In an effort to literally stem the bleeding, NSA may be mulling granting fugitive leaker Edward Snowden amnesty. In other words, they don’t quite know exactly what documents he has in his possession and they want the leaks to stop and get back the extensive document ‘treasure trove’ he took from the agency. The White House is shooting down any possibility of amnesty for Snowden.

An amnesty, which does not have the support of the State Department, would represent a surprising denouement to an international drama that has lasted half a year. It is particularly unexpected from a surveillance agency that has spent months insisting that Snowden’s disclosures have caused vast damage to US national security.

The NSA official in charge of assessing the alleged damage caused by Snowden’s leaks, Richard Ledgett, told CBS News an amnesty still remains controversial within the agency, which has spent the past six months defending itself against a global outcry and legislative and executive proposals to restrain its broad surveillance activities.

“My personal view is, yes, it’s worth having a conversation about,” Ledgett, who is under consideration to become the agency’s top civilian, said in an interview slated to air Sunday evening on 60 Minutes. “I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high. It would be more than just an assertion on his part.” Source: Guardian

My personal view is that, while he sought to out the NSA for its invasive surveillance programs, he implicated other countries such as England, Australia, Canada, and others, in the process. Any amnesty would have to come through the Justice Department and I doubt Eric Holder would be open to that idea. Well, the truth is we don’t quite know what Edward Snowden managed to get his hands on that could be far more devastating than we have heard about already. Seems to me heads should be rolling at the NSA and terminations should go all the way to the top for such lax security.

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.