Snowden: Hero, Traitor on Dem Debate Stage

The clearest division between the Democratic presidential hopefuls in Tuesday night’s debate came with regards to Edward Snowden, the former Central Intelligence Agency employee and government contractor who leaked classified documents that exposed the extent to which the American public’s privacy had been compromised in the name of national security. “And I think there would have been a positive response to that”.

“All of the candidates, they speak a different line but they support U.S. foreign policy, and they support U.S. wars, they support Zionism and Israel, each one of them”, Flounders told Press TV on Wednesday.

Still, Sanders’s stance puts him at odds with front-runner Hillary Clinton, who voted for the Patriot Act and defended her vote on Tuesday evening.

Another candidate, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley agreed with Clinton and questioned Snowden’s status as a legitimate whistleblower because Snowden sought refuge in Russian Federation.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was especially tough on Snowden, saying his tactics ignored existing protections he had before his leaks. He now works at an Apple store outside of Washington, D.C. Admittedly, the law is fairly complicated, but as Politifact pointed out in January 2014, when the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald said that Snowden did not have any whistleblower protections under the Espionage Act, his claim was “mostly true”.

“I think Snowden played a very important role in educating the American people to the degree in which our civil liberties and our constitutional rights are being consideration,” Sanders said.

The party members will get together again in Des Moines, Iowa, on November 14 for their next debate which will be aired on CBS.

The ACLU has called on President Obama to give Snowden immunity, allowing him to return to the United States from Russian Federation without facing charges.

“No, I would bring him home….”

“Whistleblowers do not run to Russian Federation”, he argued. If he really believes that, he should be back here.

He did – he did break the law, and I think there should be a penalty to that. Webb explained that all Americans should be concerned about the federal government’s surveillance programs, which violate the Fourth Amendment.

I – well, I – I would leave his ultimate judgment to the legal system. We have a serious problem in terms of the collection of personal information in this country.

Edward Snowden used his position to expose the secretive surveillance being carried out by the USA government.