US Attorney General Holder: We Won't Torture or Kill Snowden

If the general attorney has to step up to the podium and assure an American public that a whistleblower won&#x27;t be killed or tortured you&#x27;ve got a country in dire straits.<p>Especially since it seems that not all Americans believe him.

Considering that the US Government no longer considers things like waterboarding and sleep depravation to be torture, I take little comfort in Holder&#x27;s statements.

It would be really nice to know how they legally interpret &quot;torture&quot; and &quot;kill&quot; since so many other common English words often mean completely different things to the U.S. Government.

Snowden is charged [1] with:<p><pre><code> * 18 USC 641 - Theft of government property * 18 USC 793(d) - Unauthorized communication of national defense information * 18 USC 798(a)(3) - Willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person </code></pre> None carry the death penalty. All carry a prison sentence of &quot;not more than ten years.&quot;<p>[1] <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/world/us-vs-edward-j-snowden-criminal-complaint/496/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;apps.washingtonpost.com&#x2F;g&#x2F;documents&#x2F;world&#x2F;us-vs-edwar...</a><p>[EDIT formatting]

Unfortunately, there is basically no trust left in the US Government. They&#x27;ve used it all up. Why would Snowden believe proven-to-be pathological liars?<p>The US Government will put you in solitary confinement for years and waterboard you and it&#x27;s not considered &#x27;torture.&#x27;

Holder pretty much <i>has</i> to say this (because seriously, what is he going to say? &quot;Go ahead and give him asylum, we&#x27;d just torture and execute him if we got him back.&quot;), but it&#x27;s abundantly clear what the US Govt thinks of Snowden and his Constitutional rights (which, mind you, supersede any other part of the USC) [1][2].<p>This is an administration that has killed US citizens without due process, tortured prisoners, and deeply extended the grasp of the police state. We&#x27;re supposed to trust that they&#x27;ll just be nice guys and do the right and legal thing now?<p>[1] <a href="http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1318893" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tubechop.com&#x2F;watch&#x2F;1318893</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130714/00393923792/white-house-believes-ed-snowden-shouldnt-have-any-free-speech-rights-attacks-russia-letting-him-speak.shtml" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techdirt.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;20130714&#x2F;00393923792&#x2F;white-...</a>

Golly, how magnanimous of you, it is almost as if you are a human.

Did anyone check to see if he had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said it?

Don&#x27;t they realize how weird it is for them to have to be spelling it out like this? There&#x27;s a bigger problem when it&#x27;s just assumed by everyone the government is going to do this...

&gt;Wyden then asked Director Clapper, &quot;Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?&quot; He responded, &quot;No, sir.&quot; Wyden asked &quot;It does not?&quot; and Clapper said &quot;Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertantly perhaps collect, but not wittingly.&quot;<p>&gt;On July 1, 2013, Clapper issued an apology, saying that &quot;My response was clearly erroneous – for which I apologize.&quot;

BBC version of the news available here: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23468459" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;world-europe-23468459</a>.<p>Link to actual letter: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/26_07_13_attorney_general_letter_to_russian_justice_minister.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.bbc.co.uk&#x2F;1&#x2F;shared&#x2F;bsp&#x2F;hi&#x2F;pdfs&#x2F;26_07_13_attorney...</a><p>Edit: fixed typo

Just like how Bradley Manning was treated totally legally and torture-free <a href="http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/07/26/eric-holder-well-maybe-just-a-little-forced-nudity-and-solitary-confinement/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.emptywheel.net&#x2F;2013&#x2F;07&#x2F;26&#x2F;eric-holder-well-maybe-...</a>

I wonder if this constitutes the administration&#x27;s promised response to the Snowden pardon petition[1]<p>[1]: <a href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;petitions.whitehouse.gov&#x2F;petition&#x2F;pardon-edward-snow...</a>

What a ridiculous statement for a government official to make in a country that has sentences determined by a democratic court system.<p>How can Holder know what the punishment will be on top of what the jury will decide?

Even if we believed him, it doesn&#x27;t matter. Sending him to prison forever is still unacceptable. Ask me again when you&#x27;re ready to give him a full pardon.

&quot; He could even get a lawyer. &quot;

This is the face of Fascism in America.

Of course he won&#x27;t. He will be tortured at Gitmo.