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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nat ... print.html
U.S. charges Snowden with espionage
By Peter Finn and Sari Horwitz, Published: June 21

Federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of documents about top-secret surveillance programs, and the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain him on a provisional arrest warrant, according to U.S. officials.

Snowden was charged with theft, “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person,” according to the complaint. The last two charges were brought under the 1917 Espionage Act.

The complaint, which initially was sealed, was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, a jurisdiction where Snowden’s former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered and a district with a long track record of prosecuting cases with national security implications. After The Washington Post reported the charges, senior administration officials said late Friday that the Justice Department was barraged with calls from lawmakers and reporters and decided to unseal the criminal complaint.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

I've been wondering if this was going to happen or not.

You knew it was only a matter of time. The Obama administration was not going to let this pass.

If what he said is true then the govt is the one who is breaking the law big time and they should be the ones charged with high crimes against the people. If what he said is not true....why are they charging him? He would just be a clanging cymbal saying nonsense.

mamabearCali wrote:If what he said is true then the govt is the one who is breaking the law big time and they should be the ones charged with high crimes against the people. If what he said is not true....why are they charging him? He would just be a clanging cymbal saying nonsense.

Exactly.

The odd thing about the story surrounding Snowden is that there are significant number of conservatives, including some whom I admire and respect such as Mark Alexander of the the Patriot Post, who call Snowden a traitor who materially damaged an important part of the nation's intelligence capabilities. I have no doubt that this is true on some level, but the problem is that I categorically and absolutely no longer believe that our government is either benevolent, nor can it be trusted; and on some level, what Snowden did was to force citizens to confront the fact that their current government, as it currently stands, is in a shambles of corruption, inefficiency (except when it comes to spying on those same citizens), a degree of opacity never before seen.

This administration in particular, although others have also been guilty, has shown itself all too willing to use the full weight and power of government against private citizens. When the NYT first blew the whistle on the FISA court during Bush's administration, nobody got charged with anything at all, let alone named as a co-conspirator. But when Obama's attack mutt Holder named Fox's James Rosen as an un-indicted co-conspirator in an intelligence leak case, Holder broke with generations of tradition—and now a reputable reporter has the potential of being charged with espionage hanging over his head in a naked power play to silence him. And this is after they tried wholesale to suppress the AP....not exactly a hotbed of conservative reporting.

They have proven that they cannot be trusted with administering the IRS, and they have obfuscated and misdirected at every turn to try and deflect all the evidence....which leads inexorably to the oval office. They have proven that they cannot be trusted with administering the BATF, and they hid behind "executive privilege" when the investigation got too close to the truth. They have proven that they cannot be trusted with the Constitution when, in just ONE of many many abuses, when the FISA court ruled that something NSA wanted to do was unconstitutional, they require that you have to appeal to the FISA court to know why, and they are not talking......and let's not even get into the 4th Amendment abuses of NSA's spying on innocent American citizens within our borders, and without any warrant whatsoever naming any specific American citizen. They have proven that they cannot be trusted to ensure the safety of our foreign diplomats, and that they will lie and coverup and deny when their utter fecklessness and inexperience leads to the death of Americans at the hands of terrorists.......trying instead to blame it all on an obscure and crazy YouTube video that nobody ever heard of until the administration made it famous. And then there's Obama's executive orders, more than twice as many in his first 4 years than Bush issued in his entire 8 years......and the appointments of unelected "tsars" and "tsarinas" over large sectors of public policy and enforcement of policy in greater numbers than any previous administration.........

.......I could go on, but what's the point? Obooby and his crew of criminal fruit and nut cakes have completed the process of illegitimizing the government. Obama likes to quote and compare himself to Lincoln, but ignores the probability that Lincoln would have had him shot as a traitor.

I have been my whole life a responsible, law abiding citizen. I have never had anything more than a lapsed inspection sticker ticket. I vote in every election, I try to keep myself abreast of what is going on. Five years ago I gave the benefit of the doubt to govt agencies, that when they made mistakes or did stupid stuff they were not doing so willingly or with malice. I trusted when they investigated stuff they were actually trying to get at the truth.

Today, when the FBI comes out protesting that they did look into the missle theory for the TWA disaster my thoughts are much different.

My gov't lies to me, spies on me, cheats me at every turn, tries to steal my children's future. Why should I believe that suddenly have a love of the truth. That they suddenly want to protect my family from espionage......nope.....they have lost my trust, they have lost the benefit of the doubt from me. Every time they speak now from whatever mouthpiece they have out there I will view it with extreme skepticism. This is not republican or democrat, this is all of them. I mistrust McCain as bad as Reid....

I am just a simple common american housewife raising her children in a middle class home. Nothing special, an ordinary American. If I say that, how bad things must be indeed.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

mamabearCali wrote:If what he said is true then the govt is the one who is breaking the law big time and they should be the ones charged with high crimes against the people. If what he said is not true....why are they charging him? He would just be a clanging cymbal saying nonsense.

Exactly.

The odd thing about the story surrounding Snowden is that there are significant number of conservatives, including some whom I admire and respect such as Mark Alexander of the the Patriot Post, who call Snowden a traitor who materially damaged an important part of the nation's intelligence capabilities. I have no doubt that this is true on some level, but the problem is that I categorically and absolutely no longer believe that our government is either benevolent, nor can it be trusted; and on some level, what Snowden did was to force citizens to confront the fact that their current government, as it currently stands, is in a shambles of corruption, inefficiency (except when it comes to spying on those same citizens), a degree of opacity never before seen.

This administration in particular, although others have also been guilty, has shown itself all too willing to use the full weight and power of government against private citizens. When the NYT first blew the whistle on the FISA court during Bush's administration, nobody got charged with anything at all, let alone named as a co-conspirator. But when Obama's attack mutt Holder named Fox's James Rosen as an un-indicted co-conspirator in an intelligence leak case, Holder broke with generations of tradition—and now a reputable reporter has the potential of being charged with espionage hanging over his head in a naked power play to silence him. And this is after they tried wholesale to suppress the AP....not exactly a hotbed of conservative reporting.

They have proven that they cannot be trusted with administering the IRS, and they have obfuscated and misdirected at every turn to try and deflect all the evidence....which leads inexorably to the oval office. They have proven that they cannot be trusted with administering the BATF, and they hid behind "executive privilege" when the investigation got too close to the truth. They have proven that they cannot be trusted with the Constitution when, in just ONE of many many abuses, when the FISA court ruled that something NSA wanted to do was unconstitutional, they require that you have to appeal to the FISA court to know why, and they are not talking......and let's not even get into the 4th Amendment abuses of NSA's spying on innocent American citizens within our borders, and without any warrant whatsoever naming any specific American citizen. They have proven that they cannot be trusted to ensure the safety of our foreign diplomats, and that they will lie and coverup and deny when their utter fecklessness and inexperience leads to the death of Americans at the hands of terrorists.......trying instead to blame it all on an obscure and crazy YouTube video that nobody ever heard of until the administration made it famous. And then there's Obama's executive orders, more than twice as many in his first 4 years than Bush issued in his entire 8 years......and the appointments of unelected "tsars" and "tsarinas" over large sectors of public policy and enforcement of policy in greater numbers than any previous administration.........

.......I could go on, but what's the point? Obooby and his crew of criminal fruit and nut cakes have completed the process of illegitimizing the government. Obama likes to quote and compare himself to Lincoln, but ignores the probability that Lincoln would have had him shot as a traitor.

Clinton was stupid. Obummer and his un-indicted co-conspirators are dangerous.

Remember The X-Files? Trust no one.

Obama is just following his hero Communist/Marxist Saul Alinsky's guidelines that essentially state the ends justify the means.

Lie, cheat, employ whatever corruption you think will get the job done, i.e., - do evil to win, while those who play by the rules get rolled over...

Oh, btw, Alinsky was a community organizer too.

mamabearCali wrote:I have been my whole life a responsible, law abiding citizen. I have never had anything more than a lapsed inspection sticker ticket. I vote in every election, I try to keep myself abreast of what is going on. Five years ago I gave the benefit of the doubt to govt agencies, that when they made mistakes or did stupid stuff they were not doing so willingly or with malice. I trusted when they investigated stuff they were actually trying to get at the truth.

Today, when the FBI comes out protesting that they did look into the missle theory for the TWA disaster my thoughts are much different.

My gov't lies to me, spies on me, cheats me at every turn, tries to steal my children's future. Why should I believe that suddenly have a love of the truth. That they suddenly want to protect my family from espionage......nope.....they have lost my trust, they have lost the benefit of the doubt from me. Every time they speak now from whatever mouthpiece they have out there I will view it with extreme skepticism. This is not republican or democrat, this is all of them. I mistrust McCain as bad as Reid.....

Very well and plainly said.

He exposed spying and he's the one being charged with espionage? Stalin would be proud of his American proteges.

If they are spying on all of us, then they think WE are the enemy. It's pretty clear.

android wrote:If they are spying on all of us, then they think WE are the enemy. It's pretty clear.

Maybe they're worried a bunch of military veterans might start taking their oath deadly serious,.

The more I learn about the Snowden Affair, the more I think it was a Chinese operation to discredit the Obana Administration and the current US Gov't......


Either way.....Thanks, China!

One more step closer.

And...

Nothing this administration does surprises me.

Anygunanywhere

I don't believe Snowden is the terrorist, rest is left unsaid. I see how even those who proclaim they are conservative constitutionalists call out someone who called them out. Saved lives? Perhaps, but at what cost? Freedom isn't free. I am not exactly the constitutional scholar, but the Patriot Act is somewhat like the 1918 sedition act. Always the Government puts these acts into place, obstinately to protect us, but usually winds up taking away our freedoms, which are also usually never given back to us, the people. I for one call Snowden an American Patriot. I currently don't have anything to hide, but that depends on that political line determining who or what is currently called seditious.