Hacker News Reader

Comment by maceo | Hacker News Reader

I doubt this has anything to do with his condition in Russia. I think its timed very nicely to coincide public sentiment in the US. A movie about his courageous acts just won an Oscar. Hundreds of news stories brought to light by his efforts have outraged the US public over the last couple years. Him and his team might be running low on hard-hitting stories and would rather deal with an Obama DOJ than whatever comes next. If he wishes to turn himself in, the time to act is in the next 3-6 months before the 2016 primaries heat up.

If he returns to the US soon, we will see massive demonstrations in the street demanding his release. I doubt he'd end up serving more than a couple years in prison. Even then, life abroad is no doubt preferable to life in the federal pen. It's smart for him to be putting feelers out right now, but its still far from certain that he's coming stateside anytime soon.

View on HN

I agree with everything you said except I think it is a little naive to believe he'll only get "more than a couple years in prison."

Here's the thing: Snowden, regardless of morals, upset a lot very powerful and influential people. These people might have calmed down a little since they were calling for him to get the death sentence, but these aren't the kind of people who won't try to get revenge if given half an opportunity.

Just look at what they did to Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), he got 35 years(!) for leaking a bunch of embarrassing diplomatic cables where key US politicians wrote what they really thought about foreign leaders and diplomats.

Snowden upset people in the US government just as much. He essentially took a bunch of power away from them, and people in those positions shrive on power. Do you really think they won't get every pound of fat out of Snowden that they can? Because I do. 35 years if he's lucky.

Chelsea Manning's case was complicated by the fact that he was enlisted when he got caught. Daniel Ellsberg only ended up serving 2 years because his case was dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct. Something of this nature is unlikely to happen in Snowden's case, but mounting public pressure could force some sympathy. To clarify, I think they'll try to give him 200 years in prison but I don't think it'll stick.

> Just look at what they did to Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning), he got 35 years(!) for leaking a bunch of embarrassing diplomatic cables where key US politicians wrote what they really thought about foreign leaders and diplomats.

Chelsea Manning is a woman. Most women go by she. I'm sure this was just a typo, but intentional (and malicious) misgendering of transgender people is common enough to where you probably want to avoid doing it accidentally. People might get the wrong idea about you.

Snowden gave countless interviews where he admitted to a litany of crimes like running a bot on a classified network. They don't even have to try him for leaking intel because he admitted to so many other things, on camera no less.

They will give him diesel therapy the moment he enters BOP to prevent any media getting at him and after a few months of that stash him in a CSHU where even guards won't be permitted to talk to him. He's not going to get magically pardoned and appear on Ellen to show off his medal of freedom.

Any specific reason why he should be spend some years in prison and not given a medal and a nobel prize for peace?

Well, he did steal and leak state secrets, which is illegal. Absent a pardon by Obama, the government can't just pretend that didn't happen.

He stole and leaked evidence of state's illegal activities. If anything he deserves a medal. And state should go to jail. Oh, wait... State is running the jails. We may have problem here...

Killing someone is still a crime if it's in self defense - that's why we have trials, to weigh intent and consequence and such.

What Snowden did can be justifiable, and still be a crime. Although I suppose it's a moot argument to make if one assumes no such thing as a fair trial can exist.

Is it? I don't know about the construction of crime in America, but it surprises me.

In Germany there are three prongs to a crime, all of which must be fulfilled: elements of the crime, lawlessness and guilt.

Self-defense voids the lawlessness, thus the property of being a crime.

If you do it differently, how do you handle ancillary legal question, like civil compensations and damages? Are there special rules for that?

I'm not a lawyer. You may be right and I may be completely wrong.

But, at the very least, it takes a trial to be found not guilty, so it seems there is a crime to be found not guilty of.

I don't know what his vows were but, in my view, he did defend the constitution against domestic enemies.

If Snowden comes back to the US and is imprisoned for a few years it will be on his own terms.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com