Edward Snowden sued by Trump's DOJ over memoir government "does not want you to read"

[Zippyjuan]

Edward Snowden sued by Trump's DOJ over memoir government "does not want you to read"

https://www.salon.com/2019/09/18/ed...-memoir-government-does-not-want-you-to-read/

Citing what First Amendment advocates have called an "unconstitutional" system of controlling what federal employees can and cannot say about their work, President Trump's Justice Department on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden over the publication of his new memoir.

The day the book "Permanent Record" was released, the DOJ filed its lawsuit claiming Snowden had published without submitting the book for "pre-publication review."

The DOJ is not seeking to block publication of the book but is instead arguing that Snowden should not profit from the story of his 2013 decision to leak files about the NSA's phone and email spying program since he didn't have permission from the government to share the information.

The government wants all proceeds from the book and is asking Macmillan Publishers to keep any revenue from being transferred to Snowden.

Government approval is required of federal employees before they write or speak publicly about their work — a requirement that the ACLU says has kept millions of Americans from being able to speak openly about the government.

Snowden tweeted about the lawsuit shortly after it was reported, including a link to his book's page on Amazon and the words, "This is the book the government does not want you to read."

"Mr. Snowden wrote this book to continue a global conversation about mass surveillance and free societies that his actions helped inspire," said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project and a lawyer for Snowden. "He hopes that today's lawsuit by the United States government will bring the book to the attention of more readers throughout the world.

"This book contains no government secrets that have not been previously published by respected news organizations," added Wizner. "Had Mr. Snowden believed that the government would review his book in good faith, he would have submitted it for review. But the government continues to insist that facts that are known and discussed throughout the world are still somehow classified."

The Movement for a People's Party decried the Justice Department for continuing its "war on whistleblowers" targeting Snowden and others who in recent years have publicized government secrets, including war crimes.

The ACLU and the Knight First Amendment Institute are currently challenging the pre-publication review in court, arguing it violates the First and Fifth Amendments.


"The pre-publication process in its current form is broken and unconstitutional, and it needs to go," Brett Max Kaufman, staff attorney with the ACLU's Center for Democracy, said in April when the groups filed suit. "It's one thing to censor the nuclear codes, but it's another to censor the same information high schoolers are pulling from Wikipedia. Pre-publication review gives the government far too much power to suppress speech that the public has a right to hear."

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, called the agreement that demands federal workers' silence a "far-reaching censorship system" that "simply can't be squared with the Constitution."

"The government has a legitimate interest in protecting bona fide national-security secrets," said Jaffer, "but this system sweeps too broadly, fails to limit the discretion of government censors, and suppresses political speech that is vital to informing public debate."

 

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/edward-snowden-nsa-cbs-this-morning-interview-today-2019-09-16/

Interview video and transcript at link.

Edward Snowden wants to come home: "I'm not asking for a pass. What I'm asking for is a fair trial"

In an exclusive U.S. TV interview, Edward Snowden said he would like to return home but that the U.S. won't agree to a fair trial.

"I would like to return to the United States. That is the ultimate goal. But if I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in prison, the one bottom line demand that we have to agree to is that at least I get a fair trial. And that is the one thing the government has refused to guarantee because they won't provide access to what's called a public interest defense," Snowden told "CBS This Morning."

The former NSA contractor is shedding new light on his decision to reveal classified documents about the U.S. government's mass surveillance program back in 2013. Snowden disclosed government programs that collected Americans' emails, phone calls and internet activity in the name of national security and was subsequently charged under the Espionage Act for doing so. A congressional report said his disclosures "caused tremendous damage to national security."

In his new memoir, "Permanent Record," Snowden tells his story in detail for the first time and speaks about his life in exile in Russia. Snowden, who now identifies himself as a privacy advocate, said his biggest issue with standing trial in the U.S. is that the government won't allow the jury to consider his motivations.

"Again, I'm not asking for a parade. I'm not asking for a pardon. I'm not asking for a pass. What I'm asking for is a fair trial. And this is the bottom line that any American should require. We don't want people thrown in prison without the jury being able to decide that what they did was right or wrong. The government wants to have a different kind of trial. They want to use special procedures they want to be able to close the courtroom, they want the public not to be able to go, know what's going on. And, essentially, the most important fact to the government and this is the thing we have a point of contention on, is that they do not want the jury to be able to consider the motivations. Why I did what I did. Was it better for the United States? Did it benefit us or did it cause harm? They don't want the jury to consider that at all. They want the jury strictly to consider whether these actions were lawful or unlawful, not whether they were right or wrong. And I'm sorry, but that defeats the purpose of a jury trial," Snowden said.

When pressed on whether he considers what he did unlawful, Snowden refused to take a position but said "it's not hard to make the argument that I broke the law." He went on to say that the government continues to allege that his disclosures caused harm but, according to Snowden, has yet to show evidence of that harm.

"They never show evidence for it even though we're now more than 6 years on, it would be the easiest thing in the world to show. We've never heard that story," he said. "If they had some classified evidence that a hair on a single person's head was harmed, you know as well as I do, it would be on the front page of The New York Times by the end of the day."

Snowden also took issue with the common refrain that leaking classified documents violated the oath of secrecy he took upon entering the CIA. He said an oath of secrecy does not exist.

"One of the common misconceptions in one of the earlier attacks, that we heard in 2015, that we don't hear of so much anymore is that I violated this oath of secrecy. That does not exist. There is a secrecy agreement, but there is also an oath of service. An oath of service is to support and defend, not an agency, not even the president, it is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies – direct quote – foreign and domestic. And this begs the question, what happens when our obligations come into conflict."

In a statement to CBS News, the NSA said: "Edward Snowden violated his lifetime obligation to protect classified information and betrayed the trust of his coworkers and the American people."

We also reached out to the CIA and Department of Justice to respond to Snowden's book. They declined to comment.

 

[enhanced_deficit]

There are no reports suggesting that he succeeded in impressing MAGA's taleneted senior advisers, so he's on his own.

 

[Superfluous Man]

"Trump may not have anything to do with it."

 

[Superfluous Man]

"Deepstate gonna deepstate."

 

[Swordsmyth]

"Trump may not have anything to do with it."

If you pay attention you will see that I was right in the thread where I said that.