Members of Congress are shocked, shocked this week. No this Claude Rains moment was not over the hundreds of billions spent on unpopular wars or the creeping economy or the evisceration of civil liberties in America. No, that stuff is just fine. What had members struggling in front of reporters to avoid being sick in the halls of Congress was Edward Snowden. Yes, it is the latest classified hearing and the latest unclassified outrage to convince Americans that it is Snowden that they must fear despite polls saying that Americans fear their own government as much or more than terrorism. Thus, House Armed Services Committee members left the meeting and called again for Snowden to be captured and thrown in prison for life, if not executed. I previously wrote a column that a strong argument could be made for a presidential pardon, but the renewed effort to turn public opinion likely reflects a growing international view of Snowden as a whistleblower.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the Armed Service panel’s Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee and also a member of the House Intelligence Committee said that he and his colleagues “left the briefing disturbed and angered” over the scope of damage done by Snowden (which went beyond the NSA program). That may indeed be true and the damage is a legitimate concern. However, the members have shown little concern over those NSA programs and continue to advance “reforms” that do little to address the attack on privacy and civil liberties. They also have done little to address the lack of any real avenue for whistleblowers like Snowden. The congressional oversight committees have long been viewed as little more than rubber stamps for the intelligence committee and no sane whistleblower would put his case and future in the hands of these committees.
Thornberry declared that Snowden is a spy since his “actions were espionage, plain and simple.” While the Obama Administration and congressional allies tried to paint Snowden as a spy earlier on, no one has bought that allegation. There is currently no evidence that he acted to assist, or acted at the behest of, a foreign government.
Nevertheless, Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) read a statement that “Ed Snowden isn’t a whistleblower; he’s a traitor.” McKeon demanded that Snowden be “brought to justice.” Of course, the ultimate punishment for the crimes described by Thornberry and McKeon would be death.
There is a clear effort to ride out the concerns over civil liberties, preserve the NSA programs, and change the public persona of Snowden. Part of that effort is to redirect attention away from the unpopular NSA programs and focus on other security losses. I happen to agree with the concerns over the damage but I also cannot ignore the abuse that Snowden brought to light. It would be more convincing is these members showed the same disgust and voices the same demands for action over the loss of civil liberties as they do over the loss of intelligence.
AP, Go to Wikipedia and look up ideologue.
Despite all the official gnashing of teeth, I keep waiting for someone in the U.S. government to provide public proof, in the form of documentary evidence, that Edward Snowden has damaged anything other than the government’s own reputation — not much to begin with — for competence and truthfulness. Edward Snowden has backed up his assertions with documentary evidence. Until the U.S. government can do the same, it has no claim whatsoever on a public credulity that it has long since exhausted.
“Faulty generalization”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faulty_generalization
There are leaks to all reporters. The message from Commandant Eric Holder is DON’T LEAK TO A FOX REPORTER. Even more chilling when you think about it.
“Guilty Plea In Fox News Leak Case Shows Why Espionage Act Prosecutions Are Inherently Unfair to Sources”
February 7, 2014Follow @TrevorTimm
https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2014/02/guilty-plea-fox-news-leak-case-shows-why-espionage-act-prosecutions-are-inherently
Excerpt:
Former State Department official Stephen Kim announced today he will plead guilty to leaking classified information to Fox News journalist James Rosen and will serve 13 months in jail.
The case sparked controversy last year when it was revealed the Justice Department named Rosen a “co-conspirator” in court documents for essentially doing his job as a journalist. But a largely ignored ruling in Kim’s case may have far broader impact on how sources interact with journalists in the future.
In Espionage Act cases involving sources or whistleblowers, the defendants naturally want to explain to a judge or jury that the information they may have given to journalists (and the American public) didn’t harm US national security. The bar for this was already too low; the government didn’t have to show actual harm, but at least they had to show the information could potentially harm national security.But the judge in Kim’s case ruled the government didn’t even need to that.
As secrecy expert Steven Aftergood reported at the time:
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that the prosecution in the pending case of former State Department contractor Stephen Kim need not show that the information he allegedly leaked could damage U.S. national security or benefit a foreign power, even potentially. Her opinion was a departure from a 30-year-old ruling in the case of U.S. v. Morison, which held that the government must show that the leak was potentially damaging to the U.S. or beneficial to an adversary. (emphasis ours)
This means that it doesn’t matter if the information leaked by Kim was properly classified, or if it should have been classified at all. Kim could not use the fact that the information he gave to Rosen may have been innocuous. It also gives the government carte blanche power to classify whatever it wants—including waste, abuse, and crimes—and keep it secret under the threat of prosecution of anyone who could potentially reveal it. As the defense argued at the time, this ruling turns the Espionage Act into an Official Secrets Act, which Congress has continually refused to enact over the last century.
Because of this ruling, and other rulings in Espionage Act cases that bar defendants from explaining their intent to inform the American public to a jury, Kim likely had no choice to plead guilty. This is also why if Edward Snowden came back to the US he quite literally cannot receive a fair trial: he would be legally barred from making his case in court.
The Kim case yet another example of the broken nature of leak cases, in which the government has complete discretion to ignore the leaks they like, and prosecute the leaks they don’t like. Kim’s lawyer Abbe Lowell made this point eloquently in his statement today:
Stephen’s case demonstrates that our system for prosecuting leaks in this country is broken and terribly unfair. Lower-level employees like Mr. Kim are prosecuted because they are easier targets or often lack the resources or political connections to fight back. High-level employees leak classified information to forward their agenda or to make an administration look good with impunity. In fact, in this case, news reports from the same day demonstrate that Stephen was not the only government employee discussing the topic at issue. Stephen may have told the reporter what the reporter already knew from others, but Stephen was the only one charged.
“Leak” cases are prosecuted under the Espionage Act, a 100-year-old law with crushing penalties that was never intended to apply to conversations between a government employee and a news reporter. The Act and its penalties are designed to punish traitors and spies – not State Department analysts answering questions from the media about their area of expertise. Stephen faced more than a decade in jail for the type of public discussion of foreign policy issues that ought to be encouraged. This Administration and Congress should address these problems, as they undermine the basic fairness of our criminal justice system.
It’s clear the Espionage Act is inherently unfair to sources and whistleblowers. As Congress debates NSA reform, they should also be considering repealing the Espionage Act once and for all.
Bron
Did Snowden sell what he has to a foreign government or make it available to them? If he did, that isnt good.
If he is sitting on it for a future negotiation with the government, better but still criminal.
How do we know this isnt some sort of elaborate intelligence scam to sneak a backdoor into Russian and Chinese defense networks.
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The military NSA has no statutory right under FISA to ask the FISC for the phone records in the first place. Their name is not mentioned in FISA. They are military not civilian.
https://twitter.com/charlie_savage/status/431859353339961344
Thanks, Sling. You beat me to it.
“he and his colleagues “left the briefing disturbed and angered” over the scope of damage done by Snowden (which went beyond the NSA program).”
Presumably the briefing involved telling them that “the damage” was what the DIA are guessing is the worst possible case.
The problem is that they don’t know how much exactly he took and they don’t know how much of that he passed to journalists. They probably claim that he took all of whatever he had access to.
This article outlines the issues
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/06/snowden-still-outwitting-u-s-spies.html
All they know for sure is that Snowden is BAAAAAAAAAD!
Did Snowden sell what he has to a foreign government or make it available to them? If he did, that isnt good.
If he is sitting on it for a future negotiation with the government, better but still criminal.
How do we know this isnt some sort of elaborate intelligence scam to sneak a backdoor into Russian and Chinese defense networks.
Twitter Breaks Rank, Threatens to Fight NSA Gag OrdersThe Justice Department’s deal with tech companies didn’t go far enough for Twitter.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/technology/twitter-breaks-rank-threatens-to-fight-nsa-gag-orders-20140206
QUESTION:
Are texts and tweets content… or not?
The 2014 GAP Privacy Statement reads as follows:
http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/48-2014/3165-gap-promotes-privacy-statement-for-all-emails-to-protest-mass-surveillance-revealed-by-whistleblower-edward-snowden
Not a surprise, but:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/02/07/the-lapses-in-dragnet-notice-to-congress/
The Lapses in Dragnet Notice to Congress
Posted on February 7, 2014 by emptywheel
“I’m at a great conference on national security and civil liberties. Unfortunately, speakers have repeatedly claimed that NSA fully informs Congress on its programs.
Even setting aside Dianne Feinstein’s admission that the intelligence committees exercise less oversight over programs conducted under EO 12333, there are a number of public documents that show the Executive failing to fully inform Congress:” continues
WikiLeaks: US trying to ‘criminalize journalism’ over Snowden leaks
Potential criminal charges in handling of leaked NSA docs?
Everything We Know About NSA Spying: “Through a PRISM, Darkly”
– Kurt Opsahl at CCC
Randyjet,
“I agree that he deserves a pardon either by Obama or by Congress.”
LOL
You think the man who, as Senator, voted to immunize the Telecoms that violated your Right to your 1st and 4th Amendment will pardon Snowden for revealing the house of cards?
LOL
You think a Congress that has colluded to ignore their oversight responsibilities and shirked legal accountability for their inept indifference toward the People that elected them will pardon Snowden for revealing their house of cards?
LOL
I guess the Wizard of Oz did change his tune once he saw it was Toto that pulled back that curtain… But darling, that was make believe.
Personanongrata
…
You mean a traitor like the ignorant moral busybodies that call themselves our representatives in congress who can never be bothered with authoring nor reading the bills put forth for their collective rubber-stamps?
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If they read the law bantered about concerning the authority allegedly given to the military NSA, they would see in black and white ink that no such authority exists in FISA:
(A Tale of Coup Cities – 8, formatting removed). What this means is that the military has utterly ignored the law, and so has FISC.
The military NSA is a rogue outfit which has elevated itself over the FBI, over congress, over the people, and over the Constitution.
The military is supposed to be subject to civilian authority, not visa versa.
Nevertheless, Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) read a statement that “Ed Snowden isn’t a whistleblower; he’s a traitor.” McKeon demanded that Snowden be “brought to justice.” Of course, the ultimate punishment for the crimes described by Thornberry and McKeon would be death.
You mean a traitor like the ignorant moral busybodies that call themselves our representatives in congress who can never be bothered with authoring nor reading the bills put forth for their collective rubber-stamps?
Such true patriots our congress folk are selling out their constituents to the highest bidding lobbyist at the earliest opportunity.
Note to the ding-dongs in congress without Snowden’s revelations the NSA domestic dragnet of illegal surveillance would still be relegated to tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists rather than an actual criminal conspiracy to circumvent the constitution by traitors within the government in order to keep us “safe” from the “terrorists” the US government has created/supported since the Truman’s signing of the National Security Act of 1947.