Edward Snowden – Moscow to Melbourne & an Obama Pardon?

Monday, 23 May 2016

▲ Last night Edward Snowden talked to a large audience at the Melbourne Convention Centre via video link from Moscow. He was interviewed by Julian Morrow from the satirical team The Chaser.

We got to pose questions to Mr Snowden and the one top on my list was whether he saw any hope of a pardon from Barrack Obama? It’s a US tradition that departing presidents can hand out presidential pardons as they leave the White House.

Skimming back through past presidential pardons they have included for: treason, sedition, piracy, perjury, murder, robbing the mails, mutiny, forgery, conspiracy to murder a president, polygamy, adultery, counterfeiting, bouncing cheques, mutilating coins, blasphemy, land fraud, mail fraud, violating prohibition, moonshining, drug offences, tax evasion, bribery, extortion, wiretapping, bank robbery, illegal political contributions, spying, terrorism, smuggling (three B-17s no less) and even for being a member of Peter, Paul & Mary (there must have been something else for that one?).

Surely Obama could fit Snowden in there somewhere? After all, as he emphasized during his talk, nobody has been harmed (at least nobody who didn’t deserve to be harmed) by his whistle blowing. His much needed whistle blowing many of us would insist.

Sadly he wasn’t too hopeful, ‘only if it’s good for Obama’s legacy’ seemed to be his conclusion.

▲ Last month I managed to turn up at ground zero for another piece of large scale whistle blowing and incriminating document dispersal. I arrived in Panama City just as the Panama Papers grabbed headlines all around the world. This is my selfie of the year, outside the Mossack Fonseca office in Panama City.