Snowden joins long list of American traitors like Sam Adams, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc.
Surveillance: Snowden Doesn’t Rise to Traitor
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD, NYT
For several top lawmakers in Washington, Edward Snowden committed the ultimate political crime when he revealed to the world just how broadly and easily the government is collecting phone and Internet records. “He’s a traitor,” said John Boehner, the House speaker. “It’s an act of treason,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee.
Among prosecutors and defense lawyers, there’s a name for that kind of hyperbole: overcharging. Whatever his crimes — and he clearly committed some — Mr. Snowden did not commit treason, though the people who have long kept the secrets he revealed are now fulminating with rage.
If Mr. Snowden had really wanted to harm his country, he could have sold the classified documents he stole to a foreign power, say Russia or China or Iran or North Korea. But even that would not constitute treason, which only applies in cases of aiding an enemy with whom the United States is at war.
His harshest critics might argue that by exposing American intelligence practices, he gave aid and comfort to Al Qaeda and its allies, with whom the country remains in a military conflict, thanks to the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which Congress passed after Sept. 11, 2001, and is in force now. It’s unlikely that Qaeda leaders did not already know or suspect surveillance before Mr. Snowden’s disclosures. But treason means more than that, too. In the landmark 1945 case Cramer v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that one had to provide aid and comfort and also “adhere” to an enemy to be guilty of treason.
(More here.)
For several top lawmakers in Washington, Edward Snowden committed the ultimate political crime when he revealed to the world just how broadly and easily the government is collecting phone and Internet records. “He’s a traitor,” said John Boehner, the House speaker. “It’s an act of treason,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee.
Among prosecutors and defense lawyers, there’s a name for that kind of hyperbole: overcharging. Whatever his crimes — and he clearly committed some — Mr. Snowden did not commit treason, though the people who have long kept the secrets he revealed are now fulminating with rage.
If Mr. Snowden had really wanted to harm his country, he could have sold the classified documents he stole to a foreign power, say Russia or China or Iran or North Korea. But even that would not constitute treason, which only applies in cases of aiding an enemy with whom the United States is at war.
His harshest critics might argue that by exposing American intelligence practices, he gave aid and comfort to Al Qaeda and its allies, with whom the country remains in a military conflict, thanks to the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which Congress passed after Sept. 11, 2001, and is in force now. It’s unlikely that Qaeda leaders did not already know or suspect surveillance before Mr. Snowden’s disclosures. But treason means more than that, too. In the landmark 1945 case Cramer v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that one had to provide aid and comfort and also “adhere” to an enemy to be guilty of treason.
(More here.)
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We need to confront China's role in 9/11:
Senior Chinese diplomat visits Taliban chief in Afghanistan December 13, 2000 Islamabad Deutsche Presse-Agentur The Chinese ambassador in Pakistan, Lu
Shulin, held talks with the Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar in Kandahar on Tuesday, raising the contacts between the two sides to a new high, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency reported Wednesday... AIP said
China acquired U.S. cruise missile technology from the Taliban, which passed on the unexploded missiles from the U.S. attack in 1998 on suspected bin Laden camps in Afghanistan. The news agency said the Afghan people expect China to veto the U.S.-Russian resolution in the Security Council because it
also seeks an arms embargo exclusively against the Taliban, assuring continued supplies to its opponents who are supported by the anti-Taliban nations.
The First World Hacker War By CRAIG S. SMITH NY Times May 13, 2001 After last month's collision of an American spy plane and a Chinese jet, hackers in
the United States and China began defacing Web sites on both sides of the Pacific. Then Chinese hackers, led by a group called the Honkers Union, declared war.
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