Snowden and Manning ask Obama for clemency

[portlander23]

Snowden and Manning ask Obama for clemency
Josh Gerstein
Politico

Lawyers who track Obama’s approach to clemency applications say all four — which also include retired Marine Corps Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright and former CIA officer John Kiriakou — face long odds in part because of intense attention to the dangers of hacking and the national security leaks that follow.

Outside legal experts say the best-positioned of the leakers may be Manning, who received a 35-year prison sentence from a military judge after being convicted at a court martial of disclosing hundreds of thousands of classified and unclassified diplomatic cables and military reports to WikiLeaks.

The 35-year term stunned many observers because it was by far the longest sentence ever imposed in a leak case. There was also testimony that Manning, a transgender woman who was once deployed to Iraq, was experiencing a mental breakdown around the time of the leaks, sometimes collapsing in a fetal position on the floor of a military command center in Iraq. Her doctors say she has continued to suffer from gender dysphoria, which has proven difficult to treat in military prison. In September, facing a lawsuit, the Army agreed to provide surgery to allow Manning to complete the transition from male to female.

As Obama’s presidency has drawn to a close, human rights and privacy activists have also stepped up calls for Obama to pardon Snowden, the computer specialist who triggered an intense global debate on surveillance practices after disclosing the NSA’s program collecting details on billions of phone calls made and received by Americans.

The disclosure led to legislation Congress passed and Obama signed last year ending so-called bulk collection of the phone data by the government, but providing a streamlined process to collect portions of it from phone companies on a case-by-case basis.

Obama does have some more exotic options open to him to try to encourage Snowden to come back, including the possibility of an advance commutation that would effectively cap the punishment the former NSA contractor could receive for allegedly stealing and disclosing national security secrets.

[HoneyBadger]

1. Pardon Snowden now

Everything he did was to help Americans

[Renew Deal]

3. Snowden is a traitor and subject to the death penalty

[KittyWampus]

5. LOL! How anyone could still be suckered in by a Russian asset is beyond me.

In the same vein as your comment, we should just THANK Russia for hacking the DNC and Podesta and then slowly leaking out emails, some of which were doctored.

Which is exactly what some Trump stooge did last night on Chris Hayes.

[randome]

7. Isn't that what James O'Keefe says?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[doc03]

9. Oh really? Helping Russia turn our country over to a mad man will help Americans? nt

[HoneyBadger]

13. Snowden exposed Americans spying on Americans

Not Republicans spying on Democrats or whatever you think happened

[Renew Deal]

2. Snowden should pay for his crimes

[SidDithers]

4. Hard no...nt

Sid

[randome]

6. Manning, I can see. Snowden? No.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[still_one]

8. It isn't going to happen in either case.

[dumbcat]

10. This is a new one on me

Obama does have some more exotic options open to him to try to encourage Snowden to come back, including the possibility of an advance commutation that would effectively cap the punishment the former NSA contractor could receive for allegedly stealing and disclosing national security secrets.

Advance commutation? Limiting the punishment one could receive if convicted? I never heard that one before. Ever been done? Anyone have a link to a precedent?

[radical noodle]

11. I find I have little sympathy for them n/t

[think]

12. Daniel Ellsburg, the ACLU, and Amnesty International all support Snowden being pardoned.

The irony....

[jmowreader]

14. No. Regardless of their motivations, their crimes are substantial

Today's exercise:

Step 1: Go to Staples and buy two flash drives.
Step 2: Put a bunch of files on one of them.
Step 3: Copy all the files to the other one.
Step 4: Put the first one on the dining room table. Put the other one in your pocket.
Step 5: Go to the airport and buy a round-trip ticket on the next plane leaving the airport.

I keep seeing that Snowden couldn't possibly have taken the files he stole from the Agency with him because he left the flash drive he stole them with in the US. Uhh...guys...Snowden supposedly knows more about computers than any of the Ph.D.-level computer scientists at Fort Meade; I think he can manage "copy d .* e:" just fine.

My preference: pardon Don Siegelman and deschedule cannabis.