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U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

washingtonpost.com

111–120 of 363 posts

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#111
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think putting pressure on the government to fire the prosecutor who filed the petition is likely to work. A poll earlier this week found that the majority of Americans want Snowden charged and disapprove of what he has done. You need to start with petitioning your fellow Americans.

Was it one of these polls where they only call landlines? Not sure this means anything without exactly specifying how the poll was conducted.

I generally don't answer my cell phone unless I know who is calling. If I did answer and it was a poll, 99% of the time I would just hang up.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#112
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? I doubt Snowden expected anything different.

Greenwald/The Guardian won't release it out of fear of being brought up on similar charges. I don't know why they haven't released it already, unless it's just more of the same sort of vaguely incriminating powerpoint presentations.

It's not illegal for journalists to possess classified info, because espionage laws only apply to those who are authorized to possess such info and disclose it without authorization to a third party; the third parties themselves are guilty of nothing (except perhaps "conspiracy" as the DoJ is trying to do against Wikileaks, allegedly.)

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#113
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now the states he can move to just went up. Death penalty: Many countries, such as Australia, Canada, Macao, New Zealand, South Africa, and most European nations except Belarus, will not allow extradition if the death penalty may be imposed on the suspect unless they are assured that the death sentence will not be passed or carried out.

I don't think Virginia allows the death penalty for espionage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Virginia#...

If it's a Federal charge, Virginia law doesn't matter.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#114

So now is the time to identify the federal prosecutors who filed this and petition the government to have them fired. In addition, of course, to asking for a complete pardon for Snowden. It also should be noted that any of the Congressional investigations into this mess are perfectly capable of giving Snowden a grant of immunity from prosecution. People ask what to do. There are at least two avenues open to nip this…

The pardon petition also only needs more 7k signatures: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snow... Remember that the goal is to get the government address the issue, and show that the people are not fine with the NSA's actions. It would be nice to get them to actually pardon him, but that is a much harder goal.

Meanwhile people in Brazil take to the streets to protest about increases in public transport fares...

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#115
post #72

> The anti-secrecy group Wikileaks has held some discussions ... What is an anti-secrecy group? It sound like something out of Discworld series, where a group is tired of being discovered changed the door sign from "secret group" to "not-secret group". In the world of Discworld, it would likely work too. Is it so hard to write a group behind the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, or the more correct term: A group that…

WikiLeaks published many secrets that were not whistleblows. It's an anti-secrecy site.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#116
post #11

It looks like this charge can carry the death penalty because it involves "communications intelligence". From http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/794 : "(a) Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmit, to any foreign government, or…

> ... the sentence of death shall not be imposed unless the jury or, if there is no jury, the court, further finds ...

Why even pretend it's a gov't for the people anymore?

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#117
post #23

I think we have to march on this one and be loud. For San Francisco, we should show up in force somewhere - is Tuesday too soon to plan something - say show up in force at Union Square at 8pm?

The problem with marching in SF is nobody takes marches on SF seriously -- something is being protested daily.

Sacramento better or worse? We could charter some busses...

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#118
post #26

I have a feeling we're never going to see the rest of the data Greenwald supposedly has.

Don't you think that maybe they leaked the most interesting stuff first? This stuff has started to fall out of the news. It's past time to keep the story going.

Perhaps there was a limit to the documents he was able to scavenge.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#120

Espionage is punishable by death. I sincerely hope Snowden finds asylum somewhere safe --Iceland perhaps-- as the Department of Justice has made it perfectly clear that this patriot is no longer welcome here.

The only civilians executed for espionage in the US were the Rosenbergs in 1953 and that is widely seen as an overreaction that occurred in the context of the hysteria of the early Cold War. Only three people have been executed by the Federal government for any crime since 1963. It is incredibly unlikely that Snowden would be executed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_by_the_Unite...

You see, when "slippery slope fallacy" mode is fully engaged, information like that has no relevance. "They used it in 1953, they can do it again!"
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