‘Snowden was right’, US ex-Attorney General admits

This video from the USA says about itself:

Eric Holder: Edward Snowden Performed “Public Service”

31 May 2016

Eric Holder wanted to throw the book at Edward Snowden while he was in office and it mattered. Now that he’s retired, he’s sounding more sympathetic.

What a pity that so many politicians only start saying and doing good things once they are out of office. Like, eg, also this politician and this politician.

Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.

“The former US attorney general Eric Holder has said the National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden performed a “public service” by starting a debate over government surveillance techniques.

Speaking on a podcast hosted by David Axelrod, a former campaign strategist for Barack Obama, Holder emphasized, however, that Snowden must still be punished.

“We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changes that we made,” Holder said, in an hourlong discussion on The Axe Files.

“Now, I would say that doing what he did – and the way he did it – was inappropriate and illegal.”…

Snowden has said repeatedly that he would return to the US if he could get a fair trial.

“But, as I think you’re quite familiar, the Espionage Act does not permit a public interest defense,” Snowden told a University of Chicago event earlier this month. “You’re not allowed to speak the word ‘whistleblower’ at trial.””

Read more here.