And the sorry saga of the White House’s pressure to get Edward Snowden continues.
Eric Holder begs Russia to return Edward Snowden
Today, The Washington Post printed an AP report that Attorney General Eric Holder has told the Russians (in a letter of July 23 sent to Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov, the Russian Minister of Justice) that the U.S. will not seek the death penalty for former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. Holder said
“the criminal charges Snowden faces do not carry the death penalty and that the U.S. will not seek the death penalty even if Snowden were charged with additional death penalty-eligible crimes.” That Holder would even be talking about the death penalty for a whistleblower who disclosed that our government was spying on us is chilling.
“I can report that the United States is prepared to provide to the Russian government the following assurances regarding the treatment Mr. Snowden would face upon return to the United States,” Holder wrote. “First, the United States would not seek the death penalty for Mr. Snowden should he return to the United States.” In addition, “Mr. Snowden will not be tortured. Torture is unlawful in the United States,” Holder’s letter said.
The attorney general said that if Snowden returned to the U.S. he would promptly be brought before a civilian court and would receive “all the protections that United States law provides.”
Holder also said, “we understand from press reports and prior conversations between our governments that Mr. Snowden believes that he is unable to travel out of Russia and must therefore take steps to legalize his status. That is not accurate; he is able to travel. Despite the revocation of Snowden’s passport on June 22, Snowden remains a U.S. citizen and is eligible for a limited validity passport good for direct return to the United States,” said the attorney general.[1]
So there you have it from the top legal man himself, the man who has made sure that Bradley Manning has been held in solitary confinement for a good long while. After Manning’s arrest on May 29, 2010, he was transferred to a Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia, where, during his nine-month stay, he was held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, forced to sleep naked without pillows and sheets on his bed, and restricted from physical recreation or access to television or newspapers even during his one daily hour of freedom from his cell.[2] Manning has been in prison since in conditions that The UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez has formally described as cruel, inhuman and degrading. Most human rights organizations have called Bradley Manning’s treatment at the hands of the U.S. Government, torture.
And how about this? Snowden is free to travel! He can travel as long as it’s a one-way ticket back to Holder’s gulag in the U.S.
And all the protections that the United States law provides? That’s cute, Holder. Since 9/11 we’ve noticed that US law has been altered to the extent, that assurance is as thin as a mint wafer.
Then there’s the promise of a fair trial in a civilian court. Of course, he doesn’t mention that Obama’s intelligence service would get any "civilian court" to close all of the proceedings of the case because of "national security", all proof or evidence of guilt to be put before a jury waived, since it’s “classified.” Holder doesn’t acknowledge that it would thus be the government as the accuser, the prosecutor, and the judge.
The abysmal degree to which the leaders of the United States of America have sunk our once great nation becomes pretty apparent when you have the White House’s AG begging a country infamous for it’s gulag-operating history to return a young man who blew the whistle on his country spying on its citizens and the world, so they can prosecute him and throw him into a gulag—but promising, “we won’t torture or kill him!” Yeah. Right, Eric Holder. Did you tell Konovalov you have some beach front property in Las Vegas you’d like to give him to sweeten the deal?
[1] AP Report, The Washington Post, July 26, 2013
[2] Caitlin Dickson, www.thedailybeast.com, Extreme Solitary Confinement: What Did Bradley Manning Experience?, June 5, 2013