Bush: ‘No leniency' for Snowden

GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush said former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden should receive “no leniency” for his leak of government surveillance programs.

Snowden broke the law, recklessly endangered nat'l security, & fled to China/Russia. He should be given no leniency https://t.co/9RHNGsHZnx

The former Florida governor has been a strong defender of the NSA surveillance programs, the details of which Snowden leaked to journalists in 2013. Bush has also been highly critical of Snowden.

Bush on Monday night was reacting to an interview in which former Attorney General Eric Holder suggested the possibility exists for the government and Snowden to reach some kind of resolution.

“I certainly think there could be a basis for a resolution that everybody could ultimately be satisfied with. I think the possibility exists,” Holder told Yahoo News.

Holder said Snowden’s disclosures “spurred a necessary debate” and that the country is “in a different place” because of them.

A spokesman for the Justice Department said, however, that its position had not changed. The government has charged Snowden with multiple crimes under the Espionage Act.

Following his leaks, Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he has received temporary asylum. He has expressed the desire to return to the United States. But he has refrained because he doesn't think he would receive a fair trial.

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who received the leaked documents, shot back at Bush’s comments.

Read more @ http://thehill.com/policy/technology/247023-bush-no-leniency-for-snowden

 

Nope, this is a ploy…..  I hope Edward sees that….

 

Eric Holder: The 'Possibility Exists' That Edward Snowden Could Come Home

In a subtle yet remarkable shift in tone, former Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that the "possibility exists" that the Justice Department could forge a deal with fugitive leaker Edward Snowden that could bring him home.

Speaking to Yahoo News, Holder said "we are in a different place as a result of the Snowden disclosures," adding that Snowden's revelations about the size and scope of the National Security Agency's sweeping surveillance programs "spurred a necessary debate.

"I certainly think there could be a basis for a resolution that everybody could ultimately be satisfied with. I think the possibility exists," Holder said.

Holder, who just returned to the private sector as a lawyer for the firm Covington & Burling after spending six years at the helm of President Obama's Justice Department, has suggested before that a deal could take place that would allow Snowden to return to the U.S. from Moscow, where he is living under asylum. But Holder's previous comments, in January 2014, made clear that "the notion of clemency was not something we were willing to consider."

Read more @ http://www.govexec.com/defense/2015/07/eric-holder-possibility-exists-edward-snowden-could-come-home/117073/

 

Jeb Bush: Snowden Should be Given No Leniency

Jeb Bush said Tuesday that he was infuriated by the possibility of a plea bargain for Edward Snowden that would allow the former government contractor to return to the United States from Moscow.

The 2016 Republican presidential candidate tweeted that Snowden, “should be given no leniency” for his actions.

Snowden broke the law, recklessly endangered nat’l security, & fled to China/Russia. He should be given no leniency https://t.co/9RHNGsHZnx

— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) July 7, 2015

On Monday, former Attorney General Eric Holder told Yahoo that the United States benefited from Snowden’s leak of classified documents, and that a consensus could be reached on a plea deal.

“We are in a different place as a result of the Snowden disclosures,” Holder said. “His actions spurred a necessary debate. I certainly think there could be a basis for a resolution that everybody could ultimately be satisfied with—I think the possibility exists.”

Several others have spoken out about the potential plea deal. Michael Hayden, former NSA and CIA director during the George W. Bush administration, told Yahoo he was appalled by the idea and believes Snowden should return to criminal charges.

Read more @ http://freebeacon.com/national-security/jeb-bush-snowden-should-be-given-no-leniency/

 

I think they are using tricks to get him to come home… goodness knows they have tried everything else, including begging….. so trickery is the next option…..

 

Is the Obama administration softening on Edward Snowden?

US Justice Department may agree to a plea bargain for fugitive ex-government contractor, former attorney-general Eric Holder says.

Washington: It's no secret Edward Snowden would like to come home to the United States. But the former government contractor who helped disclose details about government surveillance programs is facing three criminal charges that could mean decades in prison.

Yet now there are rumblings that the Obama administration could soften its stance. Former attorney-general Eric Holder hinted as much during an interview with Yahoo News – saying the "possibility exists" that the Justice Department would agree to a plea bargain. "I certainly think there could be a basis for a resolution that everybody could ultimately be satisfied with."

The Yahoo story, written by investigative journalist Michael Isikoff, also cited three unnamed sources familiar with the Snowden case to report that Robert Litt, the chief counsel to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, "recently privately floated the idea that the government might be open to a plea bargain in which Snowden returns to the United States, pleads guilty to one felony count and receives a prison sentence of three to five years in exchange for full co-operation with the government."

But the Justice Department, which Mr Holder recently left to return to the private sector, says it is still pressing forward. "This is an ongoing case so I am not going to get into specific details but I can say our position regarding bringing Edward Snowden back to the United States to face charges has not changed," agency spokeswoman Melanie Newman said in a statement.

Read more @ http://www.smh.com.au/world/is-the-obama-administration-softening-on-edward-snowden-20150707-gi7bgh.html

 

Well we already know that isn’t true and from the look of it many in congress are making money off it….   There is a Salon article naming the different people in congress…..  These are the people that wanted Snowden dead for springing them….. I cannot see that will change….

 

Eric Holder: Edward Snowden Could Have Sparked 'Useful' Debate By Taking NSA Concerns To Congress

 WASHINGTON -- Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden could have spurred a "useful" and necessary debate about government data collection if he had taken his concerns to members of Congress instead of giving documents to journalists, former Attorney General Eric Holder told The Huffington Post on Tuesday.

Holder said in an interview with Yahoo's Michael Isikoff earlier this week that Snowden's disclosures had resulted in a "necessary debate” about the government's bulk data collection. On Tuesday, Holder told The Huffington Post that he believes the same discussion could have taken place if Snowden had taken his concerns to lawmakers.

"Yeah, I do," Holder said when asked whether this debate could have occurred without Snowden's public disclosures. "If Snowden, for instance, had gone to certain members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and made disclosure to them, that debate could have occurred in a way that was less harmful to the interests of the United States."

Read more @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/07/eric-holder-snowden_n_7745004.html

 

A top US intelligence official 'privately floated' a potential deal to bring Snowden home

An intelligence official informally floated the idea of potentially offering Edward Snowden a specific plea bargain to return home, Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News reports.

Isikoff, citing three "sources familiar with informal discussions of Snowden’s case," writes that the chief counsel to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Robert Litt, "recently privately floated the idea that the government might be open to" the former NSA contractor returning to the US, pleading guilty to one felony count, and receiving a prison sentence of three to five years "in exchange for full cooperation with the government."

Snowden, who has lived in Russia since June 23, 2013, is charged with three felonies: Theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.

ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner, one of Snowden's legal advisers, told Yahoo that any deal involving a felony sentence and prison time would be rejected.

“Our position is he should not be reporting to prison as a felon and losing his civil rights as a result of his act of conscience,” Wizner said.

Read more @ http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/article/20150706/BUSINESS/307069980/-1/News

Could Edward Snowden Go Home a Hero?

Glenn Greenwald, Call Your Office (And Bring Smelling Salts): In an interview with Yahoo News, former Attorney General Eric Holder says that Edward Snowden, the exiled National Security Agency leaker who dished the dirt on U.S. spying on its own citizens, could get a Justice Department deal that might allow him to return to the U.S. -- and not via the Guantanamo Bay detention center. In fact, Holder seemed to imply that Snowden deserved a hearty round of applause rather than a decade behind bars. The nation, he said, is “in a different place as a result of the Snowden disclosures” and that “his actions spurred a necessary debate.” A spokeswoman for Attorney General Loretta Lynch threw a big bucket of ice water on any talk of a deal, pointing out that Snowden is still under indictment. Still, clemency doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Consider: Holder, President Barack Obama’s self-described “wingman,” has only been out of office for two months and change, and probably still has back-channel access to his old boss and longtime friend; at the same time, after slamming him for doing “unnecessary damage” to the national security apparatus Obama grudgingly acknowledged Snowden probably did the nation a solid by prompting “a conversation we needed to have” as one nation under surveillance. Not to mention the White House probably considers two winters spent in Russia, not exactly a bastion of freedom and democracy, is probably punishment enough.

Read more @ http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2015/07/07/could-edward-snowden-go-home-a-hero

Greenlighting more NSA snooping, surveillance court judge gets…snippy

In the words of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge Michael Mosman: “Plus ya change, plus c’est la meme chose” –  for, as he cheerfully points out,  the next 180 days.

NSA’s very big ears are up and at it again, courtesy of Judge Mosman. Mosman has granted permission for the spy agency to collect phone call records of pretty much everyone, everywhere in the U.S. for the next six months.

This comes only weeks after Congress killed off this key part of the phone spying program and a federal appeals court ruled it unlawful.

Mosman concluded the 180-day grace period Congress gave NSA to wind things down specifically allows for continued phone spying.

That may or may not have been unexpected. (And what the NSA is apparently allowed to keep and use is much broader and more personal than even the billions of phone calls it has collected to date.)

But what was a surprise – certainly to the federal appeals court which last month took exception to the program’s legality- was Mosman’s emphasis on how his fellow jurists were dead wrong, just plain wrong, utterly wrong  and really, very totally wrong.

Of course, he didn’t put it quite that way.

“This Court respectfully disagrees with that Court’s analysis,” Mosman wrote.

In fact, Mosman’s respectful disagreement goes on for quite a few paragraphs, though was perhaps best summed up in a single sentence: “To a considerable extent, the Second Circuit’s analysis rests on mischaracterizations of how this program works.”

Read more @ http://theinsider.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2015/07/01/spy-agency-to-hoover-up-phone-call-info-again-despite-congress-court-ruling/

 

Shadowy federal agency snooping in your wallet accused of discrimination

The shadowy federal agency that wants to know what you’re buying with your credit card finds itself the subject of wide-ranging discrimination allegations.

Employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau charge that a culture of sexism, ageism and racism permeates the quasi-governmental agency.

Two CFPB whistleblowers recently testified before the House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Democratic members of the committee attempted to turn the tables on the whistleblowers, charging that anyone complaining of discrimination in an agency created by the Obama White House is quite clearly racist.

“The opposite side of the aisle hates the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the committee’s ranking member. “They would like to destroy it. We have to take pause when it appears that (Republicans) would simply like to use discrimination as a way by which they continue to attack the bureau.”

Read more @ http://watchdog.org/227457/federal-discrimination-cfpb/


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us."  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~