Huff Post LIve, Jan. 9, 2014 (30 min)
A reporter asked Ray this morning (Jan. 3) to comment on the NYT’s suggestion that Snowden be offered a “plea bargain or some form of clemency.” Ray had time before the reporter arrived to prepare these talking points. (Sections within quotation marks below are from the Times editorial.)
1-“enormous value of the info he has revealed and the abuses he has exposed”
2-“… he has done his country a great service” in exposing a “runaway intelligence community.”
3-Thus, says the editorial, “It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency.”
4-How’s that? The word “clemency” comes from the Latin “clemens,” meaning to be merciful, usually applied to moderating the severity of punishment.
5-PUNISHMENT??? for doing his country “a great service?” Really? For revelations of “enormous value” about a “runaway intelligence community?” PUNISHMENT??? Really?
6-Hello!!! We should NOT be talking about “some form of clemency” to lessen punishment, but rather some form of honor. How about the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
7-I’m not against showing mercy, clemency. But wholly inappropriate to consider mercy/clemency for flagrant violation of oath to the U.S. Constitution – as Clapper, Alexander, Feinstein, Rogers, most FISA judges have all done – without prior acknowledgement of guilt and genuine remorse. Only then does it become appropriate to talk about plea bargain and clemency.
Ray interviewed about NSA for RT Review of 2013/Forecast for 2014
Government attempts to discourage whistle blowing will continue but will not stanch important disclosures. The new high-tech generation has extraordinary power to usher in a new 21st century, and is determined to use it. Obama needs to read the handwriting on the wall and get on the right side of history; needs to summon unusual (for him) courage and face down those who are trying to make the U.S. Constitution no more than a relic of the past.
December 31, 2013 (five min)
NSA = “No Such Amendment,” says host Tom Klammer as he interviews Ray on KKFI FM Kansas City on Dec. 26, 2013.
Ray performs vivisection on former NSA and CIA head Michael Hayden, then dissects NSA’s vacuum-cleaner approach to sucking up data and compares it with the guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures in the Bill of Rights. We hear Hayden — who subsequently became the go-to “expert” for CNN and Fox — deny that the concept of “probable cause” is in the Fourth Amendment. (50 min.)
Washington Post’s Barton Gellman Interviews Edward Snowden
The best interview so far. Here’s one exchange worth highlighting:
Gellman: “It is commonly said of Snowden that he broke an oath of secrecy, a turn of phrase that captures a sense of betrayal. NSA Director Keith B. Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, Jr., among many others, have used that formula.”
[Gellman interjects: “Snowden noted matter-or-factly that Standard Form 312, the classified-information nondisclosure agreement, is a civil contract. He signed it, but he pledged his fealty elsewhere.”]
Truman’s True Warning on the CIA
Ray recalls Truman’s chagrin at having created a monster, and how that monster intimidates our young President.