CBS reports that the U.S. intelligence community is split over the possibility of granting NSA total surveillance whistle-blower Edward Snowden amnesty after it has realized that just one per cent of the whole material (another 1.5 million classified documents) has been published so far. While Rick Leggett, who is now in charge of the Snowden leak task force which tries to prevent another leak like this one and which tries to figure out how much damage, for NSA, the Snowden leaks have done and still could do, seems to be quite positive, his boss, NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander used an outrageous example to point to an alleged dilemma.

“This [granting Snowden amnesty] is analogous to a hostage-taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10 and then say, ‘If you give me full amnesty, I’ll let the other 40 go.’

“I think people have to be held accountable for their actions. … Because what we don’t want is the next person to do the same thing, race off to Hong Kong and to Moscow with another set of data, knowing they can strike the same deal.”

Well, people have to be held accountable, but that applies in particular to unelected individuals such as Alexander and the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who, in any democracy, should and would long have been prosecuted for lying in Congress. From what we have learned from Snowden’s leaks so far, the damage the NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ has “unwittingly” (by us citizens) done to our liberties is the sole scandal here. We, the people, want to know all. We need to know, in order to hold Alexander and his buddies accountable.

13 December 2013 @ 2:53 pm.

Last modified December 13, 2013.