September 2, 2020 Issue, Page 4 of 8

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Page 4 The Elk City News, Elk City, Oklahoma Wednesday, September 2, 2020 Opinion Page Counterpoint: No, President Trump “ElkCituNews should not pardon Edward Snowden Serving Western Oklahoma since 1901 Stark differences Presidents were given the By Gary Schmitt, Inside- Sources.com program and the Supreme Court had validated collec- tion of such data as infor- compromise of the covert ways the CIA and NSA are able to penetrate computer lated to civil liberties - is that Snowden had other avenues through which he could have between parties pardon power for two princi- pal reasons: one, in times of mation that phone compa- nies already had on hand as systems from afar and even without those systems being raised his concerns about the NSA collection program. crisis, a timely pardon might part of doing business and, tied to the internet. Indeed, on energy policy Each agency has an inspec- be in the country’s national hence, couldn’t be thought also given away was the tor general’s office whose interest and, two, when the of as private. fact that U.S. intelligence responsibility it is to look at The Oklahoman letter of the law creates an Whatever the program’s was able to listen in on the charges of illegality or im- There are many policy differences between former vice inequity in its application. substantive merits - and rea- Russian president’s calls and Neither situation applies to sonable people can differ on had penetrated key Chinese propriety; and each agency president Joe Biden, who formally accepted the Demo- Edward Snowden. that - it’s important to re- servers in Beijing. has processes intended to cratic Party’s nomination for president last week, and To the contrary, his de- member that, after 9/11, the At the end of the day, protect whistleblowers. President Donald Trump, who will accept his party’s cision to steal 1.5 million complaint was that the gov- Snowden’s disclosures have Finally, if Snowden be- nomination this week. highly classified documents ernment had not been for- closed off successful collec- lieved he hadn’t received from USS. intelligence and ward leaning enough when tion operations that cost mil- satisfaction from that of- Energy offers one of the starkest examples. make them available to jour- it came to collecting intelli- lions to develop against crit- fice, or that he couldn’t use The Trump administration recently finalized a drilling nalists and, when published, gence and has missed leads ical targets having nothing to them for whatever reason, he plan for a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America’s adversaries, is de- because it was not “con- do with American citizens. could have gone to either the something Republicans have sought for decades and the serving of an extended stay necting the dots.” The NSA Putting Snowden ona ped- House or Senate intelligence in federal prison. program was an effort to estal is hard to take given his committee. As a former staff Bureau of Land Management says can be done safely in Snowden’s supporters collect the dots so they could own track record of decep- the coastal plain area. Democrats oppose the plan as do director of the Senate com- claim that by exposing a Na- be connected. If you knew a tion. He lied as to why he mittee, I can attest that it environmental groups that hold tremendous sway with tional Security Administra- terrorist’s cell number, then washed out of the Army; he was not unusual to receive the party. tion program that collected knowing what other num- lied about the level of work a mass of telephone meta- bers were in touch with him he did at CIA in order to get complaints from Intelligence That influence is evident in Biden’s $2 trillion climate data (time, duration and end might be a critical piece of another job; he doctored his Community employees on change plan, which resulted from a task force co-chaired points of calls but not their intelligence. resume and his performance this or that issue, which we by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The plan calls for substance), he was engaged Moreover, as a House evaluations and, according would then follow up on. using renewable energy, primarily wind and solar, to in an act of civil disobedi- intelligence committee re- to the House report, he stole Snowden’s actions are not achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions no later than ence. The American public port on the damage done by answers to an employment that of true civil disobedi- needed to know what was Snowden noted, “the vast test in order to obtain his ence where an individual 2050, It proposes installing 500 million solar panels and going on behind NSA closed majority of the documents Position associated with the breaks a law in protest but, 60,000 wind turbines, and transitioning the nation’s fleet doors in the name of suppos- he stole have nothing to do NSA. And, of course, he lied out of respect for the broader of school buses to zero-emission alternatives within five edly fighting terrorism. with programs impacting in- to his supervisor about tak- rule of law, accepts jail time. years. But was it illegal what dividual privacy interests _ ing a few days off for medi- A pardon for someone who NSA was doing? Not ac- they instead pertain to mili- cal treatment when in fact he The plan would, within 15 years, stop the use of coal clearly thinks he is above the cording to two different ad- tary, defense and intelligence was hightailing it to Hong and natural gas to generate electricity. Biden would ban law is neither necessary nor ministrations, one Republi- programs of great interest to Kong and eventually making America’s adversaries.” his way to Moscow. appropriate. new oil and gas production offshore and on federal land. can (Bush), one Democrat (Obama). Not according to Indeed, “leaks” from The reason to bring up Gary Schmitt is resident A new Justice Department division would be created to the federal courts either. The Snowden’s stash have led these character issues - and scholar in Strategic Studies punish the heads of businesses that “continue to pollute” at the American Enterprise Foreign Intelligence Sur- to terrorist groups changing putting aside for the moment communities. veillance Court on multiple methods of communication the massive amount of mate- Institute. He wrote this for The hydraulic fracking revolution of the past several occasions had approved the to enhance security, and the tial he took with him unre- InsideSources.com. years has made the United States energy independent, strengthening national security. The use of coal has di- minished considerably as natural gas use has surged, but Point: Yes, President Trump should even that clean-burning fuel is anathema to many pro- gressives who say only green will do. pardon Edward Snowden California residents are finding out what that can mean, By Louis Clark, Inside- employees and contractors Office violated its confiden- cloak of classification. The enduring blackouts during the current heat wave because Sources.com regressed from having some tiality agreement and gave top intelligence chief of the mandated renewables can’t keep up. Renewable energy President Barack Obama protections to none at all. their names to the FBI as nation, James Clapper, lied makes up more than one-third of California’s electric should have pardoned Ed- To Obama’s credit, he did “Jeakers” - a false accusa- about the very existence of ward Snowden. Now, it is up issue an executive order - tion. the program while testifying generation, with mandates set to push that to 60% by to President Donald Trump Presidential Policy Direc- As a result, the FBI sent under oath at a Senate hear- 2030 and 100% by 2045. to do what's just. tive 19 - that provided some armed tactical squads to in- ing. The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel notes that It is ultimately the respon- relief to intelligence agency vade their homes. They faced Eventually the president Biden talked during the convention about the clean-ener- sibility of the president to employees, but he too left possible criminal prosecu- responded to the public out- ensure that national secu- contractors, like Snowden, tion for years. The trauma cry in response to Snowden’s gy energy jobs that would be created under his adminis- rity whistleblowers have an out in the cold. Following of those events still haunts tration, but not about the millions of existing energy jobs disclosures and ended some effective and safe avenue the order, intelligence agen- them and their families. Fur- of the surveillance abuses. In that would be lost. In July, Strassel wrote that, “A study to raise concerns that they cies were not only hostile to thermore, Drake faced 10 doing so, he claimed that the by the National Ocean Industries Association finds that a reasonably believe evidence the implementation of the trumped-up felony counts, reforms were in the works ban on offshore drilling alone would cost 200,000 jobs, violations of law, abuse of directive but actively under- which could have sent him authority, specific health and mined its realization. to prison for life. Over four before Snowden’s revela- damaging regional economies.” safety dangers, environmen- In public statements, years later, on the eve of his tions. There is no evidence All this matters because Oklahoma’s traditional energy tal threats, gross waste of Obama and many other pub- espionage trial, the case fell that this was true. In fact, sector is already hurting. Last week, Chaparral Energy funds or gross management. lic officials falsely claimed apart and the federal judge Clapper’s lies to Congress became the latest to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy pro- Edward Snowden clearly that the reforms were opera- who presided excoriated the suggest the opposite. had such reasonable beliefs, ble and would have covered Department of Justice for its Edward Snowden coura- tection. Oil and gas companies of all sizes are trimming geously spoke up and ex- and therefore should be par- Snowden, yet in practice work. In court, he chided the operations and cutting back. doned not only for his own they were nonexistent. With- prosecutors and wondered posed what the NSA was While the Biden energy plan doesn’t seek to ban pro- work but also to set a prece- out an avenue to act legally what had happened to the doing and how its leaders duction of fossil fuels, its proposed rules would make dent for the future safety and and safely to reform the “adult supervision” at the were lying to the American efficacy of national security National Security Agency, department. people. It was the obligation drilling for oil and gas costlier and more burdensome, whistleblowers. Snowden took the bold ac- Snowden saw what hap- of Congress, the president, something voters here and in other energy-producing A year before Snowden’s tion to expose surveillance pened to his predecessor and our national security states will need to consider when weighing their choices revelations, Congress was activity, which our leaders whistleblowers and chose agencies to provide a safe in November. on the verge of ensuring should have exposed them- a different way forward: a channel for his concerns. rights and protections that selves and that we as Ameri- path that he saw as the only They failed. Have something would have covered all in- cans had a right to know. option to expose the wrong- It is time President Trump telligence community con- Snowden paid close at- doing that he knew a great recognizes the failures of tractors, such as Snowden, tention to the treatment that deal about, but about which previous administrations and through the passage of a Americans knew nothing. to share? earlier whistleblowers had pardon this idealistic and pa- stimulus bill. Unfortunate- endured, such as Thomas Had he not done so, we triotic citizen. ly, at the 11th hour before Drake and his colleagues. would not have learned of Snowden’s _ truth-telling adjournment in Decem- They raised their concerns the massive surveillance Send your letter to and civil disobedience pro- ber 2012, members of the about a corrupt surveillance program that the NSA had House Intelligence Commit- program at NSA. They went launched, which was affect- vided critical information tee blocked the legislation. to their superiors, to the NSA ing the privacy of millions of about what our government They succeeded in stripping general counsel, to the De- was doing to us, and sup- the editorto Americans. the bill of any whistleblower fense Department Inspector We certainly would not posedly for us, without our protections for intelligence General Office, and eventu- have known about the NSA’s knowledge or consent. community contractors, in- ally to both the Senate and activities because despite Louis Clark is CEO of [email protected] cluding the weak provisions the House intelligence com- the abuses and overreach Government Accountability that already existed in the mittees. The Department of of surveillance, the docu- Project. He wrote this for In- law. All intelligence agency Defense Inspector General ments were buried under the sideSources.com.