Two of the most widely-read newspapers on the planet are asking the United States government to give clemency to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, and even a former official from the US State Department says she has to agree.<\/p>\n
The editorial boards at both the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u00a0and Britain\u2019s\u00a0The Guardian<\/a>\u00a0newspapers published similar pleas on their respective op-ed pages on New Year\u2019s Day this week, each imploring the US government to abandon its pursuit for the former intelligence contractor.<\/p>\n Snowden<\/a>, 30, has been in Russia since late June after he fled the US for Hong Kong. There he identified himself as the source responsible for taking a trove of classified\u00a0NSA documents<\/a>\u00a0that have been cited by reporters at the Times, the Guardian and elsewhere during the last half-year through articles that continue to pull back the curtain on the American spy agency\u2019s controversial and previously underreported surveillance programs. A review panel put together by US President Barack Obama released a report last month detailing 46\u00a0recommendations<\/a>\u00a0for reforming those programs, but the White House and Department of Justice publically remain disinterested in dropping charges of espionage against Mr. Snowden.<\/p>\n Both the Times\u2019 and Guardian\u2019s editorial board wrote this week that shot callers in Washington should reconsider.<\/p>\n \u201cConsidering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the Times board wrote on Wednesday. \u201cIt is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that calm heads within the present administration are working on a strategy to allow Mr. Snowden to return to the US with dignity, and the president to use his executive powers to treat him humanely and in a manner that would be a shining example about the value of whistleblowers and of free speech itself,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0journalists at the Guardian added in their own op-ed.<\/p>\n