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<h1>Snowden Should Refuse To Play “Alice In Wonderland”</h1>
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<div class="cat-date-line"><span class="cat-date-line2"><a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/"
title="View all posts in Educate!" rel="category tag">Educate!</a></span>
<span class="cat-date-line3"> <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/criminal-justice-and-prisons/"
rel="tag">Criminal Justice and Prisons</a>, <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/edward-snowden/"
rel="tag">Edward Snowden</a>, <a
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<span class="cat-date-line4">By Kevin Zeese, <a
href="http://www.PopularResistance.org" target="_blank">www.PopularResistance.org</a><br>
July 8th, 2014</span><br>
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<h2><b>Clinton and Kerry Call On Snowden To Submit To Sham Security
State Trial</b></h2>
<p>Edward Snowden submitting to prosecution in the United States
would be like Alice going into the courtroom in Wonderland. Alice
stood before the King and Queen of Hearts who served as the
judges. Knaves were chained on the ground before them. The jurors,
Alice realizes are ‘stupid things.’ The first witness against her
was the Mad Hatter who is as mad as the culture he represents. The
guinea pigs who protest are immediately “suppressed” by having the
mouths tied up and being put into a bag and sat on by the King so
their protests cannot be heard. The most important evidence in the
trial was secret, a poem for which the author is unknown and
concludes:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">For this must ever be a secret,<br>
Kept from all the rest,<br>
Between yourself and me.</p>
<p>Alice realized the court room; with the icons of a justice system
– a judge, jury, witnesses – was really a sham that mocks a
legitimate legal process. To confirm her realization the King
said after the meaningless secret poetry evidence, that it was
“the most important piece of evidence” and “Let the jury consider
their verdict.” The Queen retorts “No, no! Sentence first;
verdict afterwards.”</p>
<p>Last week former Secretary of State <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/hillary-urges-snowden-come-home-to-face-indictments/">Hillary
Clinton joined</a> with the current Secretary of State <a
href="http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/john-kerry-urges-edward-snowden-to-return-to-the-us-1">John
Kerry in urging</a> Edward Snowden to come home and face
prosecution.</p>
<p>Clinton told The Guardian that he should “return knowing he would
be held accountable and also able to present a defense.” When
asked about whether he could really present a defense, Clinton
said:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">“In any case that I’m aware of as a
former lawyer, he has a right to mount a defense. And he certainly
has a right to launch both a legal defense and a public defense,
which can of course affect the legal defense.”</p>
<p>In fact, under current US law Snowden would face a criminal
process with virtually no defense, a pre-ordained outcome and he
would be silenced during the process. The law he would be charged
under, the Espionage Act, provides for no real defense and the due
process afforded would be inadequate resulting in an unfair trial
and lengthy sentence.</p>
<p>On June 14<sup>th</sup> federal <a
href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/21/19079389-us-charges-nsa-leaker-snowden-with-espionage?lite">prosecutors
in Alexandria, VA filed espionage charges</a> against Edward
Snowden. <a
href="http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/06/21/snowden-becomes-eighth-person-to-be-indicted-for-espionage-by-the-obama-justice-department/">Snowden
became the eighth person to be charged</a> under the 1917
Espionage Act during the Obama presidency, more than double all
previous presidents combined. As a result there is recent
experience with how these cases are prosecuted. Under the three
current felony charges Snowden faces up to 30 years in prison. The
prosecutors could add additional charges when Snowden is indicted.</p>
<p>Recent court decisions, including the <a
href="http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/04/14/chelsea-mannings-new-lawyers-to-challenge-espionage-act-convictions-they-consider-frightening/">prosecution
of Chelsea Manning</a>, have interpreted the Espionage Act to
not to require proof that the person accused intended to commit
espionage. If the person intended to blow the whistle on illegal
activity and was acting in the public interest, as in the case of
Snowden and the NSA, that would not be a defense.</p>
<p>It would not be relevant that former US intelligence officials
had <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/edward-snowden-given-sam-adams-award-for-integrity-in-intelligence/">given
Snowden an award for integrity</a> in intelligence. The fact
that a judge on the FISA surveillance court, <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/fisa-judge-says-snowden-sparked-debate-on-spying/">David
Saylor, acknowledged</a>“The unauthorized disclosure . . . have
engendered considerable public interest and debate…” Even the
Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, acknowledged “I
think it’s clear that some of the conversations this has
generated, some of the debate, actually needed to happen.” And,
that the reporters who worked with Snowden to publish the
documents won the top journalism award, <a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/pulitzer-publishing-nsa-leaks-was-a-public-service/">the
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service</a>. All of this would not be
relevant under the Espionage Act.</p>
<p>The jury would not be allowed to consider how the leaks were a
public service, not espionage. Almost certainly, the judge in
Snowden’s prosecution would not allow any arguments along those
lines and exclude all such evidence. Unlike other criminal laws
violation of the Espionage Act is a strict liability law — there
is no defense for a whistleblower who has admitted they leaked the
documents, i.e. the fact of the leak is espionage even if the
intent was to serve the public interest by exposing crimes by the
government. As a result, even though Snowden was not a spy
committing espionage — in the traditional sense of the term as
someone spying for a foreign enemy – the law could still be
applied to him.</p>
<p>In addition, rather than <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_Process_Clause">due
process</a> allowing a legitimate defense as is required by the
Constitution, his trial would rely on warped procedures that
actually prevent the basics of a fair trial. It is very likely
that Snowden would be denied bail and held in prison pending trial
despite the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution">constitution
providing for a right to bail</a>, especially since he fled the
nation and sought political asylum in a foreign country. Being
incarcerated pending trial makes mounting a defense very difficult
and would result in communication with the public and the media
being impossible. Clinton has it backward, unlike his current
situation, where Snowden can explain himself and the importance of
documents being released, he would be silenced.</p>
<p>As in the Manning and other <a
href="http://www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/TS111114.pdf/$file/TS111114.pdf">national
security cases</a>, it is likely that much of the evidence in
the trial will be classified as secret which will limit the number
of people who can see it and result in the public and the media
not being shown all of the evidence, despite the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution">Constitution
requiring a public trial</a>. As in the case of Chelsea
Manning, large portions of the trial will be out of public view
because the government will claim national security secrets will
be breached if the trial were a completely public trial. This will
keep the public uninformed of the real nature of the facts and in
the dark when the inevitable conviction results. Pundits
supporting the security state will say “well, you can’t criticize
the verdict because you do not know what the judge and jury knew;
you did not see all the evidence.”</p>
<p>Finally, the trial will be held in federal court in Alexandria,
Virginia. This is where the grand jury has been based. The
jurisdiction of this court includes the Pentagon, Pentagon City,
Crystal City and Rosslyn, areas concentrated with military,
security and intelligence contractors as well as people working in
the Pentagon and their relatives. The Alexandria federal court is
known to be very much a pro-security state court in part because
of the make-up of the jury pool. Is this the “<a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution">impartial
jury</a>” the Constitution envisions? Thus, it will be
impossible for Snowden to get a fair trial.</p>
<p>Why should Snowden submit to a judicial process that would so
unfair and obviously unjust? Surely Clinton, a former lawyer, and
Kerry are well aware that Snowden would be prosecuted in a phony
Kangaroo court where the deck would be stacked against him and the
process would be unfair, so their comments are false rhetoric,
like Kerry calling on Snowden to “man-up,” comments designed to
confuse the public. They know that what they are suggesting would
result in Snowden facing an unfair prosecution with a
pre-ordained conviction resulting in a lengthy sentence.</p>
<p>Should Edward Snowden submit to this mocking of legitimate
trials, where there is no real due process or any opportunity to
prove his innocence? That is what US security state trials have
become. A sham of justice, something that Edward Snowden should
never submit to.</p>
<p><em>To support Edward Snowden’s defense please visit </em><a
href="https://www.couragefound.org/"><em>The Courage Foundation</em></a><em>,
and </em><a
href="https://www.couragefound.org/stand-with-snowden/"><em>join
in their campaign</em></a><em> by sending in a photo showing
your support and </em><a
href="https://www.couragefound.org/take-action/"><em>donating to
his defense</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p><em>Kevin Zeese is an advisory board member of the </em><a
href="https://www.couragefound.org/advisory-board/"><em>Courage
Foundation</em></a><em>. He is an organizer with </em><a
href="http://www.popularresistance.org/"><em>Popular Resistance</em></a><em>,
serves as the </em><a
href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/7533"><em>Attorney
General of the Green Shadow Cabinet</em></a><em> and on the
steering committee of the </em><a
href="http://www.chelseamanning.org/"><em>Chelsea Manning
Support Network</em></a><em>. </em></p>
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