Our illustrious senior editor predicted months ago that Bradley Manning * would be pardoned (among others) or have his sentence commuted in the waning days of the Obamanation. Now he (DLH) wonders why “ze’ (trying to be deferential) (Eric Snowden) just doesn’t use the Bradley Gambit. There is still time for an “Edith” Snowden pardon. At the very least you get the women’s prison.
From the NYT:
MOSCOW — A day after President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, the Russian government clarified on Wednesday the fate of Edward J. Snowden, the other main source of secrets about United States surveillance in recent years. . . .
Mr. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who was granted asylum in Russia in 2013, will be allowed to remain in the country for “a couple more years,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, said on Facebook.
Mr. Snowden and his supporters have been campaigning for a pardon from President Obama, but the chances of clemency appear to be vanishingly small given that his name did not appear on a list of pardons on Tuesday.
In an interview with The Guardian in September, Mr. Snowden argued that his revelations about government surveillance were not only morally right but that they also led to an overhaul of secrecy laws that benefited Americans.
HopeNChange Stilton Jarlsberg mentions his (ze?) confusion, although, to be sure, not as confused as Bradley Manning :
We’ll admit we’re a little confused. Obama has recently been telling us that our entire system of democracy has been undermined by the theft of secrets which ended up on Wikileaks. Which is why it’s so puzzling that Barry has just commuted the 35-year espionage sentence of Private Bradley Manning (now “Chelsea Manning” through the politically popular miracle of gender reassignment) for the theft of secrets which ended up on Wikileaks.
Rather than struggle to ascertain the president’s baffling reasoning in making this anti-security decision, Hope n’ Change is instead going with Occam’s Razor: we think he did it because he’s an asshole.
*This raises the question, if the nip and tuck on Bradley hasn’t happened yet, might it still be done on our dime in the time it takes to be mustered out? Healthcare delayed is healthcare denied.
DLH with R Mall
