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Thats a pretty small niche of voters. Not saying its a wrong assumption, but libertarians are typically a lot more concerned by trade and individual freedoms than whistleblower issues if you were to list up their top priorities.
Is it just me or is the term leaker politically charged in the context. For me, Snowden is a whistle blower not a leaker. There's a reason why he revealed secretes (he also didn't just release them, but was very careful how much he revealed), the secrete programs were unconstitutional -> whistle blower not leaker. edit: typo.
EDIT: Turns out the law does protect contractors, so I guess it's circumstantial that employees get branded whistle blowers and contractors get charged as spies.
Is it just me or is the term leaker politically charged in the context. For me, Snowden is a whistle blower not a leaker. There's a reason why he revealed secretes (he also didn't just release them, but was very careful how much he revealed), the secrete programs were unconstitutional -> whistle blower not leaker. edit: typo.
Leaking is a type of whistleblowing. Not all whistleblowers are leakers, but leaking secret information is one way to be a whistleblower.
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You've addressed the President's possible motivations. But, do you think Snowden should be pardoned? Just curious. (It's a tough call. I've not decided my own position on the matter.)
Snowden is charged with theft, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person, under the 1917 Espionage Act. His unauthorized disclosures of classified information caused grave damage to the national security of the United States and allowed enemies of the United States to better conceal their commun…
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Almost everyone thought mass surveillance was a conspiracy theory before Snowden. On the balance maybe he still deserves prison, but denying the positives of what Snowden did is disingenuous.
I don't think so. Wasn't it common knowledge that the Government had access to emails via ISPs and shredder well before Snowden's revelations? What was revealing, I guess was some of the technical details of how it was being done.
In fact the lawsuit around Room 641A fizzled because the accuser didn't 'really know' what was happening in the NSA room that had split off copies of backbone fiber trunks running into it and the government didn't have to provide an explanation. So unable to prove standing.
Snowden's revelations lead to actual case law saying that quite a few of the actions of the NSA were unconstitutional, given actual documentation from the government describing their actions.
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He floats a lot of ideas that 1) make headlines but don’t really make sense and 2) never actually happen. He’s been two weeks from announcing a new healthcare plan since he took office.
Ditto for building "the wall", making various trade deals, bringing peace to the Middle East, ending the opiate crisis, launching the Space Force... He has a real knack for announcing bold new projects with no clear plan for carrying them out, then quietly moving on.
That includes replacing NAFTA with a modestly upgraded USMCA. He got China to sign a deal that very aggressively favors the US (maybe they won't stick to it of course; which would imply they may never stick to any consequential trade deal). Along with the new trade deals with Japan and South Korea. The only major trade deal remaining is with the EU (and then Britain whenever they're ready to do so, likely after the virus is brought under control).
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You've addressed the President's possible motivations. But, do you think Snowden should be pardoned? Just curious. (It's a tough call. I've not decided my own position on the matter.)
Depends, how bad was Prism exactly?
If he actually does it I'll seriously considering voting for him. He won't, though.