Should Snowden And Assange Pardon The US Government?
Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation
https://www.fff.org/2020/08/19/should-snowden-and-assange-pardon-the-u-s-government/
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/should-snowden-and-assange-pardon-us-government
President Trump is saying that he might issue a pardon to Edward Snowden.
For some reason, he hasn’t said the same thing about Julian Assange.
But a pardon suggests that the person being pardoned has done something
wrong.
Neither Snowden and Assange has done anything wrong - at least not in a
moral sense. It is the U.S. government - and specifically the national-security
state branch of the federal government - that has engaged in terrible
wrongdoing - wrongdoing that Snowden and Assange revealed to the American
people and the people of the world.
Therefore, the real question is: Should Snowden and Assange pardon the
U.S. for having destroyed a large part of their lives and liberty?
Oh, sure, the two of them technically violated the federal government’s
national-security laws, rules, and regulations against revealing the dark-side,
sordid policies and practices of the national-security establishment. Big deal.
Those laws, rules, and regulations are illegitimate, at least in a moral sense.
Why should the dark-side, sordid policies and practices of a government be
immune from disclosure?
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