Edward Snowden leaks: NSA amnesty 'considered'

[Cidersomerset]

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16 December 2013 Last updated at 10:23 page

Edward Snowden leaks: NSA amnesty )

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Edward Snowden in a file photo Edward Snowden fled to Russia in June after leaking details of US espionage
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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.

The man in charge of assessing the leaks' damage, Richard Ledgett, said he could be
open to an amnesty deal.

Disclosures by the former intelligence worker have revealed the extent of the NSA's
spying activity.

But NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander has dismissed the idea.

Mr Ledgett spoke to US television channel CBS about the possibility of an amnesty
deal: "So my personal view is, yes it's worth having a conversation about.

"I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar
for those assurances would be very high, would be more than just an assertion on his part."

But Gen Alexander, who is retiring early next year, rejected the idea of any amnesty for
Mr Snowden.

"This is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10, and then
say, 'if you give me full amnesty, I'll let the other 40 go'. What do you do?"

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71764000/jpg/_71764647_71764646.jpg

File picture of the NSA headquarters The NSA has been making efforts to be seen as
more transparent In an earlier interview with the Reuters news agency, Mr Ledgett said
he was deeply worried about highly classified documents not yet public that are among
the 1.7 million files Mr Snowden is believed to have accessed.

Mr Snowden's disclosures have been "cataclysmic" for the agency, Mr Ledgett told Reuters.

Earlier this month, a UK newspaper editor told UK MPs only 1% of files leaked by Mr
Snowden had been published by the newspaper.

The state department says its position has not changed and that Mr Snowden must
return to the US to face charges, says the BBC's Suzanne Kianpour.

The US has charged Mr Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorised
communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified
communications intelligence.

Each of the charges carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

At the weekend, the NSA allowed a CBS television crew into their headquarters for the
first time in its history, in an effort to be more open about what the agency does with
the data it collects.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25399345

[Lifebringer]

Look, Snowden shouldn't come back, until the cabal is imprisoned or trialed. He's in Russia, like he was in China, because they just can't walk into those countries and execute him. If I was him, that would be my goal to see these criminals apprehended for the Hague. Until they were each and every cotton pickin one of 'em are held accountable by our constitutional laws, and prosecution for accountability, they will "never see another sucker place their trust in them." It's simple as that.

WE demand honesty in all our doings to make this a more perfect union. Yes the laws apply to elite murdering liars, too.
The difference in their generation and our 3 generations is "WE will get accountability and will not forfeit the fight for the children's future to be honest brokers of savings and retirement in US. Anything else is just whistling in wind thinking.
the civil right infringing laws put in place, will not be there in OUR future, regardless of party.

[araucaria]

"This is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10, and then
say, 'if you give me full amnesty, I'll let the other 40 go'. What do you do?"

It is not analogous to that at all. Snowden has not shot anyone, nor intends to. He has merely revealed some secrets. And possible preparedness to strike a bargain with him suggests that among the '40 surviving hostages' there are some revelations that would prove still more damaging.

It's a pity it's all probably out of Snowden's hands anyway now - and of course the data are not just on that Guardian hard drive they had smashed. Other leading newspapers are also involved in this, including Le Monde.

[spiritguide]

Diatribe at it's best. The USG only gives amnesty to corrupt bankers, corporate thieves, and corrupt gov. officials. Whistle blowers and white hats are suicided, slain and imprisoned but never given amnesty. Fence off DC and start trials for treason and corruption according to RICO. IMHO

Peace!

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

The whole thing is a smokescreen. Greenwald has now sold out to the NSA:

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?66535-Glen-Greenwald-sells-out-Edward-Snowden-Sibel-Edmonds-vs-Glen-Greenwald-Whistleblower-v-whistleblower&p=772902#post772902

[Kryztian]

If the NSA is offering amnesty, it's because there is something in the remaining unreleased documents that is absolutely devastating to them, something they really fear is going to get out there.

What is it???

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

There is more to this. see the thread above.

[GreenGuy]

Snowden would be an idiot to consider an amnesty from the US government. I don't think he's that big a fool - he'd be dead in no time. Car wreck, random shooting, some strange disease....or "suicide."

[norman]

Snowden would be an idiot to consider an amnesty from the US government. I don't think he's that big a fool - he'd be dead in no time. Car wreck, random shooting, some strange disease....or "suicide."

Absolutely.

The thing that's got me puzzled though, is, he went to Honk Kong first. He must have been trying to gain a safe asylum within the China camp.

Something either went wrong with that idea, or, he was tricked by Russia to switch plan and go there.

My question is, is Russia working with the USA to set him up for a swap type repatriation to USA?. All it would take is a big story in the news about catching a bunch of Russian spies in America and then a short period of silence, then a big news splash that they've done a swap deal.

[Maia Gabrial]

Hope Snowden doesn't trust the NSA. Amnesty can be taken away at any time. Someone else can kill him as revenge. And the way things have been going with the US govt, they lie like a rug....It would be foolish to trust them....

[EYES WIDE OPEN]

But weather he trusts them or not is irrelevant. Glen Greenwald sold him out by working with paypal which the NSA has connections with.

[Maia Gabrial]

The way it seems is they'll promise Snowden anything, until they have him in their clutches.... I hope he's not that gullible....or he's a dead man....