The Demonization Machine Cranks Up Against Edward Snowden

Matt Welch, in the Hit & Run blog at Reason.com clearly has a strong stomach. He has gathered a sampling of the rabid attacks being thrown at Snowden by an assortment of Obamabots, NSA-lovers and police-statists.

I cannot bear to quote more than a couple here. Read the entire collection here.

Marc Thiessen, Washington Post columnist, American Enterprise Institute fellow, former speech writer for president George W. Bush and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former senior aide to senator Jesse Helms, author of Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe....

Turns out Edward Snowden — the former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked documents revealing top-secret National Security Agency programs tracking terrorist communications — is a Paulbot. [...]

The revelation is of particular interest because one of the harshest critics of the NSA since the leaks began has been… Senator Rand Paul. Taken in isolation, the fact that Snowden supported the elder Paul's presidential bid should not necessarily tar the senator. Politicians can't be held responsible for all the actions of their supporters. But in addition to his campaign contributions, Snowden's comments explaining his reasons for leaking are virtually indistinguishable from Senator Paul's criticisms of the NSA program.

Ralph Peters, strategic analyst for Fox News, columnist for the New York Post, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, author of such books as New Glory: Expanding America’s Global Supremacy:

Now you've got this 29-year-old high school-dropout whistleblower making foreign policy for our country, our security policy....We've made treason cool. Betraying your country is kind of a fashion statement. He wants to be the national security Kim Kardashian. He cites Bradley Manning as a hero.

I mean, we need to get very, very serious about treason. And, oh by the way, for treason — as in the case of Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden — you bring back the death penalty.