Authored by Jacob G. Hornberger via The Mises Institute,
It is amazing to me that President Trump has pardoned some people who he considered heroic while continuing to leave Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, two genuine heroes, in the lurch.
Assange, of course, is getting the worst of it, given the brutal conditions under which U.S. and British officials have incarcerated him in England.
But it still can’t be a bundle of joy for Snowden to be living in Russia, given the societal jail-like environment that comes with living under the Russian regime.
Consider Trump’s pardons of two former Border Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Campean. They were chasing an undocumented immigrant who was fleeing back to Mexico. The best account of what happened was detailed in a Texas Monthly article entitled “Badges of Dishonor.”
When the immigrant, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, held his hands up and tried to surrender, Campean swung at him with the butt of his gun. Aldrete-Davila then ran and both agents began firing at him. A bullet hit him in the buttock but he was able to make it back to Mexico.
The two agents then did their best to cover up their actions. They retrieved their shell casings and threw them into a ditch. When later investigated, they said that they had seen a shiny object in the victim’s hand and thought it was a gun. In their later criminal prosecution for assault, a federal jury concluded they were lying and convicted them.
One of the first things I learned as a kid from watching westerns on television was that you never shoot someone in the back. Doing that is about as cowardly and shameful as you can get.
But not according to Trump as well as a coterie of his conservative cohorts. They consider Ramos and Campean to be real heroes for “defending our border.” They point out that Aldrete-Davila’s vehicle contained 700 pounds of marijuana, as if furnishing pot to Americans who wish to smoke it is some sort of horrible offense. Never mind, also, that at the time they were firing their guns at Aldrete Davila’s back, they didn’t know about the pot.
Trump also pardoned another former Border Patrol agent, a man named Gary Brugman.
He got convicted for brutally assaulting undocumented immigrants after they were already in captivity and behaving peacefully.
Trump also pardoned Joe Arpaio, the anti-immigrant crusading former Arizona sheriff.
He was convicted of contempt for refusing to comply with a court order to cease racial-profiling.
He also pardoned Blackwater personnel.
They were convicted of killing innocent Iraqis.
Now compare those people to Assange and Snowden, two men who have risked their lives, liberty, and well-being to disclose the truth about evil and immoral actions of the U.S. national-security establishment. That’s why the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA are going after them with vengeance — because they told the truth about the U.S. government.
Will Trump pardon these two genuine heroes? He might yet surprise me, but I doubt it because we can see from the people he has already pardoned that his values are warped and perverted… the clock is ticking.
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Even if Trump pardons both of them, I don’t think it will matter to TPB. They flaunt law when it suits them, make up things out of thin air, and ignore criminals when it suits them.
Both of these individuals would be insane to step foot on US soil and think they would live to tell what they know.
Even if Assange is pardoned, he’ll have to go live with Snowden in Russia to be safe. Nowhere in Europe would be safe because they cooperate fully with U.S. government demands. If that’s not a scary thought on what the U.S. has become, what is?
The US actually became this way just after WW2 with the formation of the CIA. It was this way before but upon the CIA creation it was put on steroids’.
Pre-WW2 the “military intelligence” were separate entities primarily consisting of the Army, Navy and War Dept. There was no real coordination among the branches. FDR thought there had to be moar and better cooperation and contacted MI6 (the Brits.) through Major William J. Donovan, AKA “Wild Bill”. Thus the OSS was born mostly composed of Brits. FDR issued a Presidential military order in June 1942.
The direct descendant of the paramilitary component of the OSS is the CIA Special Activities Division.
Assange != Snowden and anyone who’s been cleared knows it. I have no definitive proof that Snowden is shady, but it’s telling that he contracted with the CIA for years and saw the evil they committed. However, he moved to an NSA contract and within about 90 days (if memory serves) he compromised everything they had. So the organization that protects our nuke plants and our power grid and is responsible for capturing foreign SIGINT was stripped naked.
Interesting, too, that the ChiComs had to know he was exfilling and they just coincidentally let him pass through Hong Kong into Moscow. What better way to pit your two greatest rivals against each other. Sounds like a plan that could have only been hatched by a CCP-CIA collaboration.
I grow really tired of listening to those who’ve never been in the know equate Assange and Snowden. Prove it or it didn’t happen.
He exposed how they were spying on us. I look at who’s against pardoning him. Pardon him.
Then you get out there and protect our infrastructure, and don’t bitch about rigged elections. THEY are the only thing standing between us and the 18th century.
Maybe that’s what this country needs. A good year of darkness to starve the stupid. Because Adm Rogers sure hasn’t gotten DICK for credit for putting his balls on the line before Trump was even in office.
I would like to know why out infrastructure is connected to the Internet anyway. Doesn’t sound safe. How did we ever manage before the Internet?
They do a hell of a lot more than monitor the Internet. What makes Snowden’s actions even worse is that we refuse to quit the imperial charades that are oftentimes fomented by the CIA (who he worked for for years) and/or its blowback. So we piss more people off, which ramps up the attacks on our very way of life, which makes it even more critical to protect the infrastructure. And we don’t even upgrade the infrastructure; we ship pallets of cash to Iran and Lord knows who else.
America is an ungovernable shit-show and the Good Guys are the only thing holding it together. If people knew the truth about the razor blade on which we dance, there would’ve been more than a faux Capitol riot about 20 years ago.
Americans like soundbites though. Pardon Snowden! Free healthcare for all! Defund the police!
People honestly buy the horseshit that Snowden had a crisis of conscience when he moved to the NSA. I say military tribunal with a military JAG, and let’s cast sunlight on the whole trial. If he’s as pure as he claims, it’ll all come out.
That would work perhaps if we had an honest justice system but, alas, we don’t.
UCMJ is completely different than civvie, and especially in wartime. We are at war, it’s just not conventional yet. One thing I do have faith in, is that Trump has listened to the Good Guys recently.
This should be the last nail in the coffin for those who aren’t sure if Trump eas controlled opposition or not.
Assange should indeed be pardoned. Especially over that dirtbag Charles Ku$hner.
Assange and Snowden should quickly change their name to Kushner.
People have brought up Assange and Snowden multiple times to Trump. He’s pardoned some very questionable people to date, outright criminals some. Will he pardon these two men on the way out the door??? I seriously doubt it, which speaks volumes.
Yeah, Trump pardoned the Israeli that got Jonathan Pollard to spy on the U.S., a Israeli colonel named Avi Sella, who lives freely in Israel. WHY would Trump do that other than Israel tells U.S. politicians to jump and the politicians ask, “How high?”
I am probably on the blocked email list at the White House.
I have been emailing president Trump at a minimum of 5 days a week for the past 2 months asking him to pardon Julian Assange and Edward Snowden..
They both should be pardoned but alas it ain’t part of “The Plan”
I asked Nick last night if he thought any pardon by Trump would even be honored? And, besides, Snowden is probably in a lot better spot anyway.
And you’re an idiot who doesn’t know jack or shit about INFOSEC.
Fuck you, that is all.
I can’t help but wonder if Russia is really worse than the US. If that’s really true, does anyone here expect it to remain so?
The Biden administration probably took lessons from the KGB.
Oh he took lessons all right, just like most senior level CIA and FBI officials. From the CCP.
Time for Trump to do the right thing? Why would anyone expect Trump to do the right thing? He has never done the right thing yet in his entire term. He could have pardoned Snowden and Assange at any time in the last four years, but didn’t. He is also not going to pardon any of his supporters who were arrested in Washington DC on January 6th.
He might pardon his supporters. He surely isn’t going to pardon BLM/Antifuqueres false flagging in MAGA hats.
What if Biden pardons the BLM/Antifa people involved in the insurrection?
Antifa and BLM are rioting right now in cities across the blue states. It will be interesting to see how they’re handled.
It will determine if the Dems are still using the useful idiots for some reason or if they’re no longer needed and they’re about to do away with them.
You can forget about Trump doing anything of any consequence. He is like the monkey used by the organ grinder. Pretty good entertainment but not worth much else.