Monday 3 February 2014

#EdwardSnowden: Traitor? [updated]

Think Edward Snowden is a traitor? Those who say so might like to watch this interview.

[Hat tip Keith Weiner]

UPDATE:

US Media Blacks Out Snowden Interview Exposing Death Threats – SCOOP
The
interview, broadcast by the German television network ARD, was largely blacked out by the US media. The New York Times carried not a word of what Snowden said, while the cable and broadcast news programs treated the interview with near total silence.
    The American media’s reaction stood in stark contrast to that of both broadcast and print media in Germany, where the interview conducted with Snowden in Russia was treated as a major political event…
    Insisting that he acted alone and neither accepted nor required help from any foreign government, he stated: “If I am a traitor, who did I betray? I gave all of my information to the American public, to American journalists who are reporting on American issues. If they see that as treason I think people really need to consider who do they think they’re working for. The public is supposed to be their boss, not their enemy. Beyond that as far as my personal safety, I’ll never be fully safe until these systems have changed.”
    Snowden insisted that what he had done was right, even though the government claims it was a crime, and that what the government is doing is a crime, even though it claims it is legal. He told his interviewer:

“I think it’s clear that there are times where what is lawful is distinct from what is rightful. There are times throughout history and it doesn’t take long for either an American or a German to think about times in the history of their country where the law provided the government to do things which were not right.”
    He added that, while he would welcome an opportunity to defend himself in open court, the Obama administration had no intention of allowing him to do so. Rather, it has charged him under the Espionage Act, whose terms would preclude his making any case to a jury that his actions were in the interest of the American people.
“So it’s I would say illustrative that the president would choose to say someone should face the music, when he knows that the music is a show trial.”

2 comments:

Mr Lineberry said...

A traitor?

Funny how the following kinds of people are not traitors -

1. Liberal Supreme Court Justices who make laws up as they go along and ignore the Constitution
2. Conservative Supreme Court Justices who make laws up as they go along and ignore the Constitution
3. Presidents who ignore the Constitution to create the Patriot Act and then kill children in Iraq to enrich shareholders of crony companies
4. Members of Congress who pass laws which ignore the Constitution
5. Presidents who ignore the Constitution to create the 'New Deal', Obamacare, 725,000 anti business regulations etc
6. FBI agents who do what they want, when they want and to whom they want ...(all under the guise of "protecting people")
7. IRS agents who do what they want, when they want and to whom they want
8. You get the general idea...

Barry said...

9. NZ politicians who have special laws and policies discriminating in favour of part-maoris and Pacific islanders because of their race.