Tulsi Approved

[What Would Jesus Do?]

After Trump announced Gabbard as his DNI pick in November, Democrats — and a handful of Republicans — voiced serious concerns about her 2017 secret meeting with then-President Bashar Assad of Syria; her sympathetic comments about Russia; her past efforts to repeal a powerful government surveillance tool, known as Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702; and her previous support for Edward Snowden, a former government contractor who leaked classified information to the press about those spying programs.

Before her nomination, Gabbard had argued that Snowden should be pardoned. But appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee at a confirmation hearing last month, Gabbard reversed course, saying she would not push for Snowden to be pardoned or receive clemency, even as she refused to call the former National Security Agency contractor a “traitor” when pressed by GOP senators.

[NBC via MS]

 

[seminole97]

"a former government contractor who leaked classified information to the press about those spying programs."

That's a weird way to write, "confirmed to the world that America was illegally spying on Americans."

They should prosecute the people who violated our rights.

 

[Bulldogs1974]

"a former government contractor who leaked classified information to the press about those spying programs."

That's a weird way to write, "confirmed to the world that America was illegally spying on Americans."

They should prosecute the people who violated our rights.

Where did it say that in that sentence?

 

[Sullivan]

It looks like all of Trump’s picks will be approved by the Senate.

 

[Bulldogs1974]

WHy would america not spy on americans aiding foreign governments?

 

[QChawks]

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

WHy would america not spy on americans aiding foreign governments?

There are rules. Snowden showed that we were breaking the rules. And that we were lying about it - under both Rs and Ds. "We" being the government.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Where did it say that in that sentence?

Who cares? The fact is that we were illegally spying on Americans.

Were you not paying attention at the time? There are books and movies digging into this, if you want references.

 

[MitchLL]

This country is so fvcked.

 

[seminole97]

Where did it say that in that sentence?

Sir, you have identified the problem.
The 'explanation' OP quoted is really just obfuscation.

 

[seminole97]

WHy would america not spy on americans aiding foreign governments?

They can, it requires a warrant, which they can obtain from the Foreign Intelligence Services Court (something like a 99.9% approval rate).

But they wanted to spy on everyone, even without cause, and so they did - illegally.

 

[BrunoMars420]

Only republican not confirming her is Mitch McConnell. #interesting

 

[seminole97]

Only republican not confirming her is Glitch McConnell. #interesting

FTFY

 

[Moral]

DEI hire and clearly not a merit hire.

 

[MichaelKeller99]

"a former government contractor who leaked classified information to the press about those spying programs."

That's a weird way to write, "confirmed to the world that America was illegally spying on Americans."

They should prosecute the people who violated our rights.

Snowden shined a light on them.

Rats HATE the light.

 

[Kelsers]

Only republican not confirming her is Mitch McConnell. #interesting

He probably did that because he knew it wouldn't change anything.

 

[bcherod]

They can, it requires a warrant, which they can obtain from the Foreign Intelligence Services Court (something like a 99.9% approval rate).

But they wanted to spy on everyone, even without cause, and so they did - illegally.

Do you realize how ridiculous this is? The government has never spied on all of its citizens.

To even imply this shows a lack of ability to comprehend how the spook community works.

They do not and never have had the resources to spy on the regular Joe. Now if the regular Joe is hanging out with known spies that amongst us, that’s another story.

Let’s take the National Guardsman that was caught stealing sensitive information. Don’t you think it behooves the intelligence community to investigate his associates?

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

It looks like all of Trump’s picks will be approved by the Senate.

Thanks to the corrupt, no spine(aka republican) party .

 

[gohawks50]

He probably did that because he knew it wouldn't change anything.

And because he's retiring so the primary threat doesn't work anymore on him.

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

Do you realize how ridiculous this is? The government has never spied on all of its citizens.

To even imply this shows a lack of ability to comprehend how the spook community works.

They do not and never have had the resources to spy on the regular Joe. Now if the regular Joe is hanging out with known spies that amongst us, that’s another story.

Let’s take the National Guardsman that was caught stealing sensitive information. Don’t you think it behooves the intelligence community to investigate his associates?

Only if he's a democrat.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

There's been a lot of 1984ish flip-flopping on this.

At the time, most lefties, a lot of libertarians, and some Dems considered Snowden a valuable whistleblower in the tradition of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and Wikileaks source Chelsea Manning.

Some even considered him a hero.

Most Rs and some Dems - including Hillary - called him a traitor.

Look at us now.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

He probably did that because he knew it wouldn't change anything.

The best part is his statement:

“The Senate’s power of advice and consent is not an option; it is an obligation, and one we cannot pretend to misunderstand. When a nominee’s record proves them unworthy of the highest public trust, and when their command of relevant policy falls short of the requirements of their office, the Senate should withhold its consent,"

Makes one wonder which lizard overlord was wearing Moscow Mitch's skin during the first Trump administration.

 

[warriors dad]

Old Mitch wont be in senate much longer. He will never get re-elected again! No more Rinos please!!!

 

[MitchLL]

Thanks to the corrupt, no spine(aka republican) party .

Even RFK Jr's veep pick in his campaign run has promised to fund any primary challenges to any current Republican legislators that stand up to the WH.

Truly, a bunch of cowards.

 

[BrunoMars420]

He probably did that because he knew it wouldn't change anything.

And he is entrenched within the MIC. Threatens his biggest fans

 

[QChawks]

 

[seminole97]

Do you realize how ridiculous this is? The government has never spied on all of its citizens.

You're mistaken.

(Reuters) - Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans' telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful - and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.
In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans' telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional.

 

[Sullivan]

Thanks to the corrupt, no spine(aka republican) party .

The D's have been voting as a block, regardless of how much it hurts the country.

 

[bcherod]

You're mistaken.

(Reuters) - Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans' telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful - and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.
In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the warrantless telephone dragnet that secretly collected millions of Americans' telephone records violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and may well have been unconstitutional.

Once again you’re wrong. You obviously have no knowledge of the intelligence community.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Democratic Party Primary Debate October 13, 2015

COOPER: Governor Chafee, Edward Snowden, is he a traitor or a hero?

CHAFEE: No, I would bring him home. The courts have ruled that what he did -- what he did was say the American...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Bring him home, no jail time?

CHAFEE: ... the American government was acting illegally. That's what the federal courts have said; what Snowden did showed that the American government was acting illegally for the Fourth Amendment. So I would bring him home.

COOPER: Secretary Clinton, hero or traitor?

CLINTON: He broke the laws of the United States. He could have been a whistleblower. He could have gotten all of the protections of being a whistleblower. He could have raised all the issues that he has raised. And I think there would have been a positive response to that.

COOPER: Should he do jail time?

ClINTON: In addition -- in addition, he stole very important information that has unfortunately fallen into a lot of the wrong hands. So I don't think he should be brought home without facing the music.

COOPER: Governor O'Malley, Snowden?

(APPLAUSE)

O'MALLEY: Anderson, Snowden put a lot of Americans' lives at risk. Snowden broke the law. Whistleblowers do not run to Russia and try to get protection from Putin. If he really believes that, he should be back here.

COOPER: Senator Sanders, Edward Snowden?

SANDERS: I think Snowden played a very important role in educating the American people to the degree in which our civil liberties and our constitutional rights are being undermined.

COOPER: Is he a hero?

SANDERS: He did -- he did break the law, and I think there should be a penalty to that. But I think what he did in educating us should be taken into consideration before he is (inaudible).

COOPER: Senator Webb, Edward Snowden?

WEBB: I -- well, I -- I would leave his ultimate judgment to the legal system. Here's what I do believe. We have a serious problem in terms of the collection of personal information in this country. And one of the things that I did during the FISA bill in 2007, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was introduce with Russ Feingold two amendments basically saying, "We understand the realities of how you have to collect this broad information in the Internet age, but after a certain period of time, you need to destroy the personal information that you have if people have not been brought -- if criminal justice proceedings have not been brought against them."

We've got a vast data bank of information that is ripe for people with bad intentions to be able to use. And they need to be destroyed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/13/the-oct-13-democratic-debate-who-said-what-and-what-it-means/

 

[bcherod]

Snowden is a traitor. Your first clue is that he ran off to Russia.

Now, ask yourself this. Why would he go to Russia? There are plenty of other countries that he could have gone.

He appears more likely to have been an “asset” for our enemies v

 

[Bulldogs1974]

Who cares? The fact is that we were illegally spying on Americans.

Were you not paying attention at the time? There are books and movies digging into this, if you want references.

I'm just saying his two sentences are not congruent unless there is more to the story. I'm not a snowden expert.

 

[seminole97]

Once again you’re wrong. You obviously have no knowledge of the intelligence community.

Do you have any evidence they didn't do what the Ninth Circuit said they did - collected the records of millions of Americans without a warrant?

They lied about it, which the Court said, and you're just repeating that lie, without any evidence.

If the FBI wants to investigate the contacts of someone they submit a warrant application to the FISC and then they can legally investigate that person. The 'two hop rule' actually means that a warrant on that person includes everyone they've comunicated with, and everyone those people have communicated with. Tools exist to surveil Americans legally, but when Snowden blew the whistle the intelligence community was not following the law.

The ruling on that has come down already.

 

[BrunoMars420]

There's been a lot of 1984ish flip-flopping on this.

At the time, most lefties, a lot of libertarians, and some Dems considered Snowden a valuable whistleblower in the tradition of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and Wikileaks source Chelsea Manning.

Some even considered him a hero.

Most Rs and some Dems - including Hillary - called him a traitor.

Look at us now.

They are all Russian assets now per some posters here. It’s easier to scream Russia on EVERYTHING than look at the history of these organizations and what they have done.

 

[tarheelbybirth]

At the time, most lefties, a lot of libertarians, and some Dems considered Snowden a valuable whistleblower in the tradition of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg and Wikileaks source Chelsea Manning.

Don't put Ellsberg or Manning with Snowden. The didn't run away. Ellsberg heard Randy Kehler speak on Vietnam about being ready to join his fellow resistors in prison and literally had an epiphany.

"I heard his words in the midst of actually feeling proud of my country listening to him. And then I heard he was going to prison. It wasn't what he said exactly that changed my worldview. It was the example he was setting with his life. How his words in general showed that he was a stellar American, and that he was going to jail as a very deliberate choice – because he thought it was the right thing to do."

I heard him speak many, many years ago in Chapel Hill - my older brother took me - and Ellsberg said if he hadn't heard Kehler speak he probably never would have done what he did. I don't know much about the Manning case - she might not have had the chance to run - but Ellsberg deliberately choosing to face the consequences of his actions goes a looong way toward shutting down a "traitor" designation. He did what was right from start to finish.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

They are all Russian assets now per some posters here. It’s easier to scream Russia on EVERYTHING than look at the history of these organizations and what they have done.

A wrong turn - led by Hillary - that affected some of my liberal friends, as well. And still does, based on their hatred of Tulsi.

 

[seminole97]

Snowden is a traitor. Your first clue is that he ran off to Russia.
Now, ask yourself this. Why would he go to Russia? There are plenty of other countries that he could have gone.
He appears more likely to have been an “asset” for our enemies v

He didn't 'run off to Russia'.
He went to Hong Kong to meet with journalists, and then left Hong Kong en route to Ecuador. The Obama White House deliberately revoked his passport while he was transferring planes in Moscow, stranding him, and then trying to misrepresent it as him having fled to Russia.

This explains what happened:

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/ben-rhodes-book-proves-obama-officials

The second even "more important signal” sent by Cuba showing its genuine desire to improve relations was their capitulation to Rhodes’ threats that they had better withdraw the permission they had granted Snowden to allow him to pass through Havana once he left the Moscow airport as planned, on his way to Latin America where he intended to seek asylum.

In other words, Rhodes — who has spent years insinuating that Snowden is a Russian spy and traitor given his "choice” to flee to Russia — knew in real time that Snowden never planned to stay even one day in Russia. He had only flown to Moscow from Hong Kong with the intent to immediately fly from Moscow to Havana, and then on to either Ecuador or Bolivia to obtain asylum. Prior to landing in Moscow, Snowden and his representatives had secured a commitment from the Cuban government to allow him safe passage through Havana on his way to South America.

The only reason Snowden is in Russia is because of the actions of Rhodes and his fellow Obama officials to deliberately trap him there: first by invalidating his passport so that he could not board any international flights, and then by threatening the Cuban government that any chance for normalization with the U.S. would be permanently destroyed unless they withdrew their guarantee to Snowden of safe passage through Havana, which they then did. Here's Rhodes in his own words, boasting about what he regards as his success:

There was one other, more important signal. Around the time of our second meeting, Edward Snowden was stuck in the Moscow airport, trying to find someone who would take him in. Reportedly, he wanted to go to Venezuela, transiting through Havana, but I knew that if the Cubans aided Snowden, any rapprochement between our countries would prove impossible. I pulled Alejandro Castro aside and said I had a message that came from President Obama. I reminded him that the Cubans had said they wanted to give Obama “political space” so that he could take steps to improve relations. “If you take in Snowden,” I said, “that political space will be gone.” I never spoke to the Cubans about this issue again. A few days later, back in Washington, I woke up to a news report: “Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden got stuck in the transit zone of a Moscow airport because Havana said it would not let him fly from Russia to Cuba, a Russian newspaper reported.” I took it as a message: The Cubans were serious about improving relations.

 

[BelemNole]

Don't give a shit about snowden, but Tusli confirmed is comically bad. Probably worse the DOD.

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

The D's have been voting as a block, regardless of how much it hurts the country.

They are voting for democracy and against nazidom. You people on the other hand love hitler and hitler type people.