Pardon me for taking offense with your ‘pardon-seeking’ petition

Someone had the gall to send me this pathetically misguided, ignorant, and demeaning petition requesting a Governmental Pardon for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

I say pathetic because I believe this was a genuine attempt to support this courageous whistleblower, but instead became an establishment-supporting, insulting and self-defeating petition due to the authors’-organizers’ ignorance.

I say misguided because this is a case where the criminals who have violated our Constitution and laws are the ones who should be seeking forgiveness and pardon from the people. The executive branch is the party which has violated the Constitution and broken the supreme laws of this nation, thus in need of repentance and pardoning. Not the courageous whistleblower who took his oath to protect the United States Constitution seriously and actually exercised it.

I say demeaning because it misrepresents and insults the guardians of the United States Constitution, and reduces these truth-telling whistleblowers to criminals-to those who have committed illegalities. Not only that, it simultaneously raises the status of a criminal government to those of kings and emperors who can do no wrong. When the kings engage in criminality, they call it ‘the king’s given rights.’ When an irate minority dares to expose the kings’ criminality, they are declared a criminal-to dare to challenge the kings.

The insulting ignoramuses who drafted this pathetic petition are giving the president and the executive branch of the United States of America the status of absolute kings and emperors.

Here we have a case where there is a president and his entourage who see themselves as the absolute and untouchable kings of the United States, and break with reckless abandon the supreme law of the United States, the Constitution. They do so repeatedly; with arrogance and impunity.

We have a case where a conscientious citizen of the United States does what his citizenship demands of him: he stands up and protects the Constitution of the United States by exposing the kings engaged in its violation and destruction.

So what do we have so far? Please repeat after me:

We have the United States Executive Branch which has suspended, violated and destructed the United States Constitution and its citizens’ rights.

We have the United States Legislative and Judicial Branches which have abdicated their responsibilities under the United States Constitution, and instead of overseeing and holding accountable the president and his cabinet, who in this case have been violating and destroying the United States Constitution, they have been protecting and collaborating with them.

And we have a true American, a citizen who has taken his US citizenship and citizen responsibilities that go with it very seriously—as demanded by the United States Constitution. He has courageously come forward to inform and warn his country of its rulers’ criminality.

Now please tell me who should be seeking a pardon here? The conscientious citizen who is protecting the mother-of-all laws of his nation—the Constitution? Or the kings who have suspended, violated and broken the laws of this nation? Or the Judiciary and Legislative Branches who have abandoned their responsibility to the people of this nation and their oath to the Constitution?

The authors-drafters of this ignorant and insulting petition have either totally mixed up their senses when it comes to crime and punishment. Or, they are among those who view the United States Executive Branch as kings and their powers as absolute, thus seeking a pardon for a citizen whose crime has been to expose the crime and responsible criminals—defending his nation’s laws and the people’s rights.

Either way, this petition and its wording is pathetic, ignorant, misleading, and insulting to humble whistleblowers like me. I urge the authors to educate themselves on the United States Constitution, what constitutes crime and criminality, and what is considered a citizens’ foremost duty under our Constitution. Here is a good place to start:

Oath of Office-Presidency

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Oath of Office-Congress

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

Military Oath

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

Once the drafters-authors of the shameful petition read and understand the basics of this nation’s Constitution, after they become enlightened, they may proceed to draft and circulate a petition where the executive branch is not treated as absolute king but as the servant of this nation, where the crime is violating the Constitution not protecting it, and where the criminals responsible for violating the Constitution are called to seek pardon from their masters—we the people of the United States.

Sibel Edmonds is the Publisher & Editor of Boiling Frogs Post, where this article was originally published, and the author of the Memoir Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story. She is the recipient of the 2006 PEN Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “commitment to preserving the free flow of information in the United States in a time of growing international isolation and increasing government secrecy” Ms. Edmonds has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.