General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A reminder...Snowden had NO ALTERNATIVE but to go to Russia. [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)It would be a betrayal of everything good in this country for Snowden to serve a long prison sentence. And it would guarantee that the NSA wouldn't be reformed. There's no reason to think the NSA could be reformed in any case...nobody in our government ever reins in surveillance types. Any punishment for Snowden ends the debate. No one will even try fighting the national security state again...the fight for democracy(which requires transparent government)will be lost. Why do you defend secrecy when secrecy never leads to anything but the kinds of shit Nixon, Kissinger and Reagan did? History has proven that secrecy can never have progressive, humanistic results.
And Snowden, whatever else you can say about him, isn't responsible for anything Putin's done.