Should President Obama pardon Edward Snowden?

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin - That you trust these folks is up to you, and you can defend the spooks all you want. I have no reason to trust my government, no obligation to either, and plenty of reasons not to. Given the repeated constitutional excesses, the illegal and warrantless surveillances of American citizens, the seemingly treasonous insistence on subordinating American ideals and interests to ideological priorities, and the willingness to detain people in secret prisons, I have no faith that our government wouldn't expend every effort in making Snowden disappear. And not because he's a traitor who betrayed his country, but because he's a whistleblower who embarrassed a tyrant posing as a president.

If you want to be paranoid, un-trusting, and essentially a pessimistic person, so be it. I'm not going to change your mind despite offering you some insight to the other point of view. Nothing done was illegal and the NSA has still retained the capability to do what you're bitching about (i.e. nothing has changed). Now, I've been through the training (similar to Snowden's), I understand the points of the law we are charged to protect and report discrepancies on and I imagine you have absolutely no insight to that world (which with your pessimism is probably for the best).

As usual I hear people such as yourself bitch and whine about programs you no little about (only what a person you don't even know is telling you) and you are all too willing to drink his kool aid. What you can't seem to do is offer the alternate solution. So, you tell me how, from a cyber perspective, you would address the threat imposed by our enemies with regards to espionage, C2 from within the country, communications, conducting our investigations, and cyber attack? Go ahead, tell us how to address the threat from within through the cyberspace realm. Before you take this on, please address the procedures that are currently in place to enable one to do their job, with regards to EC 12333, the NSA's policies, and the DOD's. I imagine you won't answer this question, because you have either not read the respective policies or taken the training. Instead you're going to point fingers at people like myself and accuse us of being complicate with breaking the law.

Yeah, I'm done with you until you can recite to me the applicable laws, policy, and instructions in place which address this issue and where exactly you think they do not. If you're going to bring me more conspiracy crap like the government will make people disappear if they actually do the right thing, there is no sense if debating this with you. Have a great day.

Maj Kevin "Mac" McLaughlin - Well, we've surely gone pretty far afield from the point of this, which was merely a question over Snowden, i.e., is he a traitor or not. And it's been a fun ride, and I admit, an educational one, if I can withstand a touch of condescension to counter my apprehension (I won't say 'paranoia.') And no, I don't have all the answers, and neither do you, your arrogance notwithstanding. But I maintain that the Constitution ensures certain protections, which I believe the Regime routinely ignores.
Best of luck to you.

I do have and know what the answers are. I'm work in the field where we can potentially have to execute them. That's not arrogance, it's insight and experience and you can feel free to speak with all the others with cyber warfare backgrounds on this subject to see if what we say is consistent. Anyone can learn more about this area and understand it better and I've challenged you to do so through just the policy and guidance. But your position stems from both paranoia (yes paranoia... Read your own posts/) and the lack of understanding on how the programs work. As I would with any of the Airmen who would come to me with problems to the solutions we have in place, I am going to ask what is your alternate course of action, solution, etc. Don't just bitch about your problem with the system... Offer the solution to it. Once again, you can't because you don't understand it. Read the policy and guidance and fee free to have another conversation about it. If all you can come up with is "I don't trust the government", you will never be satisfied by any solution. So then I ask, why do you bother debating it? And for that matter why would you continue living in this country? After all, according to you, all we do is make "innocent" Americans disappear and rip up the Constitution we swore to protect.

Disagree. Everyday he spends in Russia not facing the authorities in the US in person is another day he is proving to be a traitor. If he were to come home and face the consequences for improper/unauthorized removal disclosure of classified information, followed by a significant amount of prison time I would gain a small measure of respect for him (for essentially owning up to doing something completely stupid).

When was the declaration of war made in conformance with the law?