Donald Trump, despite having received classified briefings on the Russian cyber threat, has refused to accept the intelligence community’s judgment that such an attack took place. His most notable public comment about it came at the second debate with Hillary Clinton, where he tossed a word salad of doubt over the matter: “Maybe there is no hacking,” Trump said, “but they always blame Russia.” As the beneficiary of the hacking, and as an admirer of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, Trump would have every reason to let it slide.
WHO in Russia knew how to do it?
There is a possibility, and the possible answer might shock a few readers as they have that eye-opening “ah-ha” experience.
Trump values loyalty, secrecy, and security. To him.
Someone, who appears to have betrayed our government, in order to reveal shocking truths . . . that same government the supporters of Trump are demanding to change . . . might be forgiven for past misdeeds against the former administration and government . . . might be forgiven by the new President, granted a pardon . . . and allowed to return home from Russia to the United States.
However…
Excerpted from The Independent [.uk.co] 20 November 2016:
- Barack Obama will not pardon Edward Snowden unless he goes to court – while Trump’s CIA pick wants him executed.
- The NSA whistleblower has asked for clemency in recent months. Mr Snowden has lived in Russia since he leaked documents revealing a secret surveillance programme helmed by the National Security Agency in cooperation with major telecommunications companies. The Department of Justice charged Mr Snowden with two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Numerous advocates have called for Mr Obama to pardon Mr Snowden following a federal judge’s ruling that the collection of metadata without the knowledge of Americans under surveillance was unconstitutional.
- “I can’t pardon somebody who hasn’t gone before a court and presented themselves,” Mr Obama told the German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Friday, “so that’s not something that I would comment on at this point.”He continued: “I think that Mr Snowden raised some legitimate concerns. How he did it was something that did not follow the procedures and practices of our intelligence community.” But according to a Supreme Court decision in 1886, while president Mr Obama certainly has the right to pardon Mr Snowden. The ruling reads: “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.” Mr Obama’s suggestion that Mr Snowden present himself before a court was significantly more measured than that of Kansas congressman Mike Pompeo – Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency – who said “that traitor Edward Snowden” deserved the death penalty for his whistleblowing.
- Civil rights advocates have spoken out against Mr Pompeo’s appointment, addressing his positions on government surveillance and maintaining the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.
- “Congressman Pompeo’s positions on bulk surveillance and Guantanamo Bay … raise serious civil liberties concerns about privacy and due process,” the ACLU said in a statement. “These positions and others merit serious public scrutiny through a confirmation process. “His positions on mass surveillance have been rejected by federal courts and have been the subject of several lawsuits filed by the ACLU.”
- For his part, Mr Snowden made the moral case for a presidential pardon in September.
- “Yes, there are laws on the books that say one thing, but that is perhaps why the pardon power exists – for the exceptions, for the things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page but when we look at them morally, when we look at them ethically, when we look at the results, it seems these were necessary things, these were vital things,” he told The Guardian. “I think when people look at the calculations of benefit, it is clear that in the wake of 2013 the laws of our nation changed. The [US] Congress, the courts, and the president all changed their policies as a result of these disclosures. At the same time, there has never been any public evidence that any individual came to harm as a result.”
Now I’m simply raising the questions. Is it possible Russia – Putin – used Snowden to help influence the outcome of Election 2016? Is it possible Snowden made a deal with the future President, knowing the current President would never pardon him? Then what of Pompeo and his position on this and related issues?
History shows some former criminals end up working for law enforcement. Such as…
Frank William Abagnale, Jr. (born April 27, 1948) is an American security consultant known for his history as a former confidence trickster, check forger, and impostor between the ages of 15 and 21. He became one of the most famous impostors ever, claiming to have assumed no fewer than eight identities, including an airline pilot, a physician, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons agent, and a lawyer. He escaped from police custody twice (once from a taxiing airliner and once from a U.S. federal penitentiary), before he was 21 years old. He served less than five years in prison before starting to work for the federal government. He is currently a consultant and lecturer for the FBI academy and field offices. He also runs Abagnale & Associates, a financial fraud consultancy company. Abagnale’s life story inspired the Academy Award-nominated feature film Catch Me If You Can (2002), starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale. The ending credits reveal that Frank has been happily married for 26 years, has three sons, lives in the Midwest, has caught some of the world’s most elusive money forgers, and earns millions of dollars each year because of his work creating unforgeable checks.
Maybe Trump will order Pompeo to offer Snowden a new job to help prevent others from doing what he did and to further improve our cyber security. Trump wants to make America safe and secure again, as well as great again, and has promised to start the process on 20 January 2016. Militarize police with military weapons, increase the power of the police, and federalize them into a national police force, as some of the steps he has promised.
Editorial Article by Jim Lantern
LANTERN TIMEGLASS JOURNAL
Sunday night 20 November 2016
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