White House Rejects Petition to Pardon Snowden
Nearly 168,000 people seeking freedom for whistle-blower Edward Snowden were likely disappointed on Tuesday when the White House issued a long-awaited formal response to a popular petition they signed. The petition heralded the former National Security Administration contractor as a national hero and called for a “full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed”—namely, releasing classified information about highly controversial NSA surveillance programs to journalists in 2013.
In the response, Lisa Monaco, the president’s adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism, denied the petitioners’ request and encouraged the former NSA contractor to return to the U.S. from his exile in Russia to face trial.
“If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: Challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and—importantly— accept the consequences of his actions,” Monaco wrote. “He should come home to the United States and be judged by a jury of his peers—not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime.”
Snowden’s disclosures fueled a heated national debate about the NSA’s previously mysterious surveillance program, incited a lawsuit that determined a domestic call-tracking program was unlawful, and spurred a directive from President Obama to Congress to shut down the program.
Monaco’s language is a marked departure from that of some of Snowden’s high-profile political critics, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, who called Snowden a traitor, and others who have accused him of treason.
The call for Snowden to come home to the U.S. to be prosecuted and face prison time has become a common refrain among his critics. But those who support a pardon say Snowden won’t face a fair trial if he returns to his homeland, thanks to the judicial system’s strict treatment of national security violations post-9/11. Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists who first published Snowden’s surveillance revelations in The Guardian, has repeatedly noted that because Snowden would be tried under the Espionage Act, any arguments he might make about why his leaks were in the public interest would be inadmissible in court.
Related stories on TakePart:
• Edward Snowden Says Your Online Passwords Are a Joke
• 'CITIZENFOUR' Recasts Pariah Edward Snowden as American Hero
Original article from TakePart
