Rand Paul Explains Why He Would Not Pardon Edward Snowden

HVACTech said:
"you must spread some reputation around before giving it to foreigner again"

surely I can get some help on this one! :)
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Don't worry about that, I much rather would have the option to actually give rep to others. :) ;) (mods - I dunno why it's still disabled for me)
 
It sounds like Rand's position is one that Snowden himself finds acceptable, so I can't feel too terribly upset.
 
Snowden is a hero, I can't trust anyone that says otherwise

Rand loses me with **** like this and him neoconing out over Iran
 
Rand is the only presidential candidate standing up for your privacy. If you agree at all with what Edward Snowden was doing and you vote for anyone else then everything Snowden sacrificed was for nothing. Just wait until those TPP/CISPA provisions kick in.
 
Foreigner said:
Don't worry about that, I much rather would have the option to actually give rep to others. :) ;) (mods - I dunno why it's still disabled for me)
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It's not as far as I know.. Please pm me what is going on
 
Actions speak louder than words. Rand gets elected, he will pardon Snowden.

pandering to the authortarian ass wipes must be done to a small degree if you want to deflect. So what do you think would happen if Rand came out and said on Wolf Blitzer's show he would pardon Snowden?....buh bye Rand. It would be a non stop beating of Rand on all sheeple media.
 
liberty_nc said:
Of course Rand would say that during primary season, I would bet that by January 2017, Rand would govern much more libertarian than he campaigns. Ron did the same in 08 and 12, if he had said that he was a voluntaryist, the headlines would have read "Could our next president be an Anarchist?"
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Ron called Bradley Manning a hero and said we should have more Bradley Mannings. He also questioned the Bin Laden raid. Additionally, click the 'epitome of libertarian populism' link in my signature for an awesome interview in which he criticized government schools and roads. During the campaign. He also called out his fellow republicans on stage in December of 2012 on the topic of Obamacare, saying Medicare, too, is the result of government force and coercion.
 
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Feeding the Abscess said:
Ron called Bradley Manning a hero and said we should have more Bradley Mannings. He also questioned the Bin Laden raid. Additionally, click the 'epitome of libertarian populism' link in my signature for an awesome interview in which he criticized government schools and roads. During the campaign. He also called out his fellow republicans on stage in December of 2012 on the topic of Obamacare, saying Medicare, too, is the result of government force and coercion.
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Rand got a patriot act provision to expire (lasted a month) by flilabustering for your right to privacy for over 10 hours while running for the republican nomination.
 
phill4paul said:
Not the answer that encourages me to send money to him. Or become a streetwalker.

I'd have liked..."I encourage Edward Snowden to return to the U.S. and stand trial. I would like nothing more than that in this case. Only if I were the president of the U.S. I wouldn't wish it under the Obama administration, the current administration that prosecutes harshly those who only want to expose the truth.
"
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*sigh*

More armchair quarterbacking from the wise-asses who think they've come up with the magical concoction of words that would somehow change everything.

The funny thing is, even if he did say that, they might "give it a pass", but no doubt there would be plenty of other things to nitpick so as to prevent them from ever having to do anything substantive other than come up with magic sentences that are going to make everyone love liberty.
 
heavenlyboy34 said:
A moral man cannot be blamed or held in contempt for ignoring or violating immoral laws. Snowden had the terrible choice of doing the right thing or the legal thing. I'm glad he chose the right thing.
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I agree and I am glad too. My opinion isn't the one that matters though. The moral dilemma is that Snowden had to break a few necessary laws to do a good thing. He is rightfully a hero and did a courageous thing, but the law that protects certain secrets is still a law. The reasonable side of me says that there are probably some secrets that should be secrets for the security of the nation- so Rand cannot have a double standard. IMO this is the most principled approach and the most reasonable point of view. Instead of being broughtt back and forced to go through Guantanamo style interrogation and face trial against people who view him as a traitor and spy, he could come back and face a fair trial, serve his sentence that is proportionate to the actual crime he had to commit, and then move on with his life.
 
Kotin said:
It's not as far as I know.. Please pm me what is going on
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Hi, thanks!


I can't send PM's. I suspect that's part of the problem.


On the lower, left hand side of other people's posts, the only icon that appears is the "report post"- triangle. My own posts have the "reputation"-star too, so I know what it looks like. I've looked through my profile setting several times, but I can't see anything there that would have disabled it.
 
Foreigner said:
And they were proud of serving their time! That Snowden did something illegal, but FOR the greater good and against corrupt injustice is exactly why he's a hero.

It would have been a lesser act of heroism if it was legal and somehow the NSA and CIA were okay with him whistleblowing.

The only reason he escaped is the draconian punishment they would have put on him, as evidenced by what they gave Manning for leaking secrets to Wikileaks. And that's fine. I can't think of any cause I would martyr myself for.
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Rand should have said "there are rules for protecting American secrets, but there are way too many rules, and way too many secrets. The government classifies about 100 million NEW documents every year. Secrecy was originally only supposed to be imposed regarding military ops during times of (declared) war, but now its used to keep the government almost entirely non-transparent.

The Snowden revelations show much or most of this secrecy is not done to protect America, but to hide government's violations of the Constitution from its own people. Given this mitigating context, I would consider pardoning Edward Snowden, or to make sure he can use a whistleblowing defense if he is charged under the Espionage Act. That law currently does not permit that defense, but under a Rand presidency, it will be to at least ensure Snowden gets fair treatment."
 
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Snowden is an American hero and deserves a complete pardon along with all non violent drug offenders. We should change our whistleblower laws to encourage more people to cone forward like snowden did.
 
Rand has already said multiple times in the past that he thinks Snowden should get a fair trial.
 
I know Rand's trying to get the nom from a bunch of warmongers and police statists, but he must know there are no fair trials in this country.
 
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