I think there also needs to be a 'Protect all whistle blowers' petition also. A petition to pardon Snowden is a noble goal (IMHO), but there are deep rooted issues which are not addressed by simply pardoning one individual. I wonder why there is no, 'Pardon Chelsea Manning' petition also? Could it be related to transgender issues?
Pardon Snowden
231–240 of 814 posts
Re: Pardon Snowden
#232For those outside of the US the link ( https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/Edward-S... ) does not work. Anyone know what the correct link should be?
It's working for me
Re: Pardon Snowden
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
He also made no effort to disclose or inform internally - it's pretty cut and dry. Even if the President personally wanted to, it's simply not a precedent any administration can afford to set.
That is not correct. Quote: Asked specifically if he felt like he had exhausted all other avenues before deciding to leak classified information to the public, Snowden responded: Yes. I had reported these clearly problematic programs to more than ten distinct officials, none of whom took any action to address them. Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/03/07...
It is unclear how accurate this is.
Quote:
"After extensive investigation, including interviews with his former NSA supervisors and co-workers, we have not found any evidence to support Mr. Snowden’s contention that he brought these matters to anyone’s attention."
He says he told people, NSA says he didn't.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#234I think the problem is, people do not care anymore. The scandal is over, business as usual. Only a small percentage of the population still cares about Snowden. I think the image of the NSA has been hurt and a change in legislation might get you some positive press in the future, but I do not think that pardoning Snowden would be worth the effort for a politician. On the other hand: Obama probably does not have to ca…
Snowden's actions were effectively an attack on the mechanisms of governance: if they let him off the hook, they fear they will encourage more people to act like him, and that affects the solidity of the lever of governmental power.
If government is a tool, it's a rare politician that votes to make the tool less reliable. Note that this is distinct from changing the scope of what the tool can affect: this is about the reliability of the tool. Even politicians that were in favour of what Snowden did, who thought he contributed positively, and voted against surveillance, would still likely baulk at making life too easy for more people like him. That's because government is supposed to flow from the top down, and policy change is not supposed to emanate from the machinery. The machinery is supposed to execute the orders of government.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#235Re: Pardon Snowden
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
I completely understand what is going wrong and I assume you do too by your vivid explanation. Yet, you spend all your energy explaining it to people on the internet. What I don't get is, why don't you funnel that energy into making change? Everybody understands what is wrong about being permanently spied on, yet nobody does something. Whether Snowded committed treason cannot be stated in one sentence or even a parag…
"yet nobody does something." I contribute to Mailvelope now and then. I encourage my friends to use encryption. I'm honestly not entirely sure what practical things people are supposed to do? This isn't something where you round up a bunch of volunteers to go do a beach cleanup.
You can use Mailvelope! Or GPG/PGP. Use it to sign your mail. And do so using PGP/MIME, not text. PGP/Mime uses an attachment for the signature, and doesn't mess up the text with ugly code. Then put a small signature at the end of your mail explaining what PGP is, linking to Wikipedia, and link to your public key. As you use HTML, do this in a small font, 50% grey, and it won't get in the way. I do this since two years.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#237I cannot sign this. I'm happy there is a debate over our privacy, and the information has come to light, but I still believe this man to be a traitor and he should be punished. A pardon is out of the question.
When I read this, it always makes me wonder what is going through your mind: Being a traitor does not mean someone is wrong or deserving of punishment. The implication is that a person's country is always right, and also that if he had been a Russian spy, he would have been a patriot. No. Right and wrong are not governed by national borders and laws.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#238I believe when you wrote "socialist" you meant "authoritarianist"? Please don't mix-up those two concepts
They meant "communist", I assume, and communist countries are always totalitarian, I can't think of an exception.
Socrates is a philosopher.
Socrates is a man.
Conclusion, all philosophers are men.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#239> And technology companies around the world have been newly invigorated to protect their customers and strengthen our communications infrastructure.
Yet among the supporters, no mention of Larry Page, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Cook, and so on.
Re: Pardon Snowden
#240I believe when you wrote "socialist" you meant "authoritarianist"? Please don't mix-up those two concepts
In theory those are different. In practice though there hasn't been a single socialist country that hasn't at least devolved into authoritarianism or even has been so right from the start (Scandinavian Socialism and modern day German Social Market Economy could be considered exceptions but I doubt these can really be considered socialist.). People keep saying: "This isn't true socialism." Well, then true socialism se…
Those were all the cases where socialism was installed through some form of revolution or war. It's not specific just to socialism, basically any movement that has risen to the power by force will try to use that same force to stay in power (there are exceptions, of course, but rare).