Snowden's (im)possible pardon

This article (and many others on the topic) are pissing me off.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/09/op-ed-why-president-obama-wont-and-shouldnt-pardon-snowden/

Every time I see people discussing whether Edward Snowden is a legitimate whistle-blower or a traitor to the cause, the reason mentioned for his guilt is often that he not only published about US government spying on its own citizens (which is supposed to be bad thing to do), but that he also told everyone that its spying on every other person on Earth (which is according to them perfectly okay).

And that is the part that irritates me. From my point of view, Snowden shouldn't be hiding all the way over in Russia. He should be able to live here, in the EU, where his actions have mattered the most. I acknowledge that armies like to keep an eye on each other (to see which one has the biggest rockets, etc.), but the NSA abused the weird protection it has under the US law and started collecting data about the regular citizens of its NATO allies (that is, for example, me).

And that is definitely not okay. And the EU has the same opinion, because the exception in law that allowed transfer of personal data from the EU to the US was struck by the European Court of Justice.

What the lawyers and other people in the US regularly skirt over is that the popularity of the USA and its foreign policies is steadily on its way down. At least one major military project here in CZ has fallen through because of it in the recent years and every time there is a suspicion that US military personnel is driving through, the local populace has mixed feelings about it.

blog/snowden_s_im_possible_pardon.txt · Last modified: 18.09.2016 10:00 (external edit)
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