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There Are 12 Million Stateless People Around The World, But Edward Snowden Isn’t One Of Them
There Are 12 Million Stateless People Around The World, But Edward Snowden Isn’t One Of Them
By Hayes Brown
Edward Snowden, the former contractor who leaked the details of several National Security Agency spying programs, is currently a man on the run, attempting to find asylum from U.S. prosecution in countries around the world.
In a statement released through the pro-transparency organization Wikileaks, Snowden argued the United States had condemned him to a life of “the extralegal penalty of exile” as a punishment for his crimes. “The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon,” the statement reads. “Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.”
While the veracity of the statement’s authorship is under dispute, the message behind it is worth examining given its claims of a violation of Snowden’s human rights. It is most definitely true that after his flight to Hong Kong, the United States revoked Snowden’s passport in an attempt to render him unable to travel. Counter to Snowden’s claims, however, the process for passport revocation is relatively simple and fully documented within the law.
According to federal law, the Department of State can revoke a passport when the person “would not be entitled to a new passport” under the laws surrounding their issuance. As Snowden is, in fact, the subject of “an outstanding Federal warrant of arrest for a felony” as provided under Title 22 of the U.S. Code, the U.S. pulling his ability to travel is completely legal...passport revocation does not qualify Snowden as stateless as claimed in his statement, as he still remains an American citizen and retains all the rights under U.S. law that status grants him. That makes him quite different from the the peoples around the world who are truly denied similar rights in the states they inhabit, even if their family has been present for generations. According to the United Nations, there are currently an estimated 12 million people around the world who actually qualify as stateless.
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/07/02/2244791/snowden-statelessness/
By Hayes Brown
Edward Snowden, the former contractor who leaked the details of several National Security Agency spying programs, is currently a man on the run, attempting to find asylum from U.S. prosecution in countries around the world.
In a statement released through the pro-transparency organization Wikileaks, Snowden argued the United States had condemned him to a life of “the extralegal penalty of exile” as a punishment for his crimes. “The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon,” the statement reads. “Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.”
While the veracity of the statement’s authorship is under dispute, the message behind it is worth examining given its claims of a violation of Snowden’s human rights. It is most definitely true that after his flight to Hong Kong, the United States revoked Snowden’s passport in an attempt to render him unable to travel. Counter to Snowden’s claims, however, the process for passport revocation is relatively simple and fully documented within the law.
According to federal law, the Department of State can revoke a passport when the person “would not be entitled to a new passport” under the laws surrounding their issuance. As Snowden is, in fact, the subject of “an outstanding Federal warrant of arrest for a felony” as provided under Title 22 of the U.S. Code, the U.S. pulling his ability to travel is completely legal...passport revocation does not qualify Snowden as stateless as claimed in his statement, as he still remains an American citizen and retains all the rights under U.S. law that status grants him. That makes him quite different from the the peoples around the world who are truly denied similar rights in the states they inhabit, even if their family has been present for generations. According to the United Nations, there are currently an estimated 12 million people around the world who actually qualify as stateless.
- more -
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/07/02/2244791/snowden-statelessness/
Josh Marshall: "Snowden’s pretty screwed."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023144319
14 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
coming straight from Greenwald's bag of bullshit.
"Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.”
"Unilateraly"?“ "Convicted"? As Bob Cesca so nicely pointed out.. who else was the US suppose to ask to revoke his damn passport? And, no he hasn't been "convicted" of anything because he IS Hiding in Russia instead of getting his ass home to the USA where his Dad is asking him to come back to.
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/07/02/rise-and-shine-543/#comments
thanks ProSense.
