aim of arming rebel forces against Assad for being a dictator in the paws of the wrong superpower (Russia). The end-result is ISIS/ISIL, the worst possible outcome imaginable.
Tinfoil-hat on: I added "directly" as an addendum, because at this point stupidity is not a justification anymore for the same god damn "mistake" the West has made how many times in a row. At this point it looks intentional for the purpose of feeding and maintaining the same terrorism they utilize as a fear factor leverage to push authoritarian level of surveillance on home territory and take liberties from their own citizenry, which in itself produces justifications to define homeland terrorism and produce a catch 22.
Bonus historical points: The US corporate interests, prioritized over national socio-political/geo-political interests, create a situation in South America, over a span of a century or so, where South Americans are much like Iranians forced to take up Communism just to spite USA in anger over its idiotic foreign politics ruining them economically and making puppets out of them.
If anything, Snowden is giving the US citizens and populations the fuel and armament they need to take a good look at their own lawn and fix what has become an out of control government corrupted by a corporatocracy.
I hate using Wikipedia, except when it has a good listing of sources, and it suffices for documented history for anyone needing a general overview: