Treasonous

[Content Note: State execution.]

Since publicly disclosing his identity, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has left the Hong Kong hotel in which he was staying, and his whereabouts are currently "unknown," at least to the people who are investigating him. And it's no wonder why: Yesterday, Democratic Senator and Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein called Snowden's leak "an act of treason."

"I don't look at this as being a whistleblower. I think it's an act of treason," the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee told reporters.

The California lawmaker went on to say that Snowden had violated his oath to defend the Constitution.

"He violated the oath, he violated the law. It's treason."

Not that she's biased or anything, even though "in addition to exposing the sheer range of surveillance our government is doing, Snowden made it very clear that [Senator Feinstein] allowed Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to lie to her committee. And continues to allow Clapper's lie to go unreported, much less punished." Whoops.

Treason is punishable by death.

Despite calling Snowden a traitor, Senator Feinstein didn't engage in the violent hyperbole of openly calling for his execution, but Fox News analyst Ralph Peters was happy to do so:

"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 [Breanna] 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 [Breanna] Manning or Edwards Snowden — you bring back the death penalty."

This is the national conversation we're having in the wake of a gross invasion of USians' civil liberties without oversight or accountability: The guy who blew the whistle is a traitor who should be executed.

A traitor to whom?

He is certainly not a traitor to the 41% of USians who find it "unacceptable" that their government, which is meant to be of, by, and for the people, is encroaching upon the very liberties it's purporting to defend. There is already a petition 45,000 signatures strong (and counting) asking the Obama administration to pardon Edward Snowden. Is he a traitor to those people?

The only people to whom Edward Snowden is a traitor are the liars who claim to value transparency and liberty, while obfuscating their cloaked intrusions into our privacy. The government is not the nation. They have forgotten that.

UPDATE: Not to be left out, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner has also [note: video plays automatically at link] called Snowden a traitor: "He's a traitor. The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk. It shows our adversaries what our capabilities are. And it's a giant violation of the law." I have surveillance overreach bingo!