President Obama Claims He Cannot Pardon Snowden; He's Wrong
techdirt.com
techdirt.com
1) Would the intelligence community have policed itself otherwise? Probably not, intel agencies prefer gathering more data over less.
2) Would Congress have changed its oversight posture otherwise? Probably not, as intel agencies do as much as possible to withold info from oversight committees, including lying; and the public would have remained in the dark, so no pressure from that quarter.
But, you know, why should Obama be motivated to tell the truth when the public has elected an egregious liar to replace him?
And anyway, the America that wants Snowden pardoned isn't that one that elected Trump.
Like, accepting the claim "Trump is an egregious liar" I don't see how that follows.
Trump is terrible and apparently unwilling to do the thing that ought to be done (the pardon), and therefore, ???
That seems like a reason to make the pardon when he still can, not like a reason to not do the pardon.
Can you explain your reasoning?
He's going to anyway, why not flex your muscles before Trump undoes essentially Obama's entire "legacy?" To quote Trump, "what does [he] have to lose?"
Anyways, I wonder why he still keeps with the story that Mr. Snowden should have contacted his superiors first before going public. We all know what would have happened in that case (i.e nothing); why does he answer like we are stupid?
Snowden never intended to go to Russia (it's the fault of the US that that happened). And as far as I know there's no proof that he revealed anything to the Russian government. In fact, he claims to no longer have the documents (he deleted them after giving them to journalists).
I hope you can do better than "He is a liar!", because given what he did and why he did it - the benefit of the doubt is deserved.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/world/snowden-says-he-took...
http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/presidential-pardons...
You neglected to mention Marc Rich, poster boy for a "bought and paid for pardon". His crimes:
In 1983 Rich and partner Pincus Green were indicted on 65 criminal counts, including income tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering, and trading with Iran during the oil embargo (at a time when Iranian revolutionaries were still holding American citizens hostage).
Who pardoned him? None other than Democrat Bill Clinton. As Wikipedia summarizes it:
On January 20, 2001, hours before leaving office, U.S. President Bill Clinton granted Rich a highly controversial presidential pardon. Several of Clinton's strongest supporters distanced themselves from the decision. Former President Jimmy Carter, a fellow Democrat, said, "I don't think there is any doubt that some of the factors in his pardon were attributable to his large gifts. In my opinion, that was disgraceful." Clinton himself later expressed regret for issuing the pardon, saying that "it wasn't worth the damage to my reputation."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rich#U.S._indictment_and_...