Do you support Edward Snowden and Julian Assange being pardoned? Why or why not?

[ranzino]

nobody with more brain activity than a dead amoeba would trust USA to perform a fair trial, sorry. that's why Assange is likely off the hook soon; UK wont hand him over. also means no pardon needed.

[Felya]

Comparing what your going through to what he is kinda sounds like when people build TNT houses in minecraft compare themselves to the creator of the atomic bomb.

Kinda cringy bud.

What? Assange had full amenities, just like people on lock down due to covid.

[Doctor Amadeus]

nobody with more brain activity than a dead amoeba would trust USA to perform a fair trial, sorry. that's why Assange is likely off the hook soon; UK wont hand him over. also means no pardon needed.

SO get let me get this straight because you think the U.S can't conduct a fair trial, he shouldn't have to answer for what he did or have any legitimate weighting of the charges against him.

Seriously this kind of fucking position is a joke. So much for truth and transparency and all that bullshit.


Assange made it clear if Obama Pardoned What's her name he would voluntarily surrender and face trial. Guess what Obama Pardoned her, and he didn't Assange is a fucking megalomaniac coward. The dude gets off on pretending he some kind of fucking rebel or journalist, he's not he is a snuff artist.

[ranzino]

SO get let me get this straight because you think the U.S can't conduct a fair trial, he shouldn't have to answer for what he did or have any legitimate weighting of the charges against him.

Seriously this kind of fucking position is a joke. So much for truth and transparency and all that bullshit.


Assange made it clear if Obama Pardoned What's her name he would voluntarily surrender and face trial. Guess what Obama Pardoned her, and he didn't Assange is a fucking megalomaniac coward. The dude gets off on pretending he some kind of fucking rebel or journalist, he's not he is a snuff artist.

look, nobody else wants Assange's hide, so there would be no trial somewhere else. UK already blocked extradiction, so the case is likely out of the window.
answers are still possible, but not as "legitimate weighting" in a US court. question him is australia as much as you want

[Grapemask]

I could probably be convinced to support a pardon for Edward Snowden.

But fuck Julian Assange.

I agree with this.

Snowden is complicated. He had very valid and concerning information: the US was tapping into phone metadata to essentially spy on US citizens or anyone they felt like, and they could basically do it for any reason under the sun. It wasn't just bad to begin with, it showed signs of future escalation. But worse was that they were convincing companies to let them put government backdoors into computer software. That's a no from me, pal.

And he had reason to believe he could not go through valid whistleblower channels with this. Multiple times in US history have whistleblowers followed all of the rules and went through all of the proper channels only to still be charged through the Espionage Act. When he did ultimately release the information, he chose not to do a massive dump ala Wikileaks - he chose respected journalists who would release only the pertinent information, withholding details that may jeopardize folks on the ground.

But at the same time, if you just let Snowden go, who's to say other people in the government won't take it upon themselves to release information that doesn't have ethical justification? What if it just encourages officials to start crapping out national secrets like candy? I can understand why Snowden has to be the guy to fall on the sword for that one.

But fuck Assange. He doesn't want transparency and he doesn't care for ethics. He just wants chaos. He didn't care who got killed and for what so long as his crappy Geocities-themed website had a few more pages of text.

[Theodarzna]

One Hundred percent, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are true heroes. Both should be pardoned and Trumps failure/refusal to do so is a real sincere black mark. That was some sincere good he could have done and didn't.

[Felya]

One Hundred percent, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are true heroes. Both should be pardoned and Trumps failure/refusal to do so is a real sincere black mark. That was some sincere good he could have done and didn't.

But he pardoned Micheal Flynn and several “RussiaGhazie” lobbyist... any word on Reality Winner or is that one an uncomfortable truth?

[Draco-Onis]

But he pardoned Micheal Flynn and several “RussiaGhazie” lobbyist... any word on Reality Winner or is that one an uncomfortable truth?

Or the fact that Trump pardoned mass murdering child killers.

[shimerra]

Or the fact that Trump pardoned mass murdering child killers.

Let's not forget the sheriff who stomped over the rights of citizens and illegal immigrants alike frequently illegally detaining them.

[Felya]

Or the fact that Trump pardoned mass murdering child killers.

I am sticking to the theme of whistleblowers...

But, Reality has it rough... right wing media doesn’t give a shit, because she exposed Trump. While left wing media doesn’t give a shit, because it makes intercept look bad for exposing her... You will get these proponents drumming up about Assange and Snowden, because they are helpful for extremes to virtue signal... but... Reality Winner? Uncomfortable...

[anveena]

Of course I'd pardon them. True heroes helping bring down this corrupt nation.

[Mormolyce]

Snowden deserves a pardon, proper whistleblower protection needs to be set up so this doesn't happen again.

Assange can rot in the pits of hell for all I'm concerned. Kind of looks like he is. In an ideal world, Ecuador would've kicked him out years ago and he would've been extradited to Sweden to face the rape charges he still hasn't answered for. But it seems like that ship has sailed, he successfully thwarted the course of justice by abusing his position as the head of an alleged whistleblower organisation to garner sympathy he didn't deserve. Which, it later transpired, was a Russian patsy anyway. Fuck him.

Trump of course did not pardon either because he only pardons fellow con men like the guy who ripped off his own supporters lol.

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I am sticking to the theme of whistleblowers...

But, Reality has it rough... right wing media doesn’t give a shit, because she exposed Trump. While left wing media doesn’t give a shit, because it makes intercept look bad for exposing her... You will get these proponents drumming up about Assange and Snowden, because they are helpful for extremes to virtue signal... but... Reality Winner? Uncomfortable...

Yep, another whistleblower who should have had a protected path to follow in the first place. The system shouldn't rely on pardons at the whims of Presidents motivated by partisan interests or (in the case of Trump) extreme corruption.

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One Hundred percent, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are true heroes. Both should be pardoned and Trumps failure/refusal to do so is a real sincere black mark.

Isn't it interesting that this is the first thing to pierce the fucking veil lol?

[Mihalik]

Snowden wanted to go live in Russia long before he fled there. The reality of living there has made him want to take it all back. Sorry kiddo.

That's simply not true. The guy ended up in Russia because the State Department hounded him there and canceled his passport making it impossible for him to leave.

Beyond that both the secretary of state and the vice president issued direct threats to any country that's a US ally to prevent them granting Snowden asylum.

On Snowden huge chunks of the public bought hard into the intelligence community narrative.

Fact, the US government never managed to prove that any information released by Snowden to have been tied to the deaths or operational security of any US assets. This according to findings of Congressional committees.

Fact, Snowden's revelations lead to direct reform on domestic surveillance due to massive and stunning overreach and outright ongoing Illegality.

Fact, Snowden EXPLICITLY stated that he is 100% willing to return to the US and face trial under the singular condition to not be tried under the Espionage Act. Being tried under the Espionage Act is tantamount to a kangaroo court. It literally prevents the accused from mounting any form of legal defense.

The simple fact that the Espionage Act exists is shockingly frightening.

All he is asking is to be able to have a public interest trial where he can mount a legal defense before a jury.

The government refuses to grant him that because the government knows they wouldn't be able to make a case that wouldn't either be dismissed, ruled a mistrial, give Snowden grounds to sue them. Nor could they put together a jury in North America that would actually convict in the public interest trial.

So, for them the most convenient thing to do is just to keep him in perpetual exile in Russia and have gullible people blame Snowden for being kept there, discrediting him in the process, because people can't seem to mentally distinguish between our ongoing conflict with Russia and the issues of an American citizen being hounded by the government for disclosing gross illegality.

I actually want Snowden to stand trial in the US, specifically a public interest trial, so we finally might get actual reform in the intelligence community.

[OwenBurton]

One Hundred percent, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are true heroes. Both should be pardoned and Trumps failure/refusal to do so is a real sincere black mark. That was some sincere good he could have done and didn't.

It is unlikely that Joe Biden will pardon either of them, then? Perhaps Bernie might have?

[Theodarzna]

It is unlikely that Joe Biden will pardon either of them, then? Perhaps Bernie might have?

I suspect Biden never would and Sanders might sincerely won't to but will be cowed into not doing so.

[Yadryonych]

nope. all Americans and Australians should be immediately put in jail. im a reasonable man.

But Australia seceded from the Empire peacefully and lawfully, they are not terrorist traitors

[Cts53]

I don't support either being pardoned, and frankly I am glad that neither of them have so far.

[Hellobolis]

honestly even if pardoned, i'm not sure i'd actually come out of hiding if i was them. worst case the CIA ignores it and disappears you anyways. and what's the best case scenario? forever on some watchlist and constantly under extra scrutiny?

[OwenBurton]

honestly even if pardoned, i'm not sure i'd actually come out of hiding if i was them. worst case the CIA ignores it and disappears you anyways. and what's the best case scenario? forever on some watchlist and constantly under extra scrutiny?

This might be unusual. But while almost impossible, perhaps there should be a national referendum on whether they should be pardoned or not, as their revelations supposedly concerned and affected the American people most of all. I'm just curious -- whether most people would side with the government or with these individuals.

[Kotuthan]

A pardon would be a admission of guilt. They did nothing wrong by revealing Warcrimes and Crimes against Humanity.