America's political leadership thinks that Edward Snowden is a traitor.
The NSA to date have never been able to demonstrate one instance where they have prevented a terrorist or caught a terrorist through Prism - the Mass surveillance program.
According to Snowden's documents most of the people that were spied on were EU leaders like Merkel and Hollande as well as organizations like the UN. Also many industries in Germany and Brazil were spied on as well as their governments. That is economic espionage not catching terrorists.
Chelsea Manning never got a fair trial, even the EU members of Parliament complained to the US Government about the farce of a trial that Manning received. Why would Edward Snowden agree to go back when there is no chance of a fair trial.
Espionage is not a fair charge as neither Manning nor Snowden were spies for other countries or intending to harm the US. Therefore the charge of treason against whistleblowers (whether you agree with what he did or not) is plain ridiculous. There needs to be a distinction between someone revealing information to the press in the way Snowden and Manning did and someone actively spying on behalf of another country.
Lastly, since the US government is breaking the law - the 4th Amendment and I think the 6th Amendment is he supposed to remain silent. Chelsea Manning, Thomas Drake and Daniel Ellsberg all tried to bring about reform from within and nothing happened until they spoke to the newspapers. Why would it be different for Snowden. Even Ron Wyden has said repeatedly that he is not happy with the NSA and he knows that they are breaking the law, but he is forbidden "by law" to reveal what the NSA have done because of "national security".
Snowden has accused the government of breaking the law (the constitution) - so the government should stand trial for this! Why should only Snowden stand trial? If they want Snowden to face consequences for his actions, they need to have a fair trial, dismiss the Espionage charge as it's not applicable to whistleblowers and they themselves need to stand trial for the charge of violating the US constitution.
America is no better than any other country and in fact we are worse - we have double standards. Always preaching about freedom of rights but look at America's track record.
The NSA has access to a lot of our personal information and launders that intelligence to the DEA, IRS, FBI, police departments etc.
Considering the US Government has a history of attacking dissidents like Martin Luther King Jr, communists and anarchists, do you believe that innocent people are in jail because of ideologically motivated NSA intelligence laundering?
Our leaders have no desire to allow Binney, Snowden, Drake and Tice to testify before Congress. The Supreme Court doesn't want to hear about NSA cases. The US Government does not seem to represent rule of law, democracy or freedom. How can we help the people being targeted by unconstitutional/illegal NSA surveillance if criminals are clinging to power?
"A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.
These cases rarely involve national security issues, documents reviewed by Reuters show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges."
Will James Clapper ever be prosecuted for lying under oath? Will the American people finally realize that none of these people can be trusted?
READ MORE-
https://www.techgig.com/tech-news/editors-pick/Edward-Snowden-issues-heartfelt-plea-to-Obama-to-pardon-Chelsea-Manning-85967
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