Edward Snowden ready to return to U.S., lawyer says

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Edward Snowden is ready to go home to the United States.

“Snowden is ready to return to the States, but on the condition that he is given a guarantee of a legal and impartial trial,” his Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said at a news conference Tuesday, as quoted by Russian state media outlet TASS.

Snowden is loosing his mind over there in Russia

They’ll flail his ass if he comes back

He’s listening to too many of his admirers

He thinks he’s going to come back a hero of the liberal media


He’ll end up like Bradley Manning if he comes back...or maybe worse.

Manning got 35 years!

Remember Snowden… THEY DON’T HAVE PAROLE for federal crimes

He must be bored over there in Moscow or doesn't like the cold weather.

If he thinks it’s boring over there then what does he think a federal prison will be like. They might even put him in a max prison.

What the hell is a “legal and impartial trial” when the feds want to get your ass

“The former National Security Agency contractor has been in Russia since 2013, having fled to the country from Hong Kong after leaking classified national security information to journalists.

“He is thinking about it. He has a desire to return and we are doing everything we can to make it happen,” Kucherena said. Snowden’s temporary asylum in Russia expired last August, at which time the country granted him a three-year residence permit.

Despite a 2013 letter from Attorney General Eric Holder that promised Snowden would not face the death penalty upon his return, Kucherena said he wants assurances of a fair trial as well. “That is, they guarantee that Snowden will not be executed, not that he will receive a fair trial.

And it is guaranteed by attorney [general] who cannot even influence court decisions according to law,” Kucherena was quoted as saying. Jesselyn Radack, one of Snowden’s American legal advisers, says Kucherena’s statement echoes what they’ve been saying all along. Were Snowden to return, he would face charges under the World War I-era Espionage Act.

Read more: www.politico.com...”

a reply to: Willtell

Maybe Russia is planning on extraditing him and he is being preemptive? Just a notion.

a reply to: Willtell

Unless his supporters rally around him and pressure the government to release him. I think he has more supporters than enemies in the U.S.. It will be interesting to see what happens.

a reply to: DjembeJedi

Maybe Russia is planning on extraditing him and he is being preemptive? Just a notion.

Nah, you don't let go of the golden goose.

Isn't it true that he holds tons of documents somewhere that he keeps alluding to? He better have those , its his guarantee of survival.

If I was in his shoes, I would. I'd also be tired of being hounded and guarded 24/7 by the Russian state security apparatus.

Lets see, frying pan or fire? Thats the problem with becoming a martyr and hiding from your fate. Assange is doing that, too.

A least Manning "manned up".

Highly doubt it and even if it were true, then EVERY American who cares about their country should stand up in protest should he be arrested & tried.

What he did was in the peoples best interests and that's something the U.S. government should learn from.

In fact, not just Americans, the whole world

a reply to: Willtell

He's probably being pressured by the Russian intel to actively collaborate against the US and the guy does not see himself as a treator.

If he come back, a life of torture awaite him!

It would be better for US interests that they conclude a deal and get him back on US soil. Better have this guy free under close scrutiny than having him to help ennemy effort!!!

If a Russian lawyer brokers a deal to get him back to the US and the US fries Snowden (figuratively), it is going to make the US look like the heavy handed dictatorship that is being pinned on Russia at the moment.

Snowden would be a martyr and Russia knows it.

US better handle this well. It could end up being the straw that breaks the liberals backs.

...Then again, what do conservatives care about liberty?

a reply to: Willtell

His Russian lawyer should be consulting with American attorneys.

Snowden won't be coming home anytime soon, and if he is somehow coaxed into coming it will not end well for him. He's really stirred up the hornets nest and now he wants to sit pleasantly under their tree... if only the "Whistleblower Protection Act" carried any weight... It's just poppycock though. Whistleblowers get screwed the most out of everyone ... you try to do the right thing and see what happens... oh how disheartening this is

Russia isn’t going to waste any political capital over Snowden or make any deal over him. Its got its own problems.

They will let him stay, they just gave him a 3 year extension, but that’s all

He’s on his own if he comes back here

They will put him in jail... bet on it

The intelligence establishment wouldn’t allow any leniency for Snowden, believe me.

THEORY:

He might be a double agent, gaining intel on Russia from within Russia. One of two things may have happened:

1. Russia is catching on that what he has isn't very valuable after all, and they are becoming suspicious of him.

2. He's gathered all the intel he can from inside Russia, and his mission is over.

It really would be a brilliant move on our part -- creating a fake leaker so that Russia and China can't grab him fast enough. What easier way to get into those countries and not be suspected of espionage? Both Russia and China are wary of anyone from the West -- try even being a tourist!

Considering the sophistication of our intelligence agencies, I've always suspected something fishy with Snowden. It seemed to easy for him to get the information he did, and his background story always seemed a little sensational.

I don't think anything he "leaked" wasn't anything that was prior approved by those high up the chain. What we're getting from Snowden is probably the pretty tame stuff, deemed consumable for the masses. None of it really surprised anyone that's been paying attention for the last 20 years anyway. We've known about Carnivore and Eschelon for years...

Snowden serves no purpose to any foreign Govt. now. They used him for what they needed, now they understand he's out of the "loop" of things, and it's easier to not deal with the diplomatic headache he brings.. I'm sure Snowden knows he's not really welcome there anymore because he serves no value to them.

a reply to: Willtell

I personally believe that whatever motivates Mr Snowden to make tracks home, he would be better served setting himself up elsewhere. No doubt there are all manner of reasons why Russia might not be the best place for him at the moment. Considering his attitude toward government in general, there is no doubt in my mind that certain elements of Russian foreign policy at the moment would sit ill with him, to say the least of it. Further to that, the fact that the leader of the opposition there was taken out, right outside the Kremlin no less, speaks to the fact that for all that Russia has no warrants for his arrest, it is hardly a safe place for persons with a history of what could be construed as subversive behaviour.

However, all of that clearly understood, the United States of America is not a safe place for him either, and given that he was the central whistleblower involved in revealing the biggest scandal, the biggest invasion of privacy, the largest mass abuse of civil rights since the entire concept was taken up by the society from which he comes, I can see no way that an unbiased court proceeding can be bought against him. There are no judges or prosecutors in the States, no court which can provide the sort of trial that Mr Snowden rightly requests.

Simply put, there is simply no way that a garuntee of the sort he has requested, can be met in the United States, because the sort of enemies he made when he leaked the information to the press, are only notionally a part of the national infrastructure, and are instead part of a largely autonomous intelligence community, which has never answered for a single damned thing that it has done, even when some of its activities have been found in other cases, to be either illegal or at least deeply questionable.

The fact that no one has been prosecuted over the mass surveillance of American citizens, by the intelligence community in America, is proof enough that the climate is not appropriate for Mr Snowden to return home. Personally, I believe that this man, a man so honest and sincere in his respect for the people of his nation, that he risked his liberty and potentially his life, deserves a fair trial, if a trial be deemed necessary. That one is required at all, bearing in mind that in doing what he did, he acted in the interest of the people to a far greater degree than have any of the leaders and politicians that people have voted for in America over the last twenty years, speaks to the level of control that the government have over the nation, and the level to which the peoples power has been removed from them.

I certainly question the ability of the US to offer Mr Snowden a garuntee of physical safety, let alone an unbiased trial.

a reply to: Willtell

Prison?? HAHAHA....He will be shipped to Guantanamo to live in a cage while being pissed on by the guards who are whipping him for being a whistleblower....We will never hear another word from it after the trial, Mr Snowden will not have a fair trial....

He better have securities in place to protect him...Chips implanted and satellites following him everywhere to show the American people how prisoners are treated like him....He may blow everything wide open if this is his plan!!!!

Who cares about Edward white house, I mean snow den?

He told us what ATS already knew, governments spy. He hasn't said anything regarding government involvement with each other (nations and their keaders), nor has he really dropped anything super important other then spying we already knew.

The entire Edward Snowden (snow is white and den is a house of sort) - was a gimmick to take attention off backdoor deals and changing of laws, as well as the obviously push for WW3 and world domination by globalist.

Seriously, give it up. It's a play. If he was seriously wanted, he would of been dead by now. A simple play, and billions fall for this # because YouTube interviews and media play along.

The people are so lost...

I personally still think this is just a case of double-agent. Now he has dirt on Russia he will go back and "Suffer" for his "Crimes".

I mean how much has REALLY changed since he blew the whistle?

a reply to: Elementalist

AGREED

a reply to: Willtell

He could go all the way and return to the States to face the music and draw wider attention to the motivations underlying his actions. The risk of generating 'wider attention' would probably see proceedings being carried out behind closed doors.

It won't go well for him. An international surveillance program won't be packed away and abandoned - it's been decades in the making and won't ever go away. Nor should it when we live in a world where every nation has blood enemies and let's not overlook the fact that Russia and China have the same aspirations.

Snowden wrote this in March 2014:

I have personally targeted individuals using these systems under both the President of the United States' Executive Order 12333 and the US Congress' FAA 702. I know the good and the bad of these systems, and what they can and cannot do, and I am telling you that without getting out of my chair, I could have read the private communications of any member of this committee, as well as any ordinary citizen. I swear under penalty of perjury that this is true.

Statement for the European Parliament by Snowden

He's got no legally-protected platform from which to blow any whistles and he knows it. He isn't owed any freedom of expression under law so a return would probably consign him to mute anonymity and a life sentence:

It is important to remember that this is legal dilemma did not occur by mistake. US whistleblower reform laws were passed as recently as 2012, with the US Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, but they specifically chose to exclude Intelligence Agencies from being covered by the statute. President Obama also reformed a key executive Whistleblower regulation with his 2012 Presidential Policy Directive 19, but it exempted Intelligence Community contractors such as myself. The result was that individuals like me were left with no proper channels

Great work Obama! Yeah I know the Republicans would have done it anyway, but it goes to show the Democrats think the same way too. We have to trust that any party-political oversight committees, or judges, have the public interest at heart because we aren't gonna know otherwise. Snowden's leaks show that oversight involves never-ending permission.

Snowden's greatest chance to drive political pressure would be attending the European Parliament Hearings and that idea died last year.

In my opinion, he sacrificed a lot for an ideal and the changes he hoped for will never be realised. At least not many that we'll ever know about. Nations will ramp up their defences and become more secretive and less trusting and who can predict how that will all turn out? Asymmetrical warfare and cyber surveillance can only bring security to a minority. He may as well get used to Russian winters with no other safe harbours to travel to.

He pleads guilty to violating his NDA and is sentenced to time already served abroad.





Then we can laugh at him for his grandiose self delusions that anyone wanted to kill him.



Mike Grouchy

He needs to take his father's advice, 'Don't come home.' Why does he think he would ever get a fair and honest trial ?

Is there any evidence he won't get a fair trial. He may not like the tariff if found guilty of crimes he has already confessed to, but then that's the risk he took.