Snowdon is a dummy

Did Frankie boy say anything worth reading? I think not! LOL

Did he answer my question?

Quote:

That's the perfect description of a tyrannical government. Please prove this wrong!

Capital punishment, and the treatment of prisoners, says a lot about a country. It serves as a benchmark, and should be taken into consideration when talking extradition.

Compare Bradley Manning's treatment with Anna Chapman's.

There are plenty of people on either side of the Atlantic who feel that Snowden did a public service, as much for the American public as the European. Had, in the UK at least, Snowden been working for a private company, a bank, or arms manufacturer say, there is whistleblowing legislation to protect him. How can he have a fair trial when the government, (or judge appointed by the government,) can deem what evidence is admissible? Half his brief will be thrown out before he even arrives in court.

Those people who support Snowden aren't motivated by anti-Americanism, but by a hope that America could actually be better.

The former head of the CIA and the NSA, General Michael Hayden, dampened speculation on Monday that the US might offer a plea bargain to Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower.

Hayden, speaking at an Oxford University lecture, said that while deals had been done with other leakers in the past, he detected little enthusiasm for such a deal for Snowden.
[...]
In a surprise admission, Hayden portrayed the reforms recently announced by Barack Obama in the wake of the controversy as limited, with the president allowing the intelligence community "a pretty big box" in which to continue to operate.
[...]
Hayden accused the Guardian the Washington Post and Der Spiegel of hyping the issues. But he acknowledged they had provided a service too. "I freely admit that what these writers and writers like them have done has accelerated a necessary and frankly inevitable discussion," he said, while adding they had "misshaped the discussion".

The main failing of the media had been its failure to provide context, he said – like arriving towards the end of a film and trying to work out who was the good guy and the bad guy.

That context missed by the media, Hayden said, included the post-cold war change from challenges posed by a state to those posed by stateless terrorists ; the technological revolution that brought about the internet; and cultural differences about privacy in the US and Europe.

Damage had been done to the NSA, with terrorists changing their methods of communications, he claimed.

On the recent announcement by Obama in response to the controversy, he said the president had essentially backed the NSA.

Some of the reforms, Hayden felt, were more than cosmetic and would be burdensome for the NSA, but he said on the whole that the agency still had a lot of room for manoeuvre, and would continue to collect metadata.

Although President Obama had said he would order an end to listening into the calls of friendly leaders, Hayden noted that this would only apply until such time as the US decided there was a good reason to hack the calls.

"I guess what I am saying is this president, who most people view as being quite different than his predecessor, doubled down on a programme being done under his predecessor. He gave the American intelligence community a pretty big box," Hayden said.

"The president is essentially trading some restraint, some oversight, in order to keep on doing fundamentally what he has been doing."

Attorney General Eric Holder says the U.S. “would engage in conversation” about a resolution with Edward Snowden if the former government contractor accepted responsibility for leaking government secrets but said granting clemency "would be going too far."

Holder made his comments in an interview with MSNBC's Ari Melber, scheduled to air later. The attorney general said any idea of amnesty for Snowden, "where we say, no harm, no foul" would be going too far.

Holder mirrored those comments during a public event Thursday at the University of Virginia: “We've always indicated that the notion of clemency isn't something that we were willing to consider. Instead, were he coming back to the U.S. to enter a plea, we would engage with his lawyers. ”

Asked by Melber whether Snowden is a whistleblower, Holder said, "I prefer the term defendant. That's the most apt title."

No, for the umpteenth time, I don't want him granted amnesty. I would like him to have an opportunity for a jury to take his defense into consideration and determine if his actions were justifiable.

Barring that, I would like to see a plea agreement where he pleads guilty in exchange for a clemency agreement such as a short time in prison followed by a long time speaking to school children about their civil liberties.

There's more to that quote, rev. The only plea they'll consider is a guilty plea. This was from three weeks ago and was widely quoted at the time.

We're both advocating a jury trial, Frank (with different desired outcomes). How else do you propose he get a trial?

What is even more interesting is if he had done what he had claimed to had done and handed over the files to the newspapers then he have little he could bargain with.

C'mon, Iz, be real with us.

that would be giving in to extortion.

.

Quote:

that would be giving in to extortion.

LOL and the government would never never do anything like that!!!!!!!!

As in the cases, where the plea bargains depend on turning over money or such to the government.

Am I the only one that keep wondering what fantasy universe Frank happen to be living in?