Snowdon is a dummy

Eric Holder said a 'possibility exists' for the whistleblower to leave Russia. Snowden could strike a deal with US authorities that would allow him to return to the country, the former Attorney General has suggested.

Eric Holder: The Justice Department could strike deal with Edward Snowden

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In an interview with Yahoo News, Holder said “we are in a different place as a result of the Snowden disclosures” and that “his actions spurred a necessary debate” that prompted President Obama and Congress to change policies on the bulk collection of phone records of American citizens.

Asked if that meant the Justice Department might now be open to a plea bargain that allows Snowden to return from his self-imposed exile in Moscow, Holder replied: “I certainly think there could be a basis for a resolution that everybody could ultimately be satisfied with. I think the possibility exists.”

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Three sources familiar with informal discussions of Snowden’s case told Yahoo News that one top U.S. intelligence official, Robert Litt, the chief counsel to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, recently privately floated the idea that the government might be open to a plea bargain in which Snowden returns to the United States, pleads guilty to one felony count and receives a prison sentence of three to five years in exchange for full cooperation with the government.

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But Wizner, Snowden’s lawyer, said any felony plea by Snowden that results in prison time would be unacceptable to his client. “Our position is he should not be reporting to prison as a felon and losing his civil rights as a result of his act of conscience,” he said.

Moreover, any suggestion of leniency toward Snowden would likely run into strong political opposition in Congress as well as fierce resistance from hard-liners in the intelligence community who remain outraged over his wholesale disclosure of highly classified government documents. Those feelings have, in some ways, been exacerbated by Snowden’s worldwide celebrity that recently prompted him to enter into an arrangement with a speaker’s bureau that has allowed him to give paid talks to worldwide audiences via Skype from his apartment in Moscow.

No German Chancellor has ever caused trouble for the world…and the Chancellery has never been host to anything of any international concern.

while Snowden started a conversation and a debate regarding mass data storing in which we have now changed in large part because of him, he also stole tons of classified documents which had nothing to do spying or mass data storing and released to unauthorized persons which was a reckless thing to do.

In July, Public Prosecutor Harald Range launched a treason investigation into the Netzpolitik.org journalists Markus Beckedahl and Andre Meister, months after they reported on secret government plans to expand online surveillance. Netzpolitik specializes in covering online privacy and digital culture, and, true to their mission, the journalists had published a report about plans for heightened Internet surveillance by German intelligence services, using confidential documents to make their case. Range opened his probe following a criminal complaint filed by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BND.
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The treason investigation prompted widespread criticism from free-speech advocates who accuse the authorities of curtailing expression and failing to protect whistleblowers. Many also accuse the government of singling out journalists while notably failing to investigate accusations of mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency.

Ultimately, Social Democratic Justice Minister Heiko Maas weighed in, questioning the decision to open the investigation in the first place and finally firing Range after the prosecutor accused him of political interference, which Maas has denied.

Doris Lessing trailed by MI5 for 20 years
BBC - 21 August 2015

Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing was spied on by security services for more than 20 years over suspicions of her communist sympathies, newly declassified records show.

Lessing's movements were documented during her younger years by MI5 both in her homeland in Africa and in England.

It was her anti-racism stance as well and her Communist Party membership that worried MI5.

Lessing, who died in 2013 aged 94, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.

Her books include The Golden Notebook, The Sweetest Dream and The Grass is Singing, as well a number of short story collections.

She was born in Kermanshah, in western Iran, where her British father was a clerk with the Imperial Bank of Persia.

In 1925 the family moved to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe - where she met and married her second husband German Communist Gottfried Lessing in 1945. They divorced in 1949.

The security services trailed her between 1943 and 1964.

It was during her time in Africa that she roused the attentions of security services, who viewed her membership of several left-leaning groups with suspicion, including the Rhodesian Friends of the Soviet Union.

She also ran the Salisbury Left Club in Southern Rhodesia, a club "patronised by persons with foreign accents", the records show.

It said: "The general tone of this club is reported to be very left, and it is stated that most topics of discussion there usually end up in anti-British, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist vapourings."

Lessing was particularly vocal about the poor treatment of black Africans.

"Her communist sympathies have been fanned almost to the point of fanaticism owing to her upbringing in Rhodesia, which has brought out in her a deep hatred of the colour bar," a note in her MI5 file reveals.

"Colonial exploitation is her pet theme and she has now nearly become... irresponsible in her statements... saying that everything black is wonderful and that all men and all things white are vicious."

Lessing moved to Britain in 1949

Scotland Yard's Special Branch also compiled a file on her in 1950, and authorisation was given to intercept post sent to an address where she was staying in Berlin.

Also in the file was a note compiled by Metropolitan Police's Special Branch in 1965 about her activities in London.

"Her flat is frequently visited by persons of various nationality, including Americans, Indians, Chinese and Negroes," the report said.

"Some of the visitors seem to stay at the flat for days at a time and some of the visits are made by apparently unmarried couples. It is possible that the flat is being used for immoral practices."

The same year, Lessing left the Communist Party over the Soviet Union's involvement in Hungary.

Later, speaking about her Communist Party affiliations, Lessing said: "I can't understand why I was so gullible."