I missed this early when writing about Democratic and Republican confusion over the NSA revelations and the self-revelation of their source, but I’d say Fox “analyst” Ralph Peters established a pretty firm outside boundary for the debate over what if anything to do about Edward Snowden:
Fox News strategic analyst Ralph Peters on Monday said that the man behind the biggest leak in the history of the National Security Agency (NSA) deserved to be executed for his crimes.
Peters asserted on Monday’s Fox & Friends that no Americans had been hurt by the NSA programs exposed by 29-year-old Edward Snowden.
“Now you’ve got this 29-year-old high school dropout whistleblower making foreign policy for our country, our security policy,” he told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. “It’s sad, Brian. 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 Edwards Snowden — you bring back the death penalty.”
Peters, a retired military intelligence officer (he’s invariably addressed as “Colonel” on Fox), may, as you may recall, said back in 2010 that the U.S. government should assassinate WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange. So I guess he’s restraining himself in the present case.
