Live data from Hacker News

U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

washingtonpost.com

41–50 of 363 posts

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#41
post #28
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

you made a good point, but you never know unless you try. i'm happy to take an hour out of my time for this man.

I'd much rather buy a plane ticket and head to participate in a large scale event in Washington.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#42
post #26

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

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.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#43
post #18
post #6

Interestingly, according to that article, he hasn't been charged with treason, 'just' espionage, theft and conversion of government property. Someone more qualified than I can elaborate, but treason is a much harder crime to prove than espionage (like murder vs. manslaughter). Edit: According to the video link provided by spdy, the crime needs to exist in both systems (ie Hong Kong and the US) in order for an extradi…

Can you imagine a jury of 12 all believing that what he did was not in the interests of his country?

Yes, quite easily. Randomly pull from somewhere like central Pennsylvania and you probably wouldn't even need to exclude anyone from your randomly picked list.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#44
post #39
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Why would the prosecutor be fired? And a Congressional pardon? Are you sure about that?

Neither of those is ever going to happen, petition or no petition.

Of course, but that is a poor reason to not make your voice heard.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#45
post #27

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…

I actually don't think charging him is inherently bad. If he in fact took 4 government property laptops with him, that's a crime, at the very least. Ideally, pre-trial investigation and a trial would be fair way to find facts. It's entirely possible minor crimes (violating classified NDA, taking laptops, etc.) would be non-conviction based on other information, but on its face, I don't really have a problem with init…

It's kind of hard to be a whistleblower without breaking some sort of secrecy law.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#46
post #18
post #6

Interestingly, according to that article, he hasn't been charged with treason, 'just' espionage, theft and conversion of government property. Someone more qualified than I can elaborate, but treason is a much harder crime to prove than espionage (like murder vs. manslaughter). Edit: According to the video link provided by spdy, the crime needs to exist in both systems (ie Hong Kong and the US) in order for an extradi…

Can you imagine a jury of 12 all believing that what he did was not in the interests of his country?

Yes, I can imagine it.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#48
post #18
post #6

Interestingly, according to that article, he hasn't been charged with treason, 'just' espionage, theft and conversion of government property. Someone more qualified than I can elaborate, but treason is a much harder crime to prove than espionage (like murder vs. manslaughter). Edit: According to the video link provided by spdy, the crime needs to exist in both systems (ie Hong Kong and the US) in order for an extradi…

Can you imagine a jury of 12 all believing that what he did was not in the interests of his country?

Yes. Have you not been to America?

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#49
post #37
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…

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.

The U.S. would waive the death penalty to get him back from any of those countries, as they regularly do. I seriously doubt there is any chance they would seek it, anyway.

Re: U.S. charges Edward Snowden with espionage

#50
post #33

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…

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.
Post reply on HN