Harry Reid: 'Snowden is a traitor'

Pete Souza, White House

As insipid commentators such as Thomas L. Friedman encourage NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to come on home to the Land of the Free and subject himself to the "fair-mindedness of the American people," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has provided another reminder that the people who actually hold power in this country would prefer to throw Snowden into a dark cage. Here's Reid in a Q&A with the Reno Gazette-Journal:

Q: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden should be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Do you agree?

A: I think Snowden is a traitor, and I think he has hurt our country, and I hope someday he is brought to justice.

Quick constitutional refresher:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. 

If I'm Edward Snowden, the only way I'm ever setting foot back here is if more members of Congress reject the authoritarianism of Harry Reid, and instead follow the intriguing lead of Rep. Tom McClintock (R-California) and offer Snowden amnesty.

Reason on Snowden here.

Comments

[sarcasmic]

Reid is the douche to douche all douches.

[John]

I would love to know how he "hurt the country". The existence of these programs was known by many people in government and pretty much assumed by our enemies. All Snowden did was make the general public aware of it.

[sarcasmic]

Government is society and society is government. Leaks like this undermine society's trust in government which hurts government which hurts the country. Even though saying society losing trust in government doesn't make sense if society and government are the same, but you get used to the doublethink after a while.

[UnCivilServant]

Sorry, I lack the doublethink module, my brain still runs on the old singlethink system. In order for 2+2 to be 5, you'd have to be working with sufficiently large values of 2, and rounding to 0 decimal places for display without discarding fractional data in calculations. You can also get 2+2=3 with similarly small values of 2 and the same rounding schema.

What was I talking about again?

[Bardas Phocas]

The new talking point is "Everyone just KNEW the NSA was spying on every humaniod on the planet so this is just another phoney scandal." Of couse then the only problem is that Snowden is a "Traitor" since he is causing heartburn to our Dear Leader.

And to paraphrase Reid, the esteemed Mr. Jackson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMGMZsKXz94

[John]

If everyone knew it, then how did revealing its existence cause any harm?

[Matrix]

Progs think that way, though.

Think about Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel is forced to release Palestinian terrorist who are called "freedom fighters" by the left. These freedom fighters bomb bus loads of civilians and stab men, women, and children of all ages.

A "freedom fighter" should be fighting the political power, not the ordinary person on the street. But in the mind of the prog, if society is the government, then I suppose a civilian is a legitimate "war target" for the "freedom fighter". Therefore it goes that the "freedom fighter", being jailed for blowing up a school bus, is a political prisoner and not a terrorist.

[wareagle]

Treason has become a bit like racism in the language. A lot of people think they know what the words mean, then they use them and reveal otherwise. And it seems last week's NSA stories pretty much confirmed what Snowden said.

[John]

Remember when Bush said the Dems in Congress by constantly threatening to leave Iraq was emboldening the insurgency and hurting the war effort? The very same people who fell over themselves having a "have you no shame" moment of indignation now call anyone who embarrasses Obama a traitor.

[Andrew S.]

You assume he'd get a fair trial, even if he's offered immunity for the leaks. 3 felonies a day, of course. They'll find something for which they can toss him in prison.

[Fist of Etiquette]

One wonders what Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell and Barack Obama think should a person do when he's confronted with clear constitutional violations. Should he keep is mouth shut? There is no path to remedy this other than what Snowden did.

[Andrew S.]

They think he should "follow the proper channels" and report it internally. That way they can keep it quiet and run the guy out of a job, instead of dealing with the messy work of having to explain themselves to the proles.

[DJF]

And they will still charge him with conspiracy to commit treason.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

I'll take my lectures on treason from someone who didn't vote for FISA, thanks.

[Matrix]

A traitor is one who does something to support the enemy, by either fighting on their side or giving them classified information that could harm "national security".

Snowden made the information public to the American people. So does Harry Reid consider the American people to be the enemy?

[DesigNate]

Yes.

[ant1sthenes]

Yep.

[The Late P Brooks]

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.

[Anonymous Coward]

"But the (tea party) Republicans ... they are modern-day anarchists. That's what they are. They are not violent in a physical sense. But they are violent in what harm they do to government."

"Anarchist" and "violent" mean completely different things to Harry Reid than they do to a normal human.

Opposing government overreach is an act of violence. Opposing government at all is violence. Now go back into your pen, like a good little sheep.

[DesigNate]

Because god forbid the fucking government reduce the rate of automatic spending increases.

What a parasite.

[HML83]

He is a traitor. He explicitly betrayed a trust. He admitted this openly. He took that job with the deliberate intention to divulge information he was clearly and specifically telling them he would not divulge.
That's a betrayal in it's purest definition. By our Constitutional law, it may not be treasonous but it is traitorous.
Whether or not the American people deserved to know that information is a separate issue. The fact is, it was not his decision to make nor his information to disclose, and furthermore, he LIED to obtain it. That's a traitor.