A White House petition asking US president Barack Obama to pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has passed the 100,000-signature mark, theoretically compelling a response from the Obama administration (I say “theoretically” because the finish line on these petitions has been moved before).
My own sympathies naturally lie with Snowden, and the petitioners’ hearts are presumably in the right place, but I can’t help thinking that the petitioners have things backward.
Edward Snowden committed no crime. Rather, he exposed the crimes of the very administration being petitioned (and “classification” of information for the purpose of concealing criminal activity is itself illegal). To presume, as this petition does, an entitlement on the part of an acknowledged criminal to pardon — or to persecute — the hero who brings that criminal’s actions to light is, in a word, perverse.
Obama and his associates haven’t just violated “their” own codified laws. They have, by their own admissions, declared and prosecuted war on the very people in whose names they claim their power, wandering well beyond the pale of authoritarianism and raising the totalitarian flag over their battlements.
It isn’t Snowden who needs clemency. It’s Barack Obama, his co-conspirators and his accessories before and after the fact. Nor is it Snowden alone before whom the crooks should be made to grovel for mercy. The fate of the Obama Spy Ring rightfully belongs in the hands of ALL its victims.
Will these telecom voyeurs, these data burglars — and their bosses — be made to truly pay for their crimes? It seems unlikely, as they are made members of the world’s most powerful organized crime syndicate, the government of the United States.
While the gang occasionally finds itself compelled to throw a bit player or two under the bus to simmer things down a bit, the kingpins, ringleaders and shot-callers usually walk without consequence. Which explains why US Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and US Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI) are at present freely vocalizing their “fury” at Snowden instead of modeling orange coveralls while making big rocks into small rocks on the grounds of some penal institution.
This isn’t just some random racket ginned up by a few assorted thugs. It’s far bigger than that. If we want to get clear of these schemers and their schemes, we’re going to have to suppress the larger racketeer-influenced corrupt organization. That is, we must abolish the US government — preferably sowing salt in the earth of, and leaving not one stone standing atop another in, Washington, DC.
Otherwise, we’ll just have to be satisfied with absurd and hopeless gestures, like asking Barack Obama to forgive Edward Snowden for revealing, and us for noticing, his crimes.
Citations to this article:
- Thomas L. Knapp, It Isn’t Snowden Who Needs Clemency, Counterpunch, 06/26/13
Well said … .
I am tempted to say more … but to what affect?
It took the efforts of many to bring down a man, who like Obama, was too big for his britches … Adolf Hitler. It will probably take an equal amount of effort from around the world to bring the American Empire down. Alas, the effort will not come from within the United States … we are too busy being complicit by allowing our alleged leaders to behave the way they do.
It is US officials who should need pardoning, but the petition you mentioned is addressing what is probably the only scenario that could ever happen. We can probably guess that no US official will ever be charged or face trial over PRISM. Meanwhile Snowden has already been charged. So, the petition in question is fulfilling a much more important role than any petition to charge or pardon US officials could. While it is almost as likely to be ignored as any petition to charge a US official, while it goes ignored, it will accomplish everything a petition to charge or pardon a US official could ever hope to: It will sizable convey public outrage.
I am a person on the outside looking in. It is sad to see a southern neighbor fall into tyranny and am afraid that it is to late to reverse it. Even if every American citizen that is not employed by the government and got there heads out of the sand it is to late. 911 brought automatic weapons in plain view and militarized police forces. The occupy movement showed what happens to demonstrators. The Boston Marathon gave us a glimpse of what marshal law looks like. Snowden is one of very few real American men.
From my perspective, the attacks on Mr. Snowden have been a very good thing. The fake- partisan illusion has been breached, and all can clearly see who the enemies of freedom are. Even independents like Trump have now 'outed' themselves as lovers of Tyranny. I say "Hooray."
Let us hope these blatant betrayers of the Bill of Rights become even louder in their denunciations of Mr. Snowden – in the hopes their incessant bleating can pierce below the surface of even the most wedge-issue distracted Transnational-Corporate-Tee-Vee-Sheepwashed minds.
As an aside, Ecuador has just announced they are unilaterally renouncing the 'trade benefits' which were being threatened by "our" (sic) Congress if they "dared" to help Mr. Snowden. Is the capital-strike and currency-attack on those "insolents" intensifying as we speak? Stay tuned.