Oliver Stone: 'Obama pardoning Snowden would be a wonderful act of grace'

[kscarbel2]

France 24  /  November 1, 2016

Veteran US director Oliver Stone takes aim at state-sponsored citizen surveillance in his new film "Snowden". Having met with Edward Snowden himself in Russia to prepare the film, he traces the NSA recruit’s journey from patriot to whistleblower.

The Academy Award-winning filmmaker talks to Olivia Salazar-Winspear about cyber warfare, policing the digital space and how the war in Vietnam was a turning point in his personal and political life.

Stone believes US President Barack Obama should pardon Snowden, who is considered a traitor by US authorities. It would be "a wonderful act of grace if the president did that", he told FRANCE 24.

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“The government has the ability to repeat and control the commercial airwaves. In a sense, they repeat every so often: terrorism – fear – terrorism – fear. Repeat, repeat, repeat, that works – propaganda.”

“What Washington seems to want to do is lock up and only give the leaks they want, the leaks that favor the U.S., like the Panama Papers. They control those leaks, but not the ones that are critical of the government. We're living in a closed news environment. It's an information war in a bad way."

Oliver Stone

At the same conference actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Snowden in Stone’s biopic, echoed the director’s sentiments on mass surveillance but pointed out that at least it was being put to the vote in Switzerland.

“It’s wonderful it’s being voted on. That is exactly what didn’t happen in the United States. Whether mass surveillance is right or wrong, that’s a complicated issue… but if people vote on it and feel it’s right, that’s at least is following democracy. That is what should have happened in the United States,” Gordon-Levitt said.

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[kscarbel2]

 

[kscarbel2]

The Associated Press's Matthew Lee is a great reporter. He doesn't play games, rather, he simply points to the obvious.

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[MHfred]

I think we should kick Stone's ass out and let him room with Snowden or send them both to prison.

[kscarbel2]

On 11/29/2016 at 1:49 AM, MHfred said:

I think we should kick Stone's ass out and let him room with Snowden or send them both to prison.

Why? I myself agree with most of Stone's comments.

We never gave authorization to our employees in Washington to perform mass surveillance on the entire U.S. population.

For decades, some of us suspected. You would be mocked as a conspiracy theorist. But it was true......all true.....and much more.

I'm appreciative that Snowden made it public knowledge that the government is monitoring all our phone calls, phone messages, e-mails and even your posts on BMT.

The clandestine surveillance of law abiding citizens is wrong. Such a draconian act is a page right out of George Orwell's book "1984".