The Obama administration and the main stream media

The Obama administration and the main stream media have been very careful not to refer to Edward Snowden as a whistleblower.The reasoning is simple it is called the whistleblower protection act. It is a federal law that was enacted in 1989. Simply put if Snowden was refered to as a whistleblower it would be against federal law to take retaliatory action against a whistleblower. You see their delimia.

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 is a United States federal law that protects federal whistleblowers who work for the government and report agency misconduct. A federal agency violates the Whistleblower Protection Act if agency authorities take (or threaten to take) retaliatory personnel action against any employee or applicant because of disclosure of information by that employee or applicant. Whistleblowers may file complaints that they believe reasonably evidences a violation of a law, rule or regulation; gross mismanagement; gross waste of funds; an abuse of authority; or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.

Wikipedia link


Houston we have a problem. It seem that Germany has awarded Edward Snowden with the whistleblower of the year award.

Does this mean that it is now against the law for the D.O.J. or the Obama administration to go after him? Or do you think that somehow he will still not be acknowledged as a Whistleblower?

Snowden Gets Whistleblower Award in Germany

Your thoughts please?
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reply to post by Diisenchanted


Also in the story it says that they are seeking to charge him with espionage and theft. This is kind of a dilemma to me they are going to charge him with theft of information that they stole from us. Quite the oxymoron is you ask me.

reply to post by Diisenchanted

Does this mean that it is now against the law for the D.O.J. or the Obama administration to go after him? Or do you think that somehow he will still not be acknowledged as a Whistleblower?

The current administration has repeatedly demonstrated it's willingness to disregard domestic and international law. Snowden has been no exception.

I think globally he is accepted as a whistleblower. He will never gain the same recognition by the current administration, but perhaps the enlightened administrations ( fingers crossed ) of the future will in retrospect acknowledge it.

I'm honestly curious where Whistle blower ends and criminal action starts as the person blowing whistles does so on a full run for shelter in a foreign nation, specifically and with the stated intent of hiding from ..not cooperating with...US authority?

Isn't the whole point of Whistle blowing Protection to insure those that do stand for wrong doing they see ARE protected to help investigators (with more than long distance leaks by way of 3rd party media) root out the problem? Failing that...it protects them from being clobbered after the fact if the people they tried to nail happen to survive the attempt.

I don't mean to be picky here...but in suggesting Snowden is not guilty of criminal conduct, we're outright calling *HIM* a liar to accomplish that creative interpretation. I mean, he made no bones about knowing what he'd done, the nature of the action and the consequences of it when he first came out with his name, openly. It's one of the main points I first respected him for, as a matter of fact. No weaseling around what he'd done.

* I'm still for giving the man immunity through congressional hearing testimony to effectively negate the penalty of the criminal conduct ..but no people or nation of laws can pretend like it didn't happen, can they? Even he stated as much directly?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


The odd thing to me is they are trying to get him for espionage and theft. The very definition of espionage is:: the practice of spying or using spies to obtain information about the plans and activities especially of a foreign government or a competing company

He was not trying to get information for a foreign government or competing company. He simply got sick of the government spying program and exposed it.

As for the theft part of it. Lets just say that for my part I am willing to forgive him for the information of mine that he might have stolen.

Also from my point of view if I had the information that he had and I was going to expose it there is no way in hell I would stay in this country to expose it. They would either disappear me or I would die of natural causes.
There would be no fair trial.

reply to post by MDDoxs


You could be right just look at the number of people in this country who are willing to call him a traitor. For what I ask? For doing the right thing?

Originally posted by Diisenchanted
reply to post by MDDoxs

 

You could be right just look at the number of people in this country who are willing to call him a traitor. For what I ask? For doing the right thing?

Well its hard to blame people as it has been turned into a did he do the right thing sort of thing.

Instead of discussing the information released, the messenger has taken the spotlight thanks to the MSM. Which is frightening to say the least as a majority of people turn to them for a majority of their information.

Then people use that information to make a decision around election time and elect/re-elect these people over and over again.

Just look at unemployment. MSM was touting 8% not that long ago over and over again. When in reality it was probably around 13 or 14%. That is a BIG difference with the amount of people living in the states.

Its not a problem unless the MSM says it is. Even then, its pretty much politicized.

What happened to the multiple scandals most MSM networks promised wouldn't go away until they were supplied answers?

Oh yeah Trayvon Martin trial and the birth of a single child in England. That is the last month of big news stories being repeated until I wanted to puke if I heard about them again.

And people ate it up

What scandals

reply to post by Diisenchanted


Under the current regime, you are a whistle blower if you expose the dirty laundry of evil greedy corporations.

You are a traitor, however, if you expose the dirty laundry of evil greedy government agencies.

The Administration is doing the same thing with the Egypt "coup d'état".

They are careful not to say "coup d'état" because it might jeopardize the foreign aid money.

They are clever slippery slickers.

But too many people are on to the gag now.

Even their best lawyers can't hide from the Sun anymore.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by Diisenchanted

 

Under the current regime, you are a whistle blower if you expose the dirty laundry of evil greedy corporations.

You are a traitor, however, if you expose the dirty laundry of evil greedy government agencies.

That is ironic then, as the government is typically bought and sold by corporations