The US National Security Agency is considering offering an amnesty to fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden if he agrees to stop leaking secret documents, an NSA official says.
That means as bad for the NSA as giving amnesty would be, they consider remaining documents worse.
That means however bad you've found the revelations so far, expect worse to come.
As for Snowden, I presume he's smart enough to realize amnesty from the NSA leaves dozens of other government entities or just angry people to get him, whether legally or illegally, who already flout the Constitution, lie, illegally detain and send people to countries that torture, etc.
That means as bad for the NSA as giving amnesty would be, they consider remaining documents worse.
Well, it would mean that, if it were serious. Snowden has already said that he has transferred control of all the documents to journalists and no longer has any control of them, and the whole amnesty spiel was predicated on him having control of the documents and being able to demonstrate that it was impossible for any more of them to escape.
It's not really a statement of intent to provide amnesty, its an attempt to:
1. Reiterate the claim that Snowden has compromised the "keys to the kingdom" when it comes to US national security,
2. Provide a justification for the continued hard line against Snowden based around the need to protect those supposed vital-to-national-security secrets that have not been revealed, rather than retribution for the clear abuses that have been revealed.
I was thinking the same thing. He has to really have something awful on them - something so bad that they'd eat a ton of crow over it, and possibly lose their jobs over it. But it's still worth keeping under wraps.
The conspiracy theorist in me wishes that the X-files would do a movie on it, as we'd solve JFK and the aliens all in one wrap.
How does the NSA offer amnesty anyway? Is it not the Justice Department that would bring charges in this situation? It's like the family of a murder victim offering amnesty to the murderer... it's not really up to them.
The NSA isn't offering amnesty. An NSA official is saying that he would recommend offering amnesty if doing so would assure no further leaks of the information Snowden has revealed. Presumably, the Justice Department would be the recipient (or among the recipients) of that recommendation.
I believe it was mentioned that the NSA still doesn't quite know how much Edward Snowden made off with. (Who knows if that statement is truthful or not). So it doesn't necessarily mean that the remaining documents he has are worse. But it would definitely imply they are in possession of secrets worse than the ones already revealed!
Or, alternatively, it means that the offer of amnesty is a lie, and just being posed as an attempt to capture Snowden and the documents.
That's not even untenable at this point either -- he's just enough outside of the public eye that it would be easy to manufacture another crime that he's also guilty of for which he could be separately arrested. Capture him during the exchange, wait a couple of weeks, then announce that he was arrested on some completely unrelated matter for which he will be tried and sentenced, secretly, in a tribunal, behind closed doors.
It's not like we haven't established clear precedent.
This isn't even the most pessimistic of equally plausible scenarios -- we could just opt to kill him.
The cynic in me likes this interpretation, but "the documents" aren't capture-able any longer because they're not all in one place. Several people have access to them, some of whom are not stupid (Bruce Schneier, etc.) and can operate redundant distributed cryptosystems. The cat is out of the bag on this one and it's never going back in. This doesn't stop them from wanting to arrest/torture/kill/* Snowden, but the government isn't dumb enough to imagine they'll ever get their papers back.
Agreed. USAgov doesn't negotiate with terrorists and in their mind that's what E.Snowden is. There's no turning back for him; he better just keep on leaking and keep on running forever. He can't return to the life he once had. If USAgov gets their hands on him... checkmate.
Comments
That means as bad for the NSA as giving amnesty would be, they consider remaining documents worse.
That means however bad you've found the revelations so far, expect worse to come.
As for Snowden, I presume he's smart enough to realize amnesty from the NSA leaves dozens of other government entities or just angry people to get him, whether legally or illegally, who already flout the Constitution, lie, illegally detain and send people to countries that torture, etc.
Well, it would mean that, if it were serious. Snowden has already said that he has transferred control of all the documents to journalists and no longer has any control of them, and the whole amnesty spiel was predicated on him having control of the documents and being able to demonstrate that it was impossible for any more of them to escape.
It's not really a statement of intent to provide amnesty, its an attempt to:
1. Reiterate the claim that Snowden has compromised the "keys to the kingdom" when it comes to US national security,
2. Provide a justification for the continued hard line against Snowden based around the need to protect those supposed vital-to-national-security secrets that have not been revealed, rather than retribution for the clear abuses that have been revealed.
I was thinking the same thing. He has to really have something awful on them - something so bad that they'd eat a ton of crow over it, and possibly lose their jobs over it. But it's still worth keeping under wraps.
The conspiracy theorist in me wishes that the X-files would do a movie on it, as we'd solve JFK and the aliens all in one wrap.
How does the NSA offer amnesty anyway? Is it not the Justice Department that would bring charges in this situation? It's like the family of a murder victim offering amnesty to the murderer... it's not really up to them.
The NSA isn't offering amnesty. An NSA official is saying that he would recommend offering amnesty if doing so would assure no further leaks of the information Snowden has revealed. Presumably, the Justice Department would be the recipient (or among the recipients) of that recommendation.
By that logic, James Clapper would be charged for lying to congress by now.
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
What makes you think the Justice Department wants to go after Clapper?
I believe it was mentioned that the NSA still doesn't quite know how much Edward Snowden made off with. (Who knows if that statement is truthful or not). So it doesn't necessarily mean that the remaining documents he has are worse. But it would definitely imply they are in possession of secrets worse than the ones already revealed!
Or, alternatively, it means that the offer of amnesty is a lie, and just being posed as an attempt to capture Snowden and the documents.
That's not even untenable at this point either -- he's just enough outside of the public eye that it would be easy to manufacture another crime that he's also guilty of for which he could be separately arrested. Capture him during the exchange, wait a couple of weeks, then announce that he was arrested on some completely unrelated matter for which he will be tried and sentenced, secretly, in a tribunal, behind closed doors.
It's not like we haven't established clear precedent.
This isn't even the most pessimistic of equally plausible scenarios -- we could just opt to kill him.
The cynic in me likes this interpretation, but "the documents" aren't capture-able any longer because they're not all in one place. Several people have access to them, some of whom are not stupid (Bruce Schneier, etc.) and can operate redundant distributed cryptosystems. The cat is out of the bag on this one and it's never going back in. This doesn't stop them from wanting to arrest/torture/kill/* Snowden, but the government isn't dumb enough to imagine they'll ever get their papers back.
Well, apparently the amnesty wasn't approved by the White House, who says that it's not under consideration either way.
http://reason.com/blog/2013/12/16/white-house-says-there-wil...
It could also mean that the NSA wants you to think that there is much worst that wasn't revealed yet (fear mongering).
Agreed. USAgov doesn't negotiate with terrorists and in their mind that's what E.Snowden is. There's no turning back for him; he better just keep on leaking and keep on running forever. He can't return to the life he once had. If USAgov gets their hands on him... checkmate.