Rand Paul: Intel Director Clapper "Lied," Whistleblower Snowden "Told the Truth"

Talking on CNN over the weekend, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) weighed in to the debate over NSA spying and the disposition of leaker Edward Snowden.

From Raw Story:

"I think it's still going to be an open question how this young man's judged," Paul told CNN's Candy Crowley. "I do think when history looks at this, they're going to contrast the behavior of James Clapper, our national intelligence director, with Edward Snowden. Mr. Clapper lied in Congress in defiance of the law in the name of security. Mr. Snowden told the truth in the name of privacy."…

Paul also warned that Snowden's choice of refuge will have an affect on his legacy:

"So I think there will be a judgment because both of them broke the law, and history will have to determine," he continued. "I do think for Mr. Snowden, if he cozies up to the Russian government it will be nothing but bad for his name in history. If he goes to an independent third country like Iceland and he refuses to talk to any sort of formal government about this, I think there's a chance he will be seen as an advocate of privacy."

Watch:

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Senator Paul will be changing his tune when it's his White House whose politically damaging secrets are being tossed out there. But good for him calling Clapper out.

If I was Snowden, Obama would be given an ultimatum. Continue to pursue me and more of your secrets are going to go public. Put it back in his hands as to whether more gets released. Legacy be damned.

[Outlaw]

He would be the recipient of a hellfire missile in a heartbeat.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It would have to be an "in the event of my abduction or death, plans have been made" sort of thing.

[Rebekah]

Snowden's choice of refuge will have an affect on his legacy

Considering there are so few countries willing and able to tell the USGov to sit and spin (and aren't vulnerable to drone strikes, for political reasons if nothing else) his options are pretty limited.

Poor, brave bastard. He's so screwed. I hope he makes it to Ecuador, but am unconvinced he'll be safe there.

[Suthenboy]

Your life isnt worth a handful of water in most of latin america. Gringoes stick out like sore thumbs no matter where they go. You can stay there until your bribe money runs out, which aint long.

[Libertymike]

Perhaps.

Where is one more apt to be the victim of some kind of police misconduct - Venezuela or the land in which upwards of 100,000 SWAT raids per annum transpire?

[Zeb]

Venezuela would be my guess.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Is this a joke? Venezuela, far and away. In fact, almost any country in Central America or upper South America is far more likely to have police misconduct than almost any part of the US.

[Killazontherun]

Nazis did fine for years down South of Mexico way.

[Libertymike]

Did anybody see Glenn Greenwald handle David Gregory's statist approved queries on Meet the Press yesterday?

Thank you Mr. Greenwald.

[Fist of Etiquette]

2chili had a post on it in yesterday's Hit & Run.

[Marginal]

It's amazing how thin-skinned Gregory was. Greenwald was getting questions like "aren't both you and Snowden traitors who should be assassinated executed provided that we can ever get you back in the United States?"

Then, after the interview, Greenwald tweets that Gregory is an Establishment stooge, and Gregory gets the vapors and wets his panties on the air.

It's a damn shame that Russert got a fatal heart attack and Gregory didn't.

[SIV]

Rand Paul is opposing the "Gang of 8" immigration bill. I'm surprised Gillespie didn't call him a traitor-enabler.

[Mike M.]

Crap. Reason indeed now has the justification that they need to not support him.

[VG Zaytsev]

Yep, Paul opposed requiring permission slips to work and expanding Obama's spy system to include a face database.

And what libertarian could possible oppose those?

[Loki]

^THIS^

There are ample reasons to oppose the immigration bill, but of course, those reasons are more complex and nuanced than "HE HATEZ TEH BROWNE PEEPEL!@!!!11!!!!!" so naturally they'll be ignored in favor of the most simplistic explanation possible.

[Locke]

I caught the movie RED on TV yesterday, and there's a bit where John Malkovich's character laments that the woman they are traveling with is using a pay phone because there'd be a trace and the government would be there within minutes. When I first saw the movie I thought "Psh, they can't do that!"

Now I'm not so sure.

Though I'm still not sure exactly how a 911 call from a payphone would Identify the caller on Mr. CIA agent's computer

[Jordan]

The thing I find most unbelievable about that scenario is that they were able to find a pay phone.

[Live Free or Diet]

Last time I saw a payphone in good working order, and with a telephone book, I was a young man.

[Locke]

You know, didn't we fear the Soviets for the exact same reasons that we're concerned about the United States now? We have a gulag (at least one that's public. We assassinate people now, apparently (which broke a tradition since Reagan ruled that there would be no assassinations). The government is involved in every facet of our lives. Hell, we even got involved in a very similar war in Afghanistan.

Those who fight monsters...

[sarcasmic]

Yep. The USA has become everything that it once stood against.

[Libertymike]

Red from the start, my friend, red from the start.

The proof? The motivations of most of those assembled in Philadelphia in 1787. Who was going to bail out the big shots who held those worthless war bonds?

[tarran]

That wasn't their sole motivation...

Some of them were panicking at the thought of having to put down more rebellions like Shay's rebellion, where the local militia would refuse to fight the rebels or might even join in.

[tarran]

Of course, it was the war bonds and the quantitative easing being used to pay for them that was fueling the inflation that led Capt. Shay and his Regulators to take up arms.

[Drake]

Things started going to shit as soon as the Soviets collapsed. We were so much better off when we had an example of what not to do.

[Live Free or Diet]

I must be older than you. I remember America's Cold War era rather un-fondly.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Meh. Started going to shit in1933. This is just the natural progression.

[Outlaw]

Progress!

Lean forward, comrade!

[robc]

1865.

[robc]

or possibly, 1861.

[sam the man]

1797. Fuck John Adams.

[Jefferson's Ghost]

Hard to pin point one spot but I'd place 1913 as the worst single year, the federal reserve, 16th and 17th amendments which enabled the ensuing fracas.

[LTC(ret) John]

Yeah, but I was an infantry scout and thus was a speed bump for the T-80s once they rolled. I really didn't want them around.

[VG Zaytsev]

I'm old enough to remember when the USSR was criticized and mocked for having secret laws, secret courts and secret police.

Proggies saw that shit and thought "why can't be be more like them".

[Anonymous Coward]

Eric Holder, James Clapper, Susan Rice, and Douglas Schulman have all suborned perjury for the Obama administration's benefit and without consequences to themselves personally.

As far as any "cozying" goes, as I and others here have pointed out, Snowden going to places not under the American aegis, who won't throw him in cuffs and hold him as soon as he arrives, then hand him over to be extradited or worse, black bagged, is probably in his considerations.

[Tony]

Has he surfaced since arriving in Moscow? It's a little worrisome... Russia has been picking fights, and might they not use Snowden as a pawn in one way or another? I think Moscow aiding Snowden in escaping extradition for the purposes of poking the US in the eye is somewhat less likely than them simply detaining and interrogating him under some pretense. Russia hasn't been known for its love of liberal freedoms and a strong legal system lately.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh look! Concern troll is concerned. About freedoms. Say, is it Terror Tuesday, yet? Any weddings in Pakistan need blowing up? How about some kids? Nothing says freedom like killing brown children based on a secret list/disposition matrix.

[sam the man]

Shut the fuck up. You have no credibility, cocksucker of the State.