12 May 2018. Snowden on Haspel… Spot On and Needs No Addition

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Why haven’t more Democrats spoken out against torturer Gina Haspel to run the CIA? It’s because they’re on shaky political and moral ground. Their president… Obama… gave impunity to the brutality of the Bush-era torture.

Ajamu Baraka

Gina Haspel ENJOYS torture. She likes giving pain to others. That says a great deal, not only about her and the US Congress (and about Trump, who named her) but also about our country. It’s fallen… and it REFUSES to get up. After all, we hung Germans and Japanese for doing less than what Haspel and her fellow “interrogators” did. Here’s the most disgusting part… most of Haspel’s supporters call themselves “Christians”… if anything is blasphemous and an offence in the nostrils of the Almighty, that is…

Do note how bland and inoffensive she looks. That’s how evil gets a foothold amongst us… it doesn’t look ugly or scarifying… it looks like Slobberin’ Ronnie Reagan and Gina Haspel… “They wouldn’t do a thing like that… they’re not ugly at all”. Our moral compass is on the fritz and we’re sailing into Chaos (as the ancient Greeks defined it). God do help us…

BMD

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As Seen by Vitaly Podvitsky… An Ideology of Treason

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On Tuesday, former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell suggested that Vladimir Putin should make Edward Snowden an inauguration “gift” to Donald Trump. MID RF spokesman M V Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page bashing Morell:

It’s clear that, for the CIA-man’s firm, it is normal to present people as gifts and give up those who seek protection. [Morell’s] comments reveal an ideology of treason in the CIA.

18 January 2017

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/cartoons/201701181049718526-morell-snowden-zakharova-treason-ideology/

Obama Could Pardon Snowden, but Won’t… New CIA Pick Says to Execute Him

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US President Barack Obama stated that he can’t pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, a claim that isn’t entirely true. The incoming Trump administration took an even tougher stance… execute him. Earlier this week, Obama said in an online interview with German media outlet Der Spiegel:

I can’t pardon somebody who hasn’t gone before a court and presented themselves.

However, there are apparently no legislative restrictions on a presidential pardon. According to a Supreme Court ruling from 1886:

The power of pardon conferred by the Constitution upon the President is unlimited except in cases of impeachment. It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment. The power isn’t subject to legislative control.

As P S Ruckman, editor of the Pardon Power blog, put it:

I just think what he may have better said is, “I prefer that he present himself to a court and then we’ll talk turkey”, but technically, in terms of the Constitution, there are no restrictions at all.

Mike Pompeo, President-Elect Donald Trump’s pick for CIA director took a draconian position on the issue. Instead of pardoning the NSA whistleblower, he supports imprisoning Snowden and following a course of law that’d likely lead to the death penalty. In an interview with C-SPAN earlier in the year, Pompeo said:

He should be brought back from Russia and given due process, and I think that the proper outcome would be that he’d be given a death sentence for having put friends of mine, friends of yours, in the military today, at enormous risk because of the information he stole and then released to foreign powers.

Pompeo is notorious for his attitudes toward Islamic faith leaders, bulk surveillance, and Guantánamo Bay. For instance, as he said, the fact that many terrorist attacks come from people of a single faith should place special obligations on leaders of that faith. He said in remarks on the House floor:

Instead of responding, silence has made these Islamic leaders across America potentially complicit in these acts and more importantly still, in those that may well follow.

Later, the Council on American Islamic Relations called these remarks “false and irresponsible”.

20 November 2017

Sputnik International

https://sputniknews.com/us/201611201047634877-obama-pompeo-not-pardon-snowden/

Ambassador to the USA Kislyak sez Moscow has no Legal or Moral Grounds for Snowden’s Extradition

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Ambassador to the USA Sergei Kislyak said that Edward Snowden’s extradition to the USA is impossible on “legal and moral” grounds. Speaking in the wake of the WikiLeaks ‘Podesta emails’ revelations, he also denied Russian interference in US internal affairs:

When Mr Snowden got stuck at a Russian airport, we didn’t have any legal or moral reasons to give him to the government of the United States, for the very simple reason that we don’t have an agreement for mutual extradition, because the USA refused to have one with us.

On Tuesday, Kislyak was at Johns Hopkins University to talk about “what Russia is and what it’s not”… he also acknowledged the “very unfortunate” relations between Moscow and Washington. Snowden’s asylum in Russia, where he arrived in 2013 after leaking documents related to the NSA’s foreign and domestic surveillance operations, hit Russian-American relations, signalling a major setback. Followed by the conflict in the Ukraine and the continuing disagreement over Syria, bilateral ties reached new lows. Most recently, during the US election campaign, voices in Washington blamed Russia for hacking attacks on its computer systems. On Friday, the Obama administration officially accused Russia of directing the hacks of emails and documents and their posting on WikiLeaks and DCLeaks. On Sunday, Hillary Clinton blamed Moscow for trying to interfere in the US election process. In his opening remarks, Kislyak said:

I’d also like to say that we are watching very carefully the election campaign in this country. Yes, we do and no, I’m not going to comment on this, because we don’t interfere into internal affairs of the United States, neither by my statement nor by electronic and other means.

Referring to hacking accusations, he said:

It’s not correct. We’ve seen a number of statements by our colleagues in American intelligence on a number of issues that weren’t exactly proved by the history. I won’t speculate further.

White House spokesman John Earnest told reporters that regardless of Russia’s denial and lack of factual evidence, the Obama Administration is weighing a “proportional response”. He added that whatever Barack Obama decides on, they wouldn’t announce it in advance and might never disclose it. Earnest said:

It’s certainly possible that the president can choose response options that we never announce.

12 October 2016

RT

https://www.rt.com/news/362449-russia-extradite-snowden-hacking/

Editor:

The arrogance and vacuity of the Duopoly now regnant in Washington is apparent to all comers. “Whatever Barack Obama decides on, they wouldn’t announce it in advance and might never disclose it”. Well… dog my cat, as the great philosopher Jed Clampett said. Everyone has to kiss America’s ass, eat its shit, and like it. There was a short window in the nineties when that was true… it isn’t true today. Clinton, Johnson, and Trump are all sleepwalking in the 90s Bizarro World… only Jill Stein isn’t.

Vote for the only sane candidate. The other three are puppets of the oligarchs… furthermore, they’re stuck in a timewarp… America the Great… America the Great… they believe their own mantra. God have mercy on us all.

BMD