<story><title>Spy or whistleblower? Should Obama settle with Snowden?</title><url>http://www.newsweek.com/spy-or-whistleblower-should-obama-settle-snowden-479813</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>abraca</author><text>For me, Hillary being let off changed how I view the Snowden affair. Before Hillary was let off without penalty, I thought that exposing or acting carelessly with classified information was a really big deal, that it seriously put American lives at risk - AND that others were doing a good job keeping that information under wraps, so breaches would be meaningful. Now it seems more like a political game. Hillary put us in more danger than Snowden. Punishing snowden is more about keeping info out of eyes of American public (i.e., Hillary&amp;#x27;s emails still need to be redacted, even though her server was likely hacked and info is almost certainly out there and America&amp;#x27;s ememies have it.) I hope that Hillary skating will set a precedent that will allow more whistleblowers to come forward to the public with information when needed without being penalized. Perhaps whistleblowers might use the strategy of releasing information &amp;#x27;unintentionally&amp;#x27; and then use the Hillary defense.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>philwelch</author><text>Hillary stored classified information on a privately owned email server. Snowden collected a cache of classified documents and gave them to foreign journalists. There&amp;#x27;s really no comparison between the two. One is an instance of careless information security by someone who found the official systems inconvenient to use and the other is deliberately disclosing classified information.</text></comment>
<story><title>Spy or whistleblower? Should Obama settle with Snowden?</title><url>http://www.newsweek.com/spy-or-whistleblower-should-obama-settle-snowden-479813</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>abraca</author><text>For me, Hillary being let off changed how I view the Snowden affair. Before Hillary was let off without penalty, I thought that exposing or acting carelessly with classified information was a really big deal, that it seriously put American lives at risk - AND that others were doing a good job keeping that information under wraps, so breaches would be meaningful. Now it seems more like a political game. Hillary put us in more danger than Snowden. Punishing snowden is more about keeping info out of eyes of American public (i.e., Hillary&amp;#x27;s emails still need to be redacted, even though her server was likely hacked and info is almost certainly out there and America&amp;#x27;s ememies have it.) I hope that Hillary skating will set a precedent that will allow more whistleblowers to come forward to the public with information when needed without being penalized. Perhaps whistleblowers might use the strategy of releasing information &amp;#x27;unintentionally&amp;#x27; and then use the Hillary defense.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>adrenalinelol</author><text>Leaking classified material was sacrilege in Washington... Until someone of privilege (HRC) did it... Now the the obvious hypocrisy has been exposed, we can stop pretending there were intractable operational risks created be Edward Snowden and pardon him. Before the leaks, anyone who claimed we were turning into a police state was branded a conspiracy theorist, now it&amp;#x27;s part of the public record. Had it remained in the shadows it&amp;#x27;d be a far scarier monstrosity than we have today.</text></comment>