Former GOP congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has started a petition drive to pressure the Obama administration to grant clemency to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who is charged with espionage over leaks about the government’s surveillance programs.
Paul’s push for clemency would have to be granted by President Barack Obama. Earlier this week, Paul’s son, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, filed a lawsuit against Obama and other top administration officials to stop the surveillance programs, which Sen. Paul contends are violations of 4th amendment constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.
Ron Paul said in a video post that he wants Snowden to return to the U.S. without facing prosecution before the accused leaker’s amnesty in Russia is due to expire at the end of July.
(AP)
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4 Responses
Retired politicians have too much time on their hands.
We’ve known for decades that Ron Paul hates Israel. We now know for certain that he hates America, too.
Charlie hall if ots not the pot calling the kettle black all liberals hate america if not they would not constantly support their immoral destructive agendas
The issue of clemency for Mr. Snowden is far too complicated to settle by simple sloganeering. Mr. Snowden broke the law, but he has revealed government misconduct on a spectacular, previously unimagined scale. He may have jeopardized some US intelligence personnel, though the government, possibly for good reasons, has not identified any specific people who have been directly affected by the disclosures.
But he has also done a service to the American people, and there is real difficulty in knowing how he should be treated. My reaction when the story first broke was that we need to wait and see how this plays out, before we can decide whether Mr. Snowden has been heroic or traitorous. I still think we need more time to see the all effects of his law-breaking behavior. But whether he loves or hates America (or borscht) will not give us any help in understanding what he has done, and whether his law-breaking should be forgiven.