EXCLUSIVE: Edward Snowden Tells Brian Williams: 'I'd Like to Go Home'

[ProSense]

EXCLUSIVE: Edward Snowden Tells Brian Williams: 'I'd Like to Go Home'

By Erin McClam

Edward Snowden, who became the most wanted fugitive in the world after he leaked government secrets and fled the country, tells “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams: “If I could go anywhere in the world, that place would be home.”

In the exclusive interview, Snowden said amnesty or clemency would be for the public and the government to decide. He said that he sees himself as a patriot, while also revealing that he plans to ask Russia to extend his asylum.

“I’ve from Day One said that I’m doing this to serve my country,” Snowden said...his desire to return to his homeland is foremost in his mind. “I don’t think there’s ever been any question that I’d like to go home,” he said.

But asked whether he would make a deal to return, Snowden said: “My priority is not about myself. It’s about making sure that these programs are reformed — and that the family that I left behind, the country that I left behind — can be helped by my actions.”

- more -

http://www.nbcnews.com/#/feature/edward-snowden-interview/exclusive-edward-snowden-tells-brian-williams-id-go-home-n116756

Kerry: If Snowden Is A Patriot, He Should Stay In The US And Make His Case
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025011852

[SidDithers]

1. You are home, Comrade Eddie...nt

Sid

[davidpdx]

13. +1

[enough]

2. Worth remembering Ellsberg's statement about why Snowden made his choice

in a completely different world from when Ellsberg did it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/daniel-ellsberg-nsa-leaker-snowden-made-the-right-call/2013/07/07/0b46d96c-e5b7-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_story.html

Short quotes from the article by Ellsberg>

I hope Snowden’s revelations will spark a movement to rescue our democracy, but he could not be part of that movement had he stayed here. There is zero chance that he would be allowed out on bail if he returned now and close to no chance that, had he not left the country, he would have been granted bail. Instead, he would be in a prison cell like Bradley Manning, incommunicado.

He would almost certainly be confined in total isolation, even longer than the more than eight months Manning suffered during his three years of imprisonment before his trial began recently. The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Torture described Manning’s conditions as “cruel, inhuman and degrading.” (That realistic prospect, by itself, is grounds for most countries granting Snowden asylum, if they could withstand bullying and bribery from the United States.)

snip>

But Snowden’s contribution to the noble cause of restoring the First, Fourth and Fifth amendments to the Constitution is in his documents. It depends in no way on his reputation or estimates of his character or motives — still less, on his presence in a courtroom arguing the current charges, or his living the rest of his life in prison. Nothing worthwhile would be served, in my opinion, by Snowden voluntarily surrendering to U.S. authorities given the current state of the law.

snip>

MORE AT LINK

[Purveyor]

3. ^^^this^^^ eom

[ProSense]

4. This is

I hope Snowden’s revelations will spark a movement to rescue our democracy, but he could not be part of that movement had he stayed here. There is zero chance that he would be allowed out on bail if he returned now and close to no chance that, had he not left the country, he would have been granted bail. Instead, he would be in a prison cell like Bradley Manning, incommunicado.

He would almost certainly be confined in total isolation, even longer than the more than eight months Manning suffered during his three years of imprisonment before his trial began recently. The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Torture described Manning’s conditions as “cruel, inhuman and degrading.” (That realistic prospect, by itself, is grounds for most countries granting Snowden asylum, if they could withstand bullying and bribery from the United States.)

...a nonsensical comparison. Manning was in the military.

If Snowden was a "spy," as he claimed, and didn't know the consequences of his actions, then he's in lala land. Thomas Tamm:

“He’s in for a pretty overwhelming investigation,” Tamm, now a criminal defense attorney in Rockville, Md., told POLITICO in an interview. “I think the government will use a lot of their resources to try to find him.”

But if Snowden is returned to the United States, Tamm said, “I think with the right representation, and with the right way of presenting what he did, I think he’ll be able to put his life back together.” Tamm says he’d even be willing to be part of the defense team.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=A9C45FF7-E7EB-44AD-9C5A-D2C7F0B7F276

There have been several prominent whistleblowers over the last several years who did not flee the country.

William Binney, Thomas Drake, and Tamm are whistleblowers who stayed and faced the consequences of their actions. They were not persecuted, they faced prosecution. They are not in jail. In fact, Tamm was the one who exposed Bush's illegal eavesdropping on Americans.

Snowden created a bigger problem for himself with the information he stole and revealed that was unrelated to NSA domestic activities. Fleeing to Russia did not help his cause. Apparently, Assange is trying to make it worse.

N.S.A. whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who handed over his trove of documents to Greenwald, has said he also doesn’t believe in Assange’s particularly uniform view on secrecy, having entrusted the cache of N.S.A. documents he lifted to journalists he trusts will evaluate the risks inherent in publishing from them.

“We don’t share identical politics,” Snowden told Vanity Fair earlier this year. “I am not anti-secrecy. I’m pro-accountability. I’ve made many statements indicating both the importance of secrecy and spying, and my support for the working-level people at the N.S.A. and other agencies. It’s the senior officials you have to watch out for.”

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/05/julian-assange-glenn-greenwald-nsa-afghanistan

...by revealing information that Greenwald is saying will cause people harm. The decision to release information unrelated to the domestic surveillance issues has been coming back to bite him in the ass.

“If I have time to go through this information, I would like to make it available to journalists in each country to make their own assessment, independent of my bias, as to whether or not the knowledge of US network operations against their people should be published.”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023084875

Greenwald said that some journalists’ accounts of the Snowden leaks scandal, the impression many get is that America would turn to extraordinary methods to eliminate the threat posed by Snowden if he decided to turn over to a foreign government the information at his disposal.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023035095

"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion.

"The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023242606

[ucrdem]

5. Welcome home, Eddie.

We'll send someone to meet you.

[msanthrope]

6. Walk to the American Embassy dumbass. They'll put you on a plane, special for you. nt

[davidpdx]

12. +1

[Cha]

7. He should have gone the Whistle Blower way then.. instead of

Jeff Gauvin @JeffersonObama
Follow
Team Greenwald/Snowden are traitors. How does selling American intelligence to the Russian intelligence agencies constitute WHISTLE BLOWING?
6:16 PM - 28 May 2014
12 Retweets 5 favorites


Jeff Gauvin @JeffersonObama
Follow
Whistle Blowers go to the FBI to report kickbacks or fake management quotas...etc....they don't go to China & Russia with US intelligence
6:21 PM - 28 May 2014
11 Retweets 6 favorites

[betsuni]

8. But he has always had the power to go home

All he must do is close his eyes and tap his heels together three times while repeating "There's no place like home, there's no place like home..." Is John Kerry a good witch or a bad witch?

[Electric Monk]

9. ROFLMAO, Welcome to DU :)

[betsuni]

10. Thanks!

[Luminous Animal]

11. Gasp!

[B Calm]

14. Probably wants to be on a tea baggers reelection campaign.

[SidDithers]

15. Paul / Snowden 2016!!...

Sid