Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Government United States Privacy Security Technology

Petition With Over 1 Million Signatures Urges President Obama To Pardon Snowden (cnet.com) 273

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: More than 1 million people signed onto a petition asking President Barack Obama to pardon Edward Snowden, proponents of the pardon said Friday. The campaign began in September, when Snowden, his attorney Ben Wizner from the ACLU, and other privacy activists announced they would formally petition Obama for a pardon. Snowden leaked classified NSA documents detailing surveillance programs run by the U.S. and its allies to journalists in 2013, kicking off a heated debate on whether Americans should be willing to sacrifice internet privacy to help the government protect the country from terrorist attacks. Obama and White House representatives have said repeatedly that Snowden must face the charges against him and that he'll be afforded a fair trial. In the U.S., a pardon is "an expression of the president's forgiveness and ordinarily is granted in recognition of the applicant's acceptance of responsibility for the crime and established good conduct for a significant period of time after conviction or completion of sentence," according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney. It does not signify innocence. Also on Friday, David Kaye urged Obama to consider a pardon for Snowden. Kaye, the special rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council on the freedom of expression, said U.S. law doesn't allow Snowden to argue that his disclosures were made for the benefit of the public. The jury would merely be asked to decide whether Snowden stole government secrets and distributed them -- something Snowden himself concedes he did. In response to the petition, Edward Snowden tweeted: "Whether or not this President ends the war on whistleblowers, you've sent a message to history: I feared no one would care. I was wrong."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Petition With Over 1 Million Signatures Urges President Obama To Pardon Snowden

Comments Filter:
  • by GrandCow ( 229565 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @08:06AM (#53666775)

    Snowden embarrassed the Obama administration. As much as I think he should be pardoned and let back onto US soil, Obama won't do it. Trump certainly won't either.

    Lets live in reality people.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Striek ( 1811980 )

      I tend to agree. But with a million signatures, he can't exactly ignore it, either.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 14, 2017 @08:14AM (#53666785)

        What else can they do besides say "aww, that's nice".

      • by Registered Coward v2 ( 447531 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @08:16AM (#53666799)

        I tend to agree. But with a million signatures, he can't exactly ignore it, either.

        Never underestimates the ability of a political to ignore an issue they don't want to address and redirect the topic.

        • ... the ability of a political ...

          Votes are the currency of politics. ~ © 2017 CaptainDork

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Obama already ignored it when he just enacted new data sharing rules with the NSA and the "16" other agencies, extending the problem even more.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        [...] with a million signatures, he can't exactly ignore it [...]

        From the "delivery letter" [pardonsnowden.org], the first sentence (emphasis mine): "Dear President Obama, We are hereby delivering signatures from 1,101,252 people across the world who ask that you use your presidential authority to pardon Edward Snowden."

        Not only they are just 1 million people (when the population of USA is 300 times more) but -some/all?- they are not even USA citizens (i, a Greek, could had signed it - or even Osama Bin Laden...)!

        • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

          "Dear President Obama, We are hereby delivering signatures from 1,101,252 people across the world who ask that you use your presidential authority to pardon Edward Snowden.

          How many were Russian signatures? They might want to send him back to do more work.

      • by Chas ( 5144 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @09:21AM (#53666963) Homepage Journal

        Sure he can!

        It's a busy time right now! Right? RIGHT?

        And even so, it's simple enough to say "No.", couched in suitably political terms.

        You know what I'm talking about.

        At this time *EVIL RUSSIA! EVIL RUSSIA!* we don't have enough information *EVIL RUSSIA! EVIL RUSSIA!* on the situation to make us comfortable pardoning him for stealing secrets and giving them to EVIL RUSSIA!

        Basically, what would have happened to him, had he come home is he would have become Bradley/Chelsea Manning Mark 2.

        He'd have been dumped in a prison. Rotted for a while. Then announced that he'd decided to cut his dick off and live as a woman. Turning him into a complete laughingstock meme and totally detracting from what actually happened.

        I think Snowden likes his cock and balls right where they are...

      • ahhh yes he can.
    • by Rockoon ( 1252108 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @09:04AM (#53666925)
      The Obama administration has gone after more whistle blowers than all previous administrations, combined.

      The chance of him pardoning the most famous one....? Z E R O
    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @09:56AM (#53667061)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by zifn4b ( 1040588 )

      Lets live in reality people.

      And that reality is not all laws make sense and everyone always has some type of self-serving agenda. We need to realize we can't correct other people. We can only correct ourselves and hope we inspire others to do the same.

    • Snowden embarrassed the Obama administration. As much as I think he should be pardoned and let back onto US soil, Obama won't do it. Trump certainly won't either.

      What makes you say Trump won't pardon Snowden?

      I oppose Trump in almost every way imaginable, but I do think it's very possible he would pardon Snowden.

      • "Letting traitors go free" won't play well to the "tough on crime" Republican crowd.
      • I support both Trump and Snowden, but Trump has never had nice things to say about Snowden. Trump is definitely in the "law & order, fuck traitors" camp. Putin gave Snowden asylum to embarrass Obama. I would not be at all shocked if Putin, as a show of good faith in the improving relations between the US and Russia, returned Snowden to his new pal Trump. Snowden needs that pardon from Obama or he's fucked.

    • by fazig ( 2909523 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @10:49AM (#53667269)
      I also wonder if the Russian government would let Snowden leave their country so easily, given the remote possibility that some other country wants to give him asylum without the danger or extradition.
      Odds are that Snowden had at least some contact with Russian intelligence agencies and also had the chance to learn a couple of things about them. And here I doubt that they'll make the same mistake US agencies did.
    • I don't think Trump will even pardon his Thanksgiving Turkey....
    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      Snowden embarrassed the Obama administration. As much as I think he should be pardoned and let back onto US soil, Obama won't do it. Trump certainly won't either.

      Lets live in reality people.

      After reviewing all of the "insightful" moderated posts, I was saddened that this tidbit was one of the best. Talk about shallow insight. *sigh* The lack of "funny" posts was also evidence of the departure of the wits of yore.

      Also did a bunch of searches for rational argument for or against the pardon, using a bunch of keywords. Only one feint anywhere near the actual topic. Yeah, I admit Nixon's pardon really broke the mold and invalidated any notion of rules or precedents limiting presidential pardons. St

  • At this point, what's the upside for President Obama? It will no doubt set off a flurry of criticism which won't stop once he leaves office. He seems to want to live gracefully and pardoning Snowden would prevent that and potentially complicate any post-presidency political plans he may have and impact his legacy. The popular story won't be "Obama pardons brave whistleblower" but "Obama pardons traitor who helped Russia." The truth and moral arguments will get lost in the noise, especially since it is easi
  • by ElizabethGreene ( 1185405 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @08:44AM (#53666867)
    I signed the petition. An agency of my government was breaking the public trust, lying to legislators, and breaking the law. It was Mr. Snowden's duty to report this, and it is a travesty to take away his life for defending his country against itself.
    • by Sir Holo ( 531007 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @09:16AM (#53666947)

      I signed the petition. An agency of my government was breaking the public trust, lying to legislators, and breaking the law. It was Mr. Snowden's duty to report this, and it is a travesty to take away his life for defending his country against itself.

      It wasn't his duty, as he was a contractor. Contractors do not swear the Oath of Service to the US Government, although all of its direct employees are required to. That difference means that he is not shielded by whistle-blower laws.

      But the numerous Federal employees in the know – I agree – had a duty to report on the illegal activities, but chose not to. None of them are in exile, nor hanging from the end of a rope, nor even had a finger shaken at them. Instead, they have been protected by their organization. Not a good precedent, but look at history and you'll see that it rhymes.

    • by Nutria ( 679911 )

      Did you actually sign the petition, writing down also your address so that it could be verified that you are a citizen and didn't double-sign?

      Or did you click a button labeled "Sign" along with a bunch of non-US citizens?

  • The chance that Obama will send a sniper or drone is much more likely. He and Hillary are trying to heat up the cold war with Russia for a long time now, so this might be a nice attempt to further it even more. Especially because Putin can't let something like that go because he will be looked at as weak if he does.

    • by Nutria ( 679911 )

      There's only 5 more days in his term of office, so if he's going to pull this fantasy attack of yours (sneaking a sniper into Russia to assassinate a public figure? you've got to be kidding!), he'd better get cracking!!

  • by Faw ( 33935 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @09:28AM (#53666989)

    ... (or won't) after all he hasn't been to a trial yet, just accused [arstechnica.com]. That might be true or not, but he already spoke about it on November. He wont pardon him.

    • by mark-t ( 151149 )
      Actually, the president of the United States does not need to wait for a trial to issue a pardon. I do not want to speculate on whether Obama was deliberately lying or he has just been misinformed, but the statement that he cannot pardon him because Snowden hasn't been to trial yet is actually entirely false.
      • Its entirely possible that he was neither lying nor misinformed, but that the prevailing legal opinions on the matter may have changed since the last Presidential pardon of an unconvicted person and his legal counsel thought such a pardon was legally unsafe...

        • Fine - here is an alternate scenario...

          The document signed by the President giving the pardon includes the proper legalese for: "Hey, we came to an agreement - and he plead guilty to everything and he is all cool with that, with the agreement the second page of the document admitting his guilt is the Presidential Pardon."

  • by DeplorableCodeMonkey ( 4828467 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @09:30AM (#53666999)
    The problem with Snowden is that Snowden released at least two very different types of data: 1. Data that shows potentially or actually illegal domestic actions. 2. Data that shows operational details on entirely legal foreign operations. There is a good case to be made about the former, but there is absolutely no legal or moral basis for a pardon on the latter. What Snowden did was not stop at reporting likely law-breaking, but essentially depantsed the NSA WRT its operational capabilities and techniques. That would be like waving a case like some village massacre in one hand and then holding a binder in the other hand that happens to contain the operational status of every military unit in theater, along with personnel names, the whole shebang that would allow an enemy to greatly step up their game. No, for the 2nd point Snowden really has to go to prison if he comes back, and he knows it.
    • 2. Data that shows operational details on entirely legal foreign operations.

      You mean spying on the electronic communications of every person on the planet, even allies? There is no justification for that. You cannot turn on the news without a deluge of "Russia hacked the election" propaganda, but just what do you suppose the USG does with all the information captured by the NSA, if not use it to influence foreign nations? This is the same government that has overthrown two democracies, just under Obama.

    • Snowden didn't actually release a single document. He gave it all to trusted journalists because he did not want the responsibility of having to decide what should and should not be released.
  • by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @09:49AM (#53667051) Journal

    The entire Trump administration is a perfect Bizarro world. Anti-school as sec of ed, anti-vaxxer running vaccine study, etc... I don't think it's even possible that Snowden doesn't get a pardon on Jan 22. It'll be part of the new US-Russian intelligence partnership.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Imrik ( 148191 )

      Trump's secretary of education isn't anti-school, she might be a poor choice as her attempts to improve schooling have done the opposite, but she isn't trying to make the schools worse.

      As for an anti-vaxxer running a vaccine study, if you want to prove something works, get someone honest who believes it doesn't to study it. I have no idea if RFK will be honest about the results, but having someone who is against vaccines study it is more likely to be convincing if he is.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        but having someone who is against vaccines study it is more likely to be convincing if he is.

        Nice theory.
        The reality is that most people don't have brains that work like that.
        The cognitive load required to abandon years of passionately held conspiracy theory is really high. It is so much easier to decide that the person was compromised by bribes, threats or even stupidity - that sort of rationalization is ideally suited to the logic of conspiracy that fuels the belief in the first place.

        Its what happened when physics professor, MacArthur genius-grant fellow and high-profile climate change denier R

      • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        Trump's secretary of education isn't anti-school

        She's anti-public school, so distinction without an elitist difference. Interesting that Dems that never GAF about Arne Duncan (who also loves charters) are now upset that the SoE supports privatization. Who knows, maybe they'll even shed a tear the first time Trump drones an entire extended family to death at a wedding.

        but she isn't trying to make the schools worse

        Except that's exactly what charters do: make education worse by removing protections for teach

      • by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @01:19PM (#53667983) Journal

        Having Kennedy run a study on the autism-vaccine link is like having Daniel Shenton (president of the flat earth society) run a study on weather or not the earth is a spheroid, or Bill Kaysing (if he were still alive) running an investigation into whether the moon landings in the 60s and 70s were a hoax.

        Having ANYONE run a meta-study on what is , essentially, established science to try and find proof that it is not - and damaging national and world health in the process - is not just irresponsible but downright dangerous.

        Oh, and DeVos basically wants to defund public schools by shifting as many dollars as possible to vouchers for people to use at privately-run schools, with essentially no oversight. Whether she intends to make public schools worse or not is somewhat irrelevant when her goal is to eliminate their source of funding.

    • Surely you jest (about the pardon).

  • Double standards? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by moeinvt ( 851793 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @10:38AM (#53667201)

    Throughout the entire Obama presidency, the administration has been absolutely paranoid about leaks and has cracked down on whistleblowers like no other administration in history.

    Over the past few months, all this "Russian hacking" stuff has been dominating the mainstream media. In story after story, especially from sites like WaPo, reporters are always quoting "anonymous sources in government" or unnamed "intelligence officials" as their sources. These "sources" have obviously leaked numerous details of classified intelligence reports to the media, yet the Obama administration exhibits absolutely no concern whatsoever about these particular leaks.

    If Snowden is a criminal for leaking classified information to the media, why isn't there a full scale government investigation to identify the people who are leaking this classified "Russian hacking" stuff to the media? Do we have any laws left which are enforced in a fair & uniform manner? A government which makes it a practice of enforcing laws arbitrarily is an illegitimate government.

  • In the U.S., a pardon is "an expression of the president's forgiveness and ordinarily is granted in recognition of the applicant's acceptance of responsibility for the crime and established good conduct for a significant period of time after conviction or completion of sentence," according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney"

    There is NOTHING in the Constitution that says anything resembling this. And the most famous pardon in recent history - Nixon - contained none of these elements. Nixon was never convicted of anything, never admitted to anything, was never sentenced, nor was there any so-called "significant period of time after conviction or completion of sentence."

    And the government wonders why there's a fake news problem? They should look in the mirror - they're the source of a lot of it.

    • by jdavidb ( 449077 )

      And the government wonders why there's a fake news problem?

      They don't, of course, but good post.

  • by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @11:16AM (#53667423)

    Obama has always been a part of the problem, not part of the solution. There's no way he's going to pardon anyone who attempted to undermine the system that keeps him rich.

  • Then again, Trump doesn't believe in his soon to be Intelligence community, so why would they need to keep their techniques secret anyway?
    • Do you believe in our intelligence community? Big fan of the CIA and the NSA, are ya? Those 3 letter agencies were four letter words on Slashdot before they mumbled something about Trump being bad.

  • by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @12:48PM (#53667875)
    So, less than a third of one percent of US citizens feel so passionate about this that they clicked their mouse a couple of times. Well that's a mandate if I ever heard one, no doubt.
  • It is akin to the war on snitches. You can argue that unlike a snitch, a whistleblower maintains allegiance to the larger kinship; but the kinship of power will always regard them as snitches and treat them accordingly. Whenever any authority says they are in favor of whistleblowers, it's as big a lie as "we support affordable housing". The two problems are not without their similarities, as many common people also say they want affordable housing--until they become owners who rely on increasing property

    • Whenever any authority says they are in favor of whistleblowers, it's as big a lie as "we support affordable housing".

      No, they're not lying. The government is very in favor of whistleblowers who snitch to the government. They think whistleblowers who snitch on the government can get fucked though.

A CONS is an object which cares. -- Bernie Greenberg.

Working...