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Hello Friends! Good tidings to you all, It is very cold here in my region still and plenty of snow and ice to share lol! Since my last Blog much has happened in my world, obviously I won't and don't have the time to go into everything for today anyway. I watched an interview today that took place in Hong Kong with Edward Snowden, We all know who he is and the portrait mainstream media painted of him. The video that I watched however opened my eyes even more to the tyranny all around us. After watching the interview, I was more than outraged...outrage due to the fact we are suppose to be FREE INDIVIDUALS LIVING IN THE "LAND OF THE FREE" Well we all know that isn't the case anymore, if anything The U.S. is becoming more and more like nazi germany! This is not going to change until ALL OF US STAND TOGETHER UNITED AGAINST THIS TYRANNY! Yes I am a bit heated about all of this....so after I watched the Snowden interview I started on lots of research and put together today's blog...I hope it makes sense and wakes some folks up to the disgust that is going on in OUR NATION......
Exactly what is treason, and exactly who is a traitor?
My question is neither academic nor rhetorical. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, has already pronounced Edward Snowden guilty of "an act of treason" for disclosing highly classified details of the government's data-collection efforts. (1) House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, chimed in that Snowden is "a traitor." This elevates the definitions of "treason" and "traitor" to matters of pressing public policy. In other circumstances, we might be glad that senior members of both parties have found something to agree upon, but in this case I don't see much silver in that lining whatsoever!
The terms "treason" and "traitor" are tossed around far too much, often by people who are ignorant, but sometimes - as in the cases of Feinstein and Boehner - by ignorant officials who either know better or who should.
Title 18, Section 2381 of the United States Code states: "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."
Snowden obviously did not engage in warfare against the United States. Feinstein therefore believes, or pretends to believe, that he "adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." Which enemies? What sort of aid and comfort?
The United States is not in a state of declared war against anyone. There is a violent yet metaphorical "war on terror," just as there is an equally violent, metaphorical "war on drugs." Terrorists and drug lords already knew our government wants to monitor their communications and capture or kill them. I, on the other hand, did not know that the government was gathering data on every phone call and text message we send, until Snowden revealed the truth. Am I an enemy of America? Are 310 million of my fellow american citizens? I don't think so! We are the United States of America!
However many laws and obligations Snowden may have violated, he is guilty of only the same conduct that Daniel Ellsberg engaged in when he leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Even the Crazy Nixon administration did not claim that Ellsberg had committed treason. Ellsberg was charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917, and the charges were dismissed when it emerged that Nixon's "plumbers" ( named for their assignment of stopping leaks) had illegally burglarized the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist. I don't think Feinstein, Boehner and their fellow members of the congressional leadership really believe Snowden is guilty of treason at all, in fact I think they urgently want to put as much fear as possible into anyone else who might consider leaking or publishing national secrets. If Snowden is guilty of treason, then what about the journalists and news organizations that published the information he provided?Consider Title 18, Section 2382 of the U.S. Code: "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both." Under this language, if Snowden had not come forward to identify himself, could journalists who reported his information have been prosecuted for protecting their source? Does anyone care to stake the right to a free press on the prosecutorial discretion of President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder? This, also, is not an academic or rhetorical question. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who chairs the House Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Terrorism, asserted that journalists who report on leaks like Snowden should be punished, Rep. Peter King needs to read the constitution...better yet get it tattooed on his forehead! Snowden said he acted to educate Americans about the emergence of what he called a "surveillance state." The fevered reactions by some of the architects of that state support Snowden's argument that we, not they, should decide the balance between surveillance and privacy, between what is truly a matter of national security and what is an accumulation of data whose ultimate use cannot yet be known - but which is going to be used for something, someday, because knowledge is power, and power is always used eventually. There is NO treason friends. Snowden, whatever else he may be, is not a traitor either! But all this talk of treason is taking us down a treacherous path to tyranny and a police state nation. This is sad, America...Home of the Brave and FREE is slowly being drained and killed from within....Fellow Americans STAND UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT! STAND BY OUR CONSTITUTION! Well Friends Thats all for now! Thank you for stopping by my blog feel free to share,comment,follow, or just enjoy! Truly, Dennis
