The father of NSA leaker Edward Snowden spoke with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on AC360 Monday evening about his son’s actions.
Lon Snowden told Cooper that he doesn’t believe his son can get a fair trial in the U.S. and that he has absolutely no faith in Eric Holder, the Attorney General.
(Transcript below the video).
Cooper: “What do you think people don’t understand about what your son did?”
Snowden: “Well, I think, probably the large majority of Americans first of all have not seen his 12 minute video. I’ve spoken to close friends who know this is my son and we talk and I realize they haven’t listened to the video. They don’t really understand what the fourth amendment is. So, I think that there’s much that’s [inaudible], the American people, the media to be quite honest, has not done a very good job of laying out the facts in digestible form. There has been a clear effort by those who have been threatened politically and/or embarrassed by these revelations to focus on the, so to speak, sinner — my son who has revealed these — instead of the sins, the actual revelations.”
Cooper: “In a letter to the Justice Department, to the Obama administration, you describe what your son did as civil disobedience. There are those who say, look, civil disobedience is accepting the ramifications of your actions, of your decisions, of taking the punishment. Why do you see this as civil disobedience?”
Snowden: “Well first of all, I think he is accepting the consequences. Again, if you look at his 12 minute video and what he said, he’s not living a very comfortable life at this point. He said he’s an American, he loves his country. I know my son. I know he loves his country. What he believed is that this information, the American people needed to be aware of what their government was doing to them.”
Cooper: “Do you believe him [Holder] when he says that, when he says there’s no death penalty and the United States doesn’t torture?”
Snowden: “Well at this point I believe it would be in the best interest of the Justice Department, and we’ve attempted to work with the Justice Department and both the people investigating this, and I just do not believe that that collaboration, that the good faith exists anymore. So I’m very very disappointed and we’ve attempted to get assurances that Ed would receive a fair trial. I have absolutely no faith in Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States. None.”
Cooper: “You don’t believe your son would receive a fair trial.”
Snowden: “Absolutely not. Not at this point. No, absolutely not.”
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“I have absolutely no faith in Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States. None.”
I don’t know about anything else, but I totally agree with him about Holder.
“I have absolutely no faith in Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States. None.”, said 80% of the US.
I have faith in Eric Holder.
I have complete faith that Eric Holder will lie, break the law and cover for the administration. And, furthermore I believe that innocent people will suffer for the sake of political gain.
I have faith that Eric “The Bag Man” Holder will do whatever is politically expedient, regardless of the law. Or whichever pays better – could go either way with this effin’ guy.
“I have absolutely no faith in Eric Holder”
Welcome to OUR world.
If Snowden were one of “Holder’s People”, he’d be home free.
All that counts is that Obama has complete faith in Holder.
I’m no Snowden sympathizer but I am in full agreement with the old man’s take on Holder.
Obama does not want Snowden to return.
If Obama gives Snowden a fair and public trial, all sorts of evidence of Obama spying on Americans will come out. Remember Obama is the president that orders the IRS to persecute hundreds of members of the opposing political party.
Obama certainly is using the NSA’s records of your every phone call and email to fight his political opponents.
If Snowden returns to the US, the DOJ will try to keep his entire trial secret for “national security” reasons.
They may want him back so that they could “accidently” kill him. The government has been known to do those things.
With respect, I disagree. Obama doesn’t order the IRS to do anything. He doesn’t order the DOJ to do anything. He doesn’t order DHS or NSA to do anything. He’s got “plausible deniability;” nothing comes down, nothing goes up. Like he told Jorge Ramos of Univision: “This is a pretty big government, uh, the United States government. I’ve got a lot of moving parts.“ (March 22, 2011, discussing “Operation Fast and Furious”) (emphasis added). It wasn’t Obama personally doing the spying, so he’s not responsible.
Except that “plausible deniability” can only get you so far. You can claim innocence because you weren’t informed and didn’t issue orders, but if that happens too many times (let’s count: F&F, Benghazi, Associated Press, IRS, NSA – just to name the big ones) – if you continue to claim there’s too many “moving parts” to know what’s happening in your own administration – people start questioning your competence and ability as a leader, and rightfully so.
Harry S. Truman had a placard on his desk which read, “The buck stops here.” Obama, on the other hand, built his administration so that he has no knowledge, no responsibility, and no accountability – and sold it as “the most transparent administration in history.”
The Obama Regime runs on the principle, “will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Obama doesn’t have to order anything, he doesn’t have to tell anyone at the IRS to give colonoscopies to the Tea Party; they do it because they *know* that’s what Dear Leader wants.
Precisely! He has full deniability, and free time for another round of golf.
I strongly suspect the seat in his golf cart has gotten more use over the last 4 1/2 years than his chair in the Oval Office.
Imagine being in Ed Snowden’s shoes. You’re in your late 20’s. You’ve been “playing” with computers since an early age. You have no desire to go to college. And, somehow, because you’re an expert programmer (all talent developed on your own), you end up as a contractor for the CIA. That must have been heady stuff.
Then you see what your government’s done.
And, you do something about this government treachery.
9/11 cost us our freedom! Yes, it started with Dubya. Who also got involved killing decent American kids by sending them into Irak and Afghanistan for no good reason. (RAH RAH WAR is not a reason!)
Americans were fooled. Homeland Security came along and locked out our freedom and our security. And, then there was an election that shifted the executive from republican hack hands into democratic party hack hands.
Ed Snowden, may be stay safe, is one of the great heroes of our time. He didn’t sit on his behind when the full blown consequences of our government’s use of data mining kicked in.
WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED BECAUSE ED SNOWDEN HAD THE COURAGE TO TELL THE WORLD WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON!
Also, without the best hackers. With Congress involved now in limiting broadband across our great nation; we are watching, daily, the rape congress critters commit in exchange for big payoffs from the big, indecent, carriers.
Holder? He’s decided he wants to be inside the 1% bubble.
Extremists on the right of us. Extremists on the left. Nobody’s coming along in the middle … but, you bet, we don’t win no matter which of the nuttier groups is on top.
And what should our response to 9-11 been, Carol? Al Quaeda declared war on us there. You argue that invading Afghanistan was a waste of lives, but a declaration of war via mass murder cannot be ignored. You either fight or surrender.
They haven’t stopped fighting us, despite our president’s claims. I think we are not using the most effective tactics to defeat and defend against Islamic Supremacist faction, but that is a separate matter from whether the war is occurring or not.
I think we need a solid debate about the NSA programs (among other programs), but it isn’t going to be served by hyperbole and hyperventilating comments like yours.
She’s right about everything except Afghanistan.
She’s definitely right that Democrats and Republicans have been two sides of the same incompetent coin.
^^ This ^^
Both parties – Republicans and Democrats – move to increase government and its role in the individual lives of Americans. They expand different areas, but you’ll notice that neither reduces the areas the other expands.
Or, in the words of Daniel Webster: “There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”
If Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin, then what we need is a change in currency. Though to be honest, I’m not sure how to make that happen.
The saud’s funded al’s-kay-duh. And, they got away scot-free.
All politicians are building their own gateways. And, the wars in irak and afghanistan are terrible things.
Probably why isolationism has grown so strong in America.
@ Carol Herman-
I pretty much agree with your 11:08 comment; minor quibbles about Iraq, where the war we once won is now being lost again. The Sauds have their fingers in the pie as usual.
[BTW- I’ve noticed (being a lurker, hanging like a bat above most threads) that someone must dislike you. Even on threads where few “thumbs up” or down occur, you’ve almost always got a downtick. Once is coincidence, etc. Just so you know- but dunno who’s doing it.]
I’m very concerned about USA becoming (maybe past tense?) a Police State. Lived over 30 years overseas, can’t believe my homecoming. I’m hugely conflicted about Snowden; don’t want to give ammo to those that do hate us overseas, but Americans are all asleep at the TV, need HUGE wakeup! So I’m glad that he’s at least rung the alarm bell. Also, it seems that the info he’s released is mostly stuff that probably shouldn’t have been classified anyway, and which should be available to the public, but which The Powers That Be don’t want you & me to see because it shows what they’re really up to.
As far as trusting Holder- ! Um, no. If Snowden came back to the USA I do NOT believe for a second that he would be given any constitutional protections. Look how hard the Department of In-Justice is (still!) working to hang something, anything, on George Zimmerman (who BTW, I would be proud to have as a friend.)
Tell me again what country this is,- I want to wake from this nightmare. I want to believe that “of course Snowden will get a fair trial, after all, this is the USA.”
I guess the real problem is that our constitution is in a museum. We’ll never use it; it might break or something.