I was just thinking about Obama's press conference on August 9th, 2013, and I recall hearing a few things:
"I believe that those who have lawfully raised their voices on behalf of privacy and civil liberties are also patriots who love our country and want it to live up to our highest ideals."
"No, I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot."
"So the fact is, is that Mr. Snowden has been charged with three felonies. If, in fact, he believes that what he did was right, then, like every American citizen, he can come here, appear before the court with a lawyer and make his case."
I infer from these remarks (extracted from this transcript) that either the President of the United States presumes that Mr. Snowden is guilty of at least one of the felonies (and therefore did not lawfully raise his voice and is therefore not a patriot), or that the President has some other reason to publicly claim that Mr. Snowden is not (in the president's mind) a patriot.
If it is the former, what does it say about a country when its head of state makes such comments which seem to contravene the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (Article 11, states: "Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence."). Or the the presumption of innocence notion in U.S. Law that was established by precedent in 1895. (Coffin v. United States, 156 U.S. 432 (1895))
If it is the latter, mentioning it in this press conference implies it is the former.
Either way, I think it could be challenging to get a fair trial when the President announces you are unpatriotic.
Just thinking.
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