Snowden's Leaks Are Grounds to Impeach

Dear Mr. President,

Here’s what you said on June 7, two days after Edward Snowden’s first disclosure of illegal NSA surveillance appeared in the press: “I welcome this debate and I think it's healthy for our democracy,” Yeah, right. Like most of what you’ve said over the past 4½ years, it sounded good and that’s what people wanted to hear, but the truth is, your administration has done everything in its power to silence Snowden, trapping him in a Moscow airport so he has no choice but to ask for asylum in Russia until he can travel safely on to Venezuela or Bolivia or Nicaragua. Putin doesn’t want him but it’s a chance to stick his finger in your eye and he’s not going to pass that up. The debate you claimed you wanted will take place, not in the court of public opinion but in federal courts, no doubt including the Supreme Court. As Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU said, the government has been playing a “shell game” with the Constitution, blocking every attempt to stop the NSA’s illegal surveillance, arguing in Clapper v. Amnesty International that the plaintiffs had no standing because they were unable to show that the NSA was spying on them. In other cases, government lawyers invoked the state secrets privilege and that old standby, national security, to avoid revealing anything about the program. But one 29-year-old hacker (your term) brought all the lying and secrecy to a halt by revealing the truth. Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed suit in San Francisco federal court on behalf of many plaintiffs including Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch and the Council on American Islamic Relations, to stop the NSA surveillance program. Last month, the ACLU filed a similar suit in New York federal court and other suits against the NSA have been filed as well. Without Mr. Snowden, none of this would be taking place. Something else you said on June 7: that the two most important commitments you made on taking office were to keep the American people safe and to uphold the Constitution. Clapper, Alexander, Brennan and others in your administration have lied to Congress and the American people. Snowden has sparked a debate that you yourself have described as “healthy for democracy.” Why then, are you charging Edward Snowden with espionage? And why did you not fire Clapper and Alexander who are guilty of contempt of Congress and have undermined the Constitution? You have failed your oath to uphold the Constitution, Mr. President, and that is grounds for impeachment.