AND he only did so after the "proper channel" for whistle blowing, his internal superiors, told him to shut the fuck up.
I feel this always needs to be said. The United States has a lot of slogans and posters about integrity and ethics for a nation that has neither in practice.
Snowden is a textbook example of why organizations should not be allowed to police themselves or control the avenues of reporting misconduct.
There should be a memorial to him in DC. Ruined his life to tell the people what their elected officials are doing with all of the power we grant them.
But no, to save face, ego, etc we drove him into the willing arms of Putin to be able to use as a propaganda tool so he wouldn’t be killed for daring to speak truth to power.
Support for prosecuting him did untold damage to my opinion of Obama.
[–]vettnerk@lemmy.ml34 points3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)
(3 children)
Snowden deserved Obamas pardon a lot more than Manning. I get the sense that Manning leaked stuff for the sake of leaking stuff, while Snowden uncovered a vast domestic and unconstitutional espionage program to which the general public was unaware.
Of course he's not a traitor. He exposed politicians who were actively violating the constitution. Those politicians are the traitors, traitors to American ideals and laws. At the very least, they're criminals.
There’s no chance he’ll be allowed back in the US after, understandably, becoming a piece of the Russian propaganda pie. He’s basically trapped in Russia. On the bright side, it’s a gilded cage where he resides with his family.
Not even an impossible task. We just need a President that actually loves what America professes to aspire to. It's what the Presidential pardon is for.
Not like that! Do it how we meant to say but couldn't quite bring ourselves to say publicly. The way that protects the military industrial complex and the corporations and the lobbyists and the government officials from any charge of mendacious greed.
My favourite moment of that era was when Obama told us he was just about to drop dime on all the spying and Snowden beat him to it. Dang it Snowden, now I gotta eat shit on live TV. The American state simply cannot be trusted whatsoever.
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