Petition to Pardon Edward Snowden Started

By Cynthia Herbert :: 11:02 PM

Today, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former CIA employee and current NSA contractor, was identified as the source of the leak of documents this past week that revealed two classified U.S. spy programs. The programs were far-reaching, one allegedly provides telephone call information for all U.S. originated calls to the NSA, and the other program, dubbed PRISM, provides easy access for the government to many top web and social media sites.

After the news broke this afternoon, Snowden was quickly hailed as a hero online, with many quick to support his actions.

A petition has been started at the We The People website, the White House and Obama administration’s petition tool that allows any citizen to start a petition to bring attention for a cause to the administration. The petition asks Obama to Pardon Edward Snowden, saying, “Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs.”

Petitions established on the White House site require 100,000 votes for the administration to respond to them. At the time of this writing, Snowden’s pardon petition has about 5,000 votes.

[Petition to pardon Edward Snowden]