SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Obama Should Pardon Edward Snowden. Today We're Launching a Campaign to Make It Happen.
Thanks to Edward Snowden's act of conscience, we've made historic strides in our fight for surveillance reform and improved cybersecurity. That's why today, ahead of this week's release of the Oliver Stone movie "Snowden," we're unveiling a major effort calling on President Obama to pardon the NSA whistleblower.
Sep 14, 2016
Thanks to Edward Snowden's act of conscience, we've made historic strides in our fight for surveillance reform and improved cybersecurity. That's why today, ahead of this week's release of the Oliver Stone movie "Snowden," we're unveiling a major effort calling on President Obama to pardon the NSA whistleblower.
The ACLU is being joined in this campaign by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and we already have an impressive list of over 100 former national security officials, legal scholars, technology and business leaders, human rights activists, and artists on board.You can see the full list and add your own voice at pardonsnowden.org.
"It's indisputable that our democracy is better off thanks to Snowden, and it's precisely for cases like his that the pardon power exists. President Obama should use this power for good instead of leaving an American whistleblower stranded in exile."
The government has charged Snowden under the Espionage Act, a World War One-era law that doesn't distinguish between selling secrets to foreign governments and giving them to journalists working in the public interest. If Snowden were to be tried under the charges he faces, any argument that his actions benefited the public would be inadmissible in court.
The Pardon Snowden campaign will work through the end of Obama's administration to make the case that Snowden's act of whistleblowing benefited the United States and enriched democratic debate worldwide, and we're asking citizens to write to the president via our website.
Snowden has already been vindicated in multiple ways: A panel appointed by the president to review the NSA's surveillance program recommended dozens of reforms. Last year, a federal appeals court found the NSA's call-tracking program revealed by Snowden was illegal. The following month, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which ended bulk collection of call data by the US government. That bill marked the first time Congress has acted to rein in government surveillance since the 1970s. Journalists at The Guardian and Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Snowden's disclosures.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder said, "We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made." And Obama himself commented that the debate sparked by the whistleblower "will make us stronger."
It's indisputable that our democracy is better off thanks to Snowden, and it's precisely for cases like his that the pardon power exists. President Obama should use this power for good instead of leaving an American whistleblower stranded in exile.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Anthony D. Romero
Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He assumed the position in 2001 as the first Latino and openly gay man to do so.
Thanks to Edward Snowden's act of conscience, we've made historic strides in our fight for surveillance reform and improved cybersecurity. That's why today, ahead of this week's release of the Oliver Stone movie "Snowden," we're unveiling a major effort calling on President Obama to pardon the NSA whistleblower.
The ACLU is being joined in this campaign by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and we already have an impressive list of over 100 former national security officials, legal scholars, technology and business leaders, human rights activists, and artists on board.You can see the full list and add your own voice at pardonsnowden.org.
"It's indisputable that our democracy is better off thanks to Snowden, and it's precisely for cases like his that the pardon power exists. President Obama should use this power for good instead of leaving an American whistleblower stranded in exile."
The government has charged Snowden under the Espionage Act, a World War One-era law that doesn't distinguish between selling secrets to foreign governments and giving them to journalists working in the public interest. If Snowden were to be tried under the charges he faces, any argument that his actions benefited the public would be inadmissible in court.
The Pardon Snowden campaign will work through the end of Obama's administration to make the case that Snowden's act of whistleblowing benefited the United States and enriched democratic debate worldwide, and we're asking citizens to write to the president via our website.
Snowden has already been vindicated in multiple ways: A panel appointed by the president to review the NSA's surveillance program recommended dozens of reforms. Last year, a federal appeals court found the NSA's call-tracking program revealed by Snowden was illegal. The following month, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which ended bulk collection of call data by the US government. That bill marked the first time Congress has acted to rein in government surveillance since the 1970s. Journalists at The Guardian and Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Snowden's disclosures.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder said, "We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made." And Obama himself commented that the debate sparked by the whistleblower "will make us stronger."
It's indisputable that our democracy is better off thanks to Snowden, and it's precisely for cases like his that the pardon power exists. President Obama should use this power for good instead of leaving an American whistleblower stranded in exile.
Anthony D. Romero
Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He assumed the position in 2001 as the first Latino and openly gay man to do so.
Thanks to Edward Snowden's act of conscience, we've made historic strides in our fight for surveillance reform and improved cybersecurity. That's why today, ahead of this week's release of the Oliver Stone movie "Snowden," we're unveiling a major effort calling on President Obama to pardon the NSA whistleblower.
The ACLU is being joined in this campaign by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and we already have an impressive list of over 100 former national security officials, legal scholars, technology and business leaders, human rights activists, and artists on board.You can see the full list and add your own voice at pardonsnowden.org.
"It's indisputable that our democracy is better off thanks to Snowden, and it's precisely for cases like his that the pardon power exists. President Obama should use this power for good instead of leaving an American whistleblower stranded in exile."
The government has charged Snowden under the Espionage Act, a World War One-era law that doesn't distinguish between selling secrets to foreign governments and giving them to journalists working in the public interest. If Snowden were to be tried under the charges he faces, any argument that his actions benefited the public would be inadmissible in court.
The Pardon Snowden campaign will work through the end of Obama's administration to make the case that Snowden's act of whistleblowing benefited the United States and enriched democratic debate worldwide, and we're asking citizens to write to the president via our website.
Snowden has already been vindicated in multiple ways: A panel appointed by the president to review the NSA's surveillance program recommended dozens of reforms. Last year, a federal appeals court found the NSA's call-tracking program revealed by Snowden was illegal. The following month, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which ended bulk collection of call data by the US government. That bill marked the first time Congress has acted to rein in government surveillance since the 1970s. Journalists at The Guardian and Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Snowden's disclosures.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder said, "We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made." And Obama himself commented that the debate sparked by the whistleblower "will make us stronger."
It's indisputable that our democracy is better off thanks to Snowden, and it's precisely for cases like his that the pardon power exists. President Obama should use this power for good instead of leaving an American whistleblower stranded in exile.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.