White House Won't Pardon Edward Snowden
President Barack Obama won't pardon former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for disclosing intelligence information, the White House said in a statement Tuesday in response to a "We the People" petition to the White House to pardon Snowden. “Mr. Snowden's dangerous…
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decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it,” said Lisa Monaco, the president's adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism, in the statement. Snowden should have challenged the NSA’s activities, spoken out, engaged in a constructive act of protest, and “accept[ed] the consequences of his actions,” Monaco said. “He should come home to the United States, and be judged by a jury of his peers -- not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime,” she said. The U.S. faces “grave security threats like terrorism, cyber-attacks, and nuclear proliferation that our intelligence community must have all the lawful tools it needs to address,” Monaco said. Balancing security and civil liberties deserves robust debate by those willing to engage in it in the U.S., she said.