[url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-charges-snowden-with-espionage/2013/06/21/507497d8-dab1-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html]Linky.[/url]
[quote]Federal prosecutors have filed a sealed criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of documents about top-secret surveillance programs, and the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain him on a provisional arrest warrant, according to U.S. officials.
Snowden was charged with espionage, theft and conversion of government property, the officials said.[/quote][quote]By filing a criminal complaint, prosecutors have a legal basis to make the request of the authorities in Hong Kong. Prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment, probably also under seal, and can then move to have Snowden extradited from Hong Kong for trial in the United States.
Snowden, however, can fight the U.S. effort to have him extradited in the courts in Hong Kong. Any court battle is likely to reach Hong Kong’s highest court and could last many months, lawyers in the United States and Hong Kong said.[/quote]
Thoughts? Is the country better off because of his actions? Worse off?
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He was a cool dude until he started talking to the chinese. Now I say lynch the jerkface.
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Doesn't the government say that if you aren't doing anything wrong, you should have nothing to hide? Why is this man getting in trouble for releasing government information?
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Obama 2008: "No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime!" Obama 2013: You can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and inconvenience."
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Was anyone surprised that we were being spied on anyway?
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So, to make this discussion get a bit more round, what about the Syrian revels we're arming? That's presidential treason. So, if Mr. Snowden is a [i]'criminal'[/i], why isn't the president for arming rebels when he [b]clearly[/b] doesn't think that his own American public should be armed? Mr. Snowden is a clinical genius, and he should do what the ninja in this thread suggested. Come back, make it public, and give the government a run for their damn money.
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He's a good guy in my eyes.
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There is both of good and bad here. But in the end, I suppose he is a good guy.
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Good.
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What's funny is they want him held accountable for his "crimes" but want none for their own.
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There's no 'public interest' defense for this, is there? More on topic, did the enemies of the US really gain anything by learning of the existence of PRISM? I thought any enemy with an IQ above room temperature would assume the US has a massive spy agency who can monitor communications anyway.
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I think we have a right to know we were being spied on.
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Edited by FoMan123: 6/21/2013 11:51:13 PMIf I were him, I'd negotiate a 3-5 prison sentence with U.S. prosecutors in exchange for them not having to waste taxpayer money on a highly unpopular and expensive trial against the best criminal defense lawyers in the country (who will be CLAMORING for this case pro bono in order to promote their own names) that might result in a highly embarrassing and job-threatening loss for the government lawyers and my complete and utter freedom anyway. Threaten the U.S. prosecutors with full defection to China, Cuba, or North Korea if they refuse my terms -- which they won't. Use the time in jail (considering the non-violent nature of the crime, most likely in a medium-security federal prison with plenty of outdoor and recreation time) to get a book-and-movie deal and write the book and the screenplay, and then spend the rest of my life hanging out with celebrities and taking the U.S. speech-and-lecture circuit at $50,000 a pop. That's how a smart man turns lemons into lemonade with style.
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Hope he doesn't get caught, I support what he did.
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Edited by Gruntzilla24: 6/21/2013 11:44:00 PMIf what Snowden did was illegal, charge him with his crime. Thats how you ensure the legal system is sound. He knew what he was getting himself into, and we're all grateful for it.
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I think the 300 million American citizens should charge the government with espionage.
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Legal or not he's a good man. He did what he did knowing the consequences.
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The truth may hurt, it maybe painful.. but it must be TOLD! He is innocent in my book. The American people desewrve to know just about everything the government does
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Espionage? Never thought I'd heard that word outside of a Tom Clancy novel
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he violated several contracts, lost hist top secret clearance, and basically exposed what we already knew,except they no longer need permission and can just hack into the companies and then ran off to give china the secrets. basically, he was useless.
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Of course they did, because he exposed what they were doing. They're not going to say "y'know what, you're right. Come on back and we'll stop this nonsense"