Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic presidential candidate, said the U.S. should drop criminal charges against WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and pardon Edward Snowden.
The military veteran said during a lengthy interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in May that Assange and NSA whistleblower Snowden should not be prosecuted for disclosing information that exposed crimes and was in the public interest.
“What would you do about Julian Assange, what would you do about Edward Snowden?” Rogan asked. Gabbard said, if elected, she would drop the Assange charges and pardon Snowden.
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“We have got to address why [Snowden] did things the way that he did them,” she said. “You hear the same thing from Chelsea Manning, how there is not an actual channel for whistleblowers like them to bring forward information that exposes egregious abuses of our constitutional rights and liberties, period. There was not a channel for that to happen in a real way, and that’s why they ended up taking the path that they did, and suffering the consequences.”
Newsweek report: In June 2013, Snowden handed over to journalists a trove of National Security Agency documents detailing a sprawling surveillance apparatus used by global intelligence agencies.
The leak showed how the systems could be used to spy on U.S. citizens through their phone calls, text messages and internet use. After fleeing the country to Hong Kong, a warrant was issued for Snowden’s arrest. Snowden was left stranded in Russia, where he was provided asylum.
Gabbard told the podcast host that she could still remember the day she first read the details about mass surveillance in the American press. “I was shocked,” she said.
“That was something that Snowden uncovered and released, something that I don’t know that even as members of Congress we would have been aware of,” Gabbard continued. “So now that we are aware of it, we can take action to close those loopholes, to change those policies, to protect our civil liberties… Was the NSA going to disclose that information voluntarily? Absolutely not.”
Assange, whose organization helped facilitate Snowden’s escape, was dramatically arrested last month and has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer hacking for “agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer,” the Justice Department said.
“What happened with his arrest and all this stuff that just went down I think poses a great threat to our freedom of the press and to our freedom of speech,” Gabbard said.
Baxter Dmitry
Email: baxter@thepeoplesvoice.tv
Then she is an accomplice!