Human Rights Groups to Launch All-Out 'Pardon Snowden' Campaign
Published on
Monday, September 12, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Human Rights Groups to Launch All-Out 'Pardon Snowden' Campaign
American Civil Liberties Union and other groups are coordinating massive
effort to coincide with upcoming Snowden biopic
by
Nadia Prupis, staff writer
A pardon for the whistleblower means he could return to the U.S. from
Russia, where he has lived under political asylum for the past three years.
(Photo: Mike Herbst/flickr/cc)
Some of the world's most prominent human rights organizations are launching
a formal campaign on Wednesday calling on President Barack Obama to pardon
whistleblower Edward Snowden, a long-awaited effort that will coincide with
the release of Oliver Stone's biopic, Snowden, according to reporting by
Vice.
The campaign, organized by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Human
Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and other groups, will include a
mass signature drive and outreach to other influential voices to call on
Obama to pardon the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower before he
leaves office. And Snowden himself is set to speak by video link from Moscow
at a press conference in New York on Wednesday.
Ben Wizner, one of Snowden's attorneys and director of ACLU's Speech,
Privacy, and Technology project, told Vice he hopes the upcoming film will
help kindle public good will toward him and further strengthen the case for
clemency.
"I think Oliver will do more for Snowden in two hours than his lawyers have
been able to do in three years," he said.
As the campaign approaches its launch date, the organizers are setting up
Facebook and Twitter pages to help circulate their petition and spread
information.
A pardon for the whistleblower means he could return to the U.S. from
Russia, where he has lived under political asylum for the past three years
since releasing classified NSA documents revealing the government's mass
surveillance operations, prompting global outrage and forcing Snowden to
flee. He still faces espionage charges at home.
And with just four months to go until Obama leaves office, time is running
out for Snowden's supporters, as the odds would get significantly longer
under either a Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump administration; in fact,
Trump's latest campaign hire, former CIA chief James Woolsey, previously
said Snowden should be "hanged" for treason in the wake of the Paris attacks
last November.
Snowden himself spoke with Alan Rusbridger for the Financial Times this
month in Moscow, discussing topics that ranged from his biopic, to the
Panama Papers, to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hack, to the
impact of mass surveillance on geopolitics.
What's powerful about the film, he said, "is that it compresses years of
reporting into two hours so it reaches a whole new audience who aren't wonks
or, you know, people who aggressively follow policy.... that [means] the
film can be a vehicle for democratizing information, and that's a beautiful
irony for a film about an act that was intended to do the same thing."
As for what it might mean for the future: "We the public are at one of the
last points that we will have to make a difference in how normalised the
culture of mass surveillance becomes. And so anything that gets people
talking about it, any little thing that gets people thinking about it that
otherwise might not, I think is a net positive."
Snowden will be released on Friday, September 16, 2016.
Read more about the film and watch the trailer here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
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Human Rights Groups to Launch All-Out 'Pardon Snowden' Campaign
Published on
Monday, September 12, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Human Rights Groups to Launch All-Out 'Pardon Snowden' Campaign
American Civil Liberties Union and other groups are coordinating massive
effort to coincide with upcoming Snowden biopic
by
Nadia Prupis, staff writer
. 12 Comments
.
. A pardon for the whistleblower means he could return to the U.S.
from Russia, where he has lived under political asylum for the past three
years. (Photo: Mike Herbst/flickr/cc)
. Some of the world's most prominent human rights organizations are
launching a formal campaign on Wednesday calling on President Barack Obama
to pardon whistleblower Edward Snowden, a long-awaited effort that will
coincide with the release of Oliver Stone's biopic, Snowden, according to
reporting by Vice.
. The campaign, organized by the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and other groups,
will include a mass signature drive and outreach to other influential voices
to call on Obama to pardon the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower
before he leaves office. And Snowden himself is set to speak by video link
from Moscow at a press conference in New York on Wednesday.
. Ben Wizner, one of Snowden's attorneys and director of ACLU's
Speech, Privacy, and Technology project, told Vice he hopes the upcoming
film will help kindle public good will toward him and further strengthen the
case for clemency.
. "I think Oliver will do more for Snowden in two hours than his
lawyers have been able to do in three years," he said.
As the campaign approaches its launch date, the organizers are setting up
Facebook and Twitter pages to help circulate their petition and spread
information.
A pardon for the whistleblower means he could return to the U.S. from
Russia, where he has lived under political asylum for the past three years
since releasing classified NSA documents revealing the government's mass
surveillance operations, prompting global outrage and forcing Snowden to
flee. He still faces espionage charges at home.
And with just four months to go until Obama leaves office, time is running
out for Snowden's supporters, as the odds would get significantly longer
under either a Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump administration; in fact,
Trump's latest campaign hire, former CIA chief James Woolsey, previously
said Snowden should be "hanged" for treason in the wake of the Paris attacks
last November.
Snowden himself spoke with Alan Rusbridger for the Financial Times this
month in Moscow, discussing topics that ranged from his biopic, to the
Panama Papers, to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hack, to the
impact of mass surveillance on geopolitics.
What's powerful about the film, he said, "is that it compresses years of
reporting into two hours so it reaches a whole new audience who aren't wonks
or, you know, people who aggressively follow policy.... that [means] the
film can be a vehicle for democratizing information, and that's a beautiful
irony for a film about an act that was intended to do the same thing."
As for what it might mean for the future: "We the public are at one of the
last points that we will have to make a difference in how normalised the
culture of mass surveillance becomes. And so anything that gets people
talking about it, any little thing that gets people thinking about it that
otherwise might not, I think is a net positive."
Snowden will be released on Friday, September 16, 2016.
Read more about the film and watch the trailer here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
