Maass writes: "Of Course President Obama should pardon Edward Snowden - and
Chelsea Manning, too. But this story is not about the excellent reasons for
thanking rather than locking up the two most famous whistleblowers of the
post-9/11 era."
President Barack Obama visiting the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution
in El Reno, Oklahoma. (photo: MSNBC)
Why Obama Should Pardon All Leakers and Whistleblowers - Not Just Edward
Snowden
By Peter Maass, The Intercept
01 October 16
Of course President Obama should pardon Edward Snowden - and Chelsea
Manning, too.
But this story is not about the excellent reasons for thanking rather than
locking up the two most famous whistleblowers of the post-9/11 era. Plenty
of people are already calling for that in powerful ways. A new petition on
Snowden's behalf has been signed by Twitter's Jack Dorsey as well as Steve
Wozniak, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Aragorn (also known as Viggo Mortensen).
Organizations coming out in support of a pardon for Snowden, who is
currently a political refugee in Moscow, include the ACLU, Human Rights
Watch, and Amnesty International. And Oliver Stone has just released
"Snowden," a movie that emphasizes his good and patriotic intentions.
But the unfortunate truth of our times is that Obama is not going to pardon
Snowden and Manning. His administration has invested too much capital in
demonizing them to turn back now. However, there are other leakers and
whistleblowers for whom the arguments in favor of pardons are not only
compelling but politically palatable, too. Their names are Stephen Kim,
Jeffrey Sterling, John Kiriakou, and Thomas Drake. All of them were
government officials who talked with journalists and were charged under the
Espionage Act for disclosures of information that were far less
consequential than the classified emails that Hillary Clinton stored on her
server at home or the top-secret war diaries that David Petraeus shared with
his biographer and girlfriend. Petraeus, a former general and CIA director,
got a fine for his transgressions. Clinton got a presidential nomination.
Consider this: Kiriakou, a CIA agent who criticized the agency's use of
torture, was thrown into prison because he provided a journalist with the
name of one covert officer, although the name was never published. Kim, a
State Department official, pleaded guilty to talking to Fox News reporter
James Rosen about a single classified report on North Korea that an official
later described as a "nothing burger." Sterling, a CIA officer, was
convicted of talking to New York Times reporter James Risen about a botched
operation against Iran that went wrong because of bungling by the agency.
Drake, who worked at the NSA, faced multiple felony charges after he talked
to a Baltimore Sun reporter about fraud and abuse in a bloated surveillance
program. All of them went to prison except Drake, who was able, in the end,
to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, though he lost his job and security
clearance and now works at an Apple store.
There is an imperative to apologize to Kim, Sterling, Kiriakou, and Drake
that has nothing to do with justice (though justice should be sufficient
incentive). It is possible that a crackpot grifter will be elected president
of the United States in seven weeks time. Obama needs to start dramatically
disavowing the excesses of his presidency, so that Donald Trump, if he wins
in November, will not be able to use the continuity card to do even worse
things with the excessive powers that Obama was able to arrogate for the
Oval Office. (Trump would still do terrible things, of course, but he would
at least have a harder time citing Obama as precedent.) One of the most
insidious domestic legacies of Obama's presidency is his unprecedented
crackdown on officials who talked to journalists about embarrassing issues
or policies the government wanted to keep secret - and this needs to be
forsaken, now.
It wouldn't be that out of character. The Obama administration has been
admirable in the use of its powers to reverse or stop wrongful actions by
state and municipal authorities. Earlier this month, the administration
suspended construction on the North Dakota Access Pipeline because it
violated the rights of Native Americans. In recent years, the Department of
Justice has conducted scathing investigations into civil rights abuses by a
number of police departments, and has extracted meaningful changes from many
of them. Fairness for all has been a hallmark of these laudable moves, and
the same standard should be applied to leakers and whistleblowers. If
Petraeus and Clinton are allowed to get away with unauthorized sharing of
classified information, it should be OK for lesser officials too, especially
when their actions involved the exposure of government wrongdoing.
Instead of just correcting the errors of other branches of government, Obama
should admit that his own administration made a terrible mistake by
prosecuting good people who helped, rather than harmed, the cause of
democracy. If pardoning Snowden and Manning requires more courage than the
president possesses, he can at least show clemency for Kim, Kiriakou, Drake,
and Sterling, who have suffered catastrophically. Pardons would clear their
names and release Sterling from prison (he remains behind bars to this day).
The fact that Trump has the instincts of a dictator makes it all the more
crucial that Obama not hand him the powers and policies of one.
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President Barack Obama visiting the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution
in El Reno, Oklahoma. (photo: MSNBC)
https://theintercept.com/2016/09/19/why-obama-should-pardon-all-leakers-and-
whistleblowers-not-just-edward-snowden/https://theintercept.com/2016/09/19/w
hy-obama-should-pardon-all-leakers-and-whistleblowers-not-just-edward-snowde
n/
Why Obama Should Pardon All Leakers and Whistleblowers - Not Just Edward
Snowden
By Peter Maass, The Intercept
01 October 16
f course President Obama should pardon Edward Snowden - and Chelsea
Manning, too.
But this story is not about the excellent reasons for thanking rather than
locking up the two most famous whistleblowers of the post-9/11 era. Plenty
of people are already calling for that in powerful ways. A new petition on
Snowden's behalf has been signed by Twitter's Jack Dorsey as well as Steve
Wozniak, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Aragorn (also known as Viggo Mortensen).
Organizations coming out in support of a pardon for Snowden, who is
currently a political refugee in Moscow, include the ACLU, Human Rights
Watch, and Amnesty International. And Oliver Stone has just released
"Snowden," a movie that emphasizes his good and patriotic intentions.
But the unfortunate truth of our times is that Obama is not going to pardon
Snowden and Manning. His administration has invested too much capital in
demonizing them to turn back now. However, there are other leakers and
whistleblowers for whom the arguments in favor of pardons are not only
compelling but politically palatable, too. Their names are Stephen Kim,
Jeffrey Sterling, John Kiriakou, and Thomas Drake. All of them were
government officials who talked with journalists and were charged under the
Espionage Act for disclosures of information that were far less
consequential than the classified emails that Hillary Clinton stored on her
server at home or the top-secret war diaries that David Petraeus shared with
his biographer and girlfriend. Petraeus, a former general and CIA director,
got a fine for his transgressions. Clinton got a presidential nomination.
Consider this: Kiriakou, a CIA agent who criticized the agency's use of
torture, was thrown into prison because he provided a journalist with the
name of one covert officer, although the name was never published. Kim, a
State Department official, pleaded guilty to talking to Fox News reporter
James Rosen about a single classified report on North Korea that an official
later described as a "nothing burger." Sterling, a CIA officer, was
convicted of talking to New York Times reporter James Risen about a botched
operation against Iran that went wrong because of bungling by the agency.
Drake, who worked at the NSA, faced multiple felony charges after he talked
to a Baltimore Sun reporter about fraud and abuse in a bloated surveillance
program. All of them went to prison except Drake, who was able, in the end,
to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, though he lost his job and security
clearance and now works at an Apple store.
There is an imperative to apologize to Kim, Sterling, Kiriakou, and Drake
that has nothing to do with justice (though justice should be sufficient
incentive). It is possible that a crackpot grifter will be elected president
of the United States in seven weeks time. Obama needs to start dramatically
disavowing the excesses of his presidency, so that Donald Trump, if he wins
in November, will not be able to use the continuity card to do even worse
things with the excessive powers that Obama was able to arrogate for the
Oval Office. (Trump would still do terrible things, of course, but he would
at least have a harder time citing Obama as precedent.) One of the most
insidious domestic legacies of Obama's presidency is his unprecedented
crackdown on officials who talked to journalists about embarrassing issues
or policies the government wanted to keep secret - and this needs to be
forsaken, now.
It wouldn't be that out of character. The Obama administration has been
admirable in the use of its powers to reverse or stop wrongful actions by
state and municipal authorities. Earlier this month, the administration
suspended construction on the North Dakota Access Pipeline because it
violated the rights of Native Americans. In recent years, the Department of
Justice has conducted scathing investigations into civil rights abuses by a
number of police departments, and has extracted meaningful changes from many
of them. Fairness for all has been a hallmark of these laudable moves, and
the same standard should be applied to leakers and whistleblowers. If
Petraeus and Clinton are allowed to get away with unauthorized sharing of
classified information, it should be OK for lesser officials too, especially
when their actions involved the exposure of government wrongdoing.
Instead of just correcting the errors of other branches of government, Obama
should admit that his own administration made a terrible mistake by
prosecuting good people who helped, rather than harmed, the cause of
democracy. If pardoning Snowden and Manning requires more courage than the
president possesses, he can at least show clemency for Kim, Kiriakou, Drake,
and Sterling, who have suffered catastrophically. Pardons would clear their
names and release Sterling from prison (he remains behind bars to this day).
The fact that Trump has the instincts of a dictator makes it all the more
crucial that Obama not hand him the powers and policies of one.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize