The White House responded to a petition demanding a pardon for exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden on Tuesday, 25 months after it crossed the 100,000-signature threshold needed to earn an official reply.
The answer, emailed to petition signers and posted on the White House’s “We the People” petition site, is unlikely to satisfy Snowden fans.
“This is an issue that many Americans feel strongly about,” the response says. “Because his actions have had serious consequences for our national security, we took this matter to Lisa Monaco, the President’s Advisor on Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.”
A five-paragraph commentary attributed to Monaco praises President Barack Obama for “work[ing] with Congress to secure appropriate reforms that balance the protection of civil liberties with the ability of national security professionals to secure information vital to keep Americans safe.”
[EARLIER: White House Petition Site Called ‘Propaganda Tool’ Amid Long Waits, Favoritism]
The reforms — which Obama signed into law with the USA Freedom Act last month — were forced by widespread outrage about surveillance practices disclosed by Snowden, including among members of Congress, many of whom felt misled about how the administration was using the 2001 Patriot Act.
A federal district court judge found the mass collection of phone records Snowden exposed likely was unconstitutional, and a federal appeals court panel later found the collection illegal. Previously, courts refused to grant standing to people challenging suspected bulk collection. Advocates hope the Supreme Court will use the cases to enhance privacy rights over electronic data.
But in the petition response, Monaco chides Snowden for not “constructively addressing these issues.”
“Mr. Snowden’s dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it,” she writes.
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Repeating a taunt often made by members of the Obama administration, she continues: “If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: Challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest, and — importantly — accept the consequences of his actions. He should come home to the United States, and be judged by a jury of his peers — not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime. Right now, he’s running away from the consequences of his actions.”
Snowden’s attorneys and fellow whistleblowers have supported his decision to flee the U.S., first to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he was stranded en route to Latin America when the U.S. State Department canceled his passport and where he currently has asylum.
His defenders say any trial would be held largely in secrecy and point out that he cannot use whistleblowing as a defense to the two Espionage Act charges he faces alongside a third for alleged theft of government property. He had no avenue to legally blow the whistle, they add.
[READ: NSA Whistle-Blowers Defend Snowden’s Decision to Flee]
“How does President Obama think Snowden should have ‘constructively addressed these issues’ when his administration has led the worst crackdown on national security and intelligence whistleblowers in U.S. history?” says Jesselyn Radack, an attorney for Snowden.
“The actual consequences of Snowden’s revelations have been an informed global debate that even the president acknowledges ‘we needed to have,’ two federal court decisions finding that the phone dragnet program [was] ‘unlawful’ and ‘likely unconstitutional,’ and the first significant intelligence reform legislation in 30 years.”
Radack adds: “Civil disobedience does not require that a person of conscience go to jail. Snowden is not ‘running away from his actions’ or ‘hid[ing] behind the cover of an authoritarian regime.’ Snowden is in Russia because of the United States, which revoked his passport while he as transiting through there to Latin America.”
There wasn’t a specific “yes” or “no” from the White House on giving Snowden a pardon, but the response made clear the administration’s frustration with the man who deeply embarrassed Obama by exposing not only vast phone and Internet surveillance but also U.S. spying on the leaders of allied countries.
“We live in a dangerous world,” Monaco concludes. “We continue to face grave security threats like terrorism, cyber-attacks, and nuclear proliferation that our intelligence community must have all the lawful tools it needs to address. The balance between our security and the civil liberties that our ideals and our Constitution require deserves robust debate and those who are willing to engage in it here at home.”
Some with influence have hinted a deal could be struck with Snowden if he returns to the U.S. Former Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier this month “there could be a basis for a resolution that everybody could ultimately be satisfied with.” Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News reported a senior intelligence official floated a deal that would feature between three and five years in prison.
A deal without prison time is the objective of Snowden’s legal team. But even a three- to five-year sentence recently met with opposition on Capitol Hill. Likely speaking for his more hawkish peers Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said during a committee hearing July 8 it would be “insulting and inappropriate” to give Snowden a prison term in that range.
The long amount of time the White House took to respond casts doubt on its stated goal of using the petition service to facilitate citizen involvement in government.
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Pardon Snowden? Nah, White House Says in Petition Response originally appeared on usnews.com
