Edward Snowden said in a live webchat on Thursday: 'Returning to the US is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself.' Photograph: AP
The attorney general, Eric Holder, has indicated that the US could allow the national security whistleblower Edward Snowden to return from Russia under negotiated terms, saying he was prepared to “engage in conversation” with him.
Holder said in an MSNBC interview that full clemency would be “going too far”, but his comments suggest that US authorities are prepared to discuss a possible plea bargain with Snowden, who is living in exile in Russia.
Snowden, who took part in a live webchat at about the same time Holder’s remarks were made public, defended his leaks, saying weak whistleblower protection laws prevented him from raising his concerns through formal channels.
“If we had ... a real process in place, and reports of wrongdoing could be taken to real, independent arbiters rather than captured officials, I might not have had to sacrifice so much to do what at this point even the president seems to agree needed to be done,” Snowden said.
He gave no indication in the live chat whether he would consider any plea bargain or negotiated return to the US. Asked under what conditions he would return to his native country, Snowden replied: "Returning to the US, I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself, but it’s unfortunately not possible in the face of current whistleblower protection laws, which through a failure in law did not cover national security contractors like myself."
The Obama administration’s official line is that Snowden is a suspected felon and should be extradited from Russia, where he has been granted temporary asylum, to face trial in the US. Snowden has yet to be publicly indicted by the Justice Department, but in June it charged him with violations of the Espionage Act.
But Holder is the third senior administration official, including the president, who has made comments that raise the question of Snowden returning to the US under some kind of negotiated terms.
Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, was repeatedly pressed on Thursday over whether the administration “ruled out” clemency for the whistleblower. “He has been charged with felonies,” Carney replied. “I am not going to wade into those kind of assessments.”
MSNBC only released short excerpts of its interview with Holder, but reported the attorney general said he “would engage in conversation” with Snowden if he accepted responsibility for leaking government secrets.
Holder also said full clemency “would be going too far”, according to the network. Asked whether Snowden was a whistleblower, he replied: “I prefer the term defendant. That’s the most apt title.”
The network said Holder made similar remarks at the University of Virginia, quoting him as saying: “We've always indicated that the notion of clemency isn't something that we were willing to consider. Instead, were he coming back to the US to enter a plea, we would engage with his lawyers. ”
Snowden has never denied leaking the documents, but insisted his decision to provide top-secret documents to reporters working for the Guardian and Washington Post was an act of conscience, designed to inform the public about the nature of NSA surveillance.
In the webchat, Snowden said he did not believe he would receive a fair trial in the US. "The 100-year-old law under which I’ve been charged, which was never intended to be used against people working in the public interest, and forbids a public interest defence," he said. "This is especially frustrating, because it means there’s no chance to have a fair trial, and no way I can come home and make my case to a jury."
Snowden’s critics have argued that he is not a legitimate whistleblower because he did not take his concerns to intelligence inspectors general or members of Congress on the intelligence oversight committees.
A former NSA contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden defended his leaks in the live chat, pointing out that intelligence-community contractors are not covered by whistleblower protection laws.
“There are so many holes in the laws, the protections they afford are so weak, and the processes for reporting they provide are so ineffective that they appear to be intended to discourage reporting of even the clearest wrongdoing,” he said.
“If I had revealed what I knew about these unconstitutional but classified programs to Congress, they could have charged me with a felony.”
The whistleblower’s supporters argue out that he would unable to mount a proper defence in a US courtroom, in part because he would be barred from discussing the classified government programs.
A judge would also be likely to instruct the jury that Snowden’s intentions would not constitute a defence of the charges against him. Some scholars have said Holder should adapt the rules to recognise the unique nature of the case.
“The Department of Justice and Snowden’s attorneys could agree to conduct it by a slightly different set of rules, rules that would permit the jury to consider the full extent of the alleged governmental wrongdoing he uncovered along with the full scope of his alleged crimes,” Alex Little, a former CIA analyst and assistant US attorney, wrote recently.
Holder’s remarks are the latest in a series of hints the administration might consider some kind of plea bargain with the former contractor. Such a move that would be deeply unpopular with intelligence officials and their supporters on Capitol Hill.
In remarks published six days ago, Obama appeared to leave the door open to some kind of arrangement with Snowden.
A 17,000-word New Yorker profile of the the president, written by the magazine’s editor, David Remnick, quoted him as saying Snowden was “not akin to Watergate or some scandal in which there were coverups involved”. He also insisted “the benefit of the debate he generated was not worth the damage done, because there was another way of doing it”.
However, in remarks to Remnick the day before he gave last week's long-awaited speech on the NSA, Obama said: “I do not have a yes/no answer on clemency for Edward Snowden. This is an active case, where charges have been brought.”
Last month, Richard Ledgett, the NSA official in charge of assessing the alleged damage caused by Snowden’s leaks, raised the possibility of an amnesty in return for assurances that top-secret material could be secured.
“My personal view is, yes, it’s worth having a conversation about,” he told CBS News. “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.”
In Thursday’s webchat, Snowden also said a report by the government’s independent civil liberties watchdog, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, vindicated his actions. The divided board found that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone data was illegal and ought to end.
“There is simply no justification for continuing an unconstitutional policy with a 0% success rate,” Snowden said.
Esforço internacional mapeia desmatamento no mundo Vandré Fonseca - 19/11/13
Ao longo de 13 anos, entre 2000 e 2012, o mundo perdeu 2,3 milhões de quilômetros quadrados de florestas, uma área maior do que a Amazônia Ocidental (formada pelos estados do Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia e Roraima). Em contrapartida, 800 mil quilômetros quadrados de novas florestas cresceram em todo o mundo ao longo deste período. Os dados estão no mapa abaixo, disponível na internet.
Publicado na revista Science, o mapa interativo foi produzido a partir de estudos que reuniram esforços de um grupo de 15 universidades internacionais, instituições governamentais de pesquisa e a Google. Eles indicam, por exemplo, o desmatamento de 2.101 quilômetros quadrados de florestas todos os anos, só nas regiões tropicais. A redução do desmatamento no Brasil foi superada pelo aumento da perda de florestas em países vizinhos, como o Paraguai e Bolívia, além da Indonésia, Malásia, Angola e outros.
"Este é o primeiro mapa das mudanças nas florestas consistente globalmente e relevante localmente", afirma o professor de Ciências Geográficas da Universidade de Maryland, Matthew Hansen, líder da equipe de pesquisadores. "Perdas e ganhos na cobertura florestal informam aspectos importantes de um ecossistema, inclusive regulação climática, estoque de carbono, biodiversidade e suprimento de água".
Os pesquisadores utilizaram dados do Landsat 7, obtidos entre 1999 e 2012, disponibilizados livremente pelo Centro de Pesquisas, Observação e Ciências da Terra, do Serviço Geológico dos Estados Unidos. Mais de 650 mil imagens do Landsat foram processadas para se chegar a caracterização final das florestas e das mudanças que sofreram. A análise das imagens foi possível com a colaboração de Google Earth Engine, que permitiu a análise dos dados em poucos dias, o que em um computador comum tomaria 15 anos.
Os mapas possuem uma resolução bastante precisa (30 metros). Florestas subtropicais, por exemplo, têm altas taxas de desmatamento, devido ao uso intensivo das terras. As florestas no sudeste dos Estados Unidos foram perdidas quatro vezes mais rapidamente do que as florestas tropicais da América do Sul durante o período. Entre países, Paraguai, Malásia e Camboja são aqueles com as maiores taxas de perda florestal.
A boa notícia é que o estudo confirmou o sucesso brasileiro em reduzir o desmatamento, pois até poucos anos, o Brasil era apontado como responsável por uma das maiores perdas de florestas tropicais do mundo. No país como um todo, essa taxa caiu de aproximadamente 40 mil quilômetros quadrados entre 2003 e 2004, para 20 mil quilômetros quadrados em 2010 e 2011. A Indonésia faz o caminho inverso e praticamente dobrou o desmatamento no período, atingindo quase 20 mil quilômetros quadrados no biênio 2011 e 2012.
O cenário em Tacloban é de devastação. Na rua principal da cidade, de cerca 280 mil habitantes antes da tragédia, dezenas de corpos se decompõem a céu aberto.
Três dias após a passagem do tufão Haiyan, ainda não foram enterrados.
Moradores tentam levar o que podem dos escombros de um supermercado
Até 10 mil pessoas podem ter morrido apenas em Tacloban, além de centenas em outros lugares.
Em meio aos escombros do aeroporto da cidade, foi montado um hospital improvisado.
Muitos dos pacientes são tratados sem anestesia.
As pessoas que esperam no local estão desesperadas para deixar a região, em qualquer avião que possam encontrar.
Centenas de pessoas esperam no aeroporto por qualquer ajuda que possa chegar.
The footage, shot on 19 September, shows a Russian helicopter hovering over the deck of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise.
Armed men drop on to the deck, while members of the Greenpeace crew are seen with their hands in the air.
The footage also shows the ship being towed towards Murmansk, where the 30 people on board were taken ashore and arrested.
The families of all six UK nationals being held by the Russian authorities following the arrests will meet a government minister for the first time on Monday. The meeting will be with foreign minister David Lidington, minister of state for Europe.
Prime minister David Cameron has called the charges "excessive" and urged president Vladimir Putin to make sure those being held can come home.
Alexandra Harris, a British Greenpeace activist detained by the Russians. Photograph: Dmitri Sharomov/AP
The prime minister said he had appealed to the Russian leader to "de-escalate" the situation.
Cameron told BBC Radio Devon: "They are not hooligans, they are protesters" although he acknowledged countries needed "tough rules" to protect oil platforms.
He said: "Their charges have been dropped from piracy to hooliganism, but I still think that is excessive. They are not hooligans, they are protesters.
"I totally understand that countries have to have some quite tough rules to stop people invading oil platforms, but I have appealed to Vladimir Putin to try to de-escalate this and make sure that these people can go home."
Com artigos organizados em torno de três temáticas principais, publicação apresenta a visão de pesquisadores e líderes sobre os rumos do planeta
Para discutir a sustentabilidade do planeta e tentar responder a essa questão chave, o Instituto Akatu e Worldwatch Institute Brasil lançaram nesta quinta-feira (31/10), em São Paulo, a edição brasileira do relatório “Estado do Mundo 2013 - A Sustentabilidade Ainda é Possível?”, em um evento em São Paulo.
Helio Mattar, diretor-presidente do Instituto Akatu, acredita que a transição para a sustentabilidade depende de transformações profundas nos modos de produção e consumo. “As mudanças são urgentes e devem guiar a ação de empresas, governos e cidadãos, que precisam adotar o consumo consciente como uma prática cotidiana na sociedade do bem-estar que devemos construir nos próximos anos. A edição brasileira do Estado do Mundo traz ótimas contribuições para as transformações de que precisamos”, indica Mattar.
“Em apenas oito décadas adicionamos mais cinco bilhões de novos habitantes e consumidores ao planeta. Só entre a Eco 92 e a Rio+20, o PIB global cresceu 50 trilhões de dólares”, afirma Eduardo Athayde diretor do Worldwatch Institute Brasil. “Precisamos, antes, definir métricas que nos orientem em direção a um futuro mais equilibrado, seguro e justo”, complementa.
Considerado pela imprensa internacional como a “bíblia da sustentabilidade”, a publicação é formada por um conjunto de artigos organizados em torno de três eixos principais: A Métrica da Sustentabilidade, Chegando à Verdadeira Sustentabilidade e Abra em Caso de Emergência. Os 17 capítulos do relatório oferecem ao leitor um verdadeiro panorama da situação atual do mundo e o que é preciso fazer imediatamente para reverter esta realidade.
O Estado do Mundo em capítulos
O documento é aberto com uma advertência de Robert Engelman, presidente do Wordwatch Institute, sobre os usos e abusos do conceito de sustentabilidade. Utilizada de maneira inadequada, de acordo com ele, a sustentabilidade como é aplicada hoje em nada contribui para a tomada de decisões e mudanças que precisam ser implantadas o quanto antes.
“A Métrica da Sustentabilidade”, primeira seção do relatório, traz um conjunto de métricas que podem ou deveriam ser utilizadas para avaliar em que patamar a humanidade se encontra, quais limites já foram ultrapassados e que direções devem ser seguidas para assegurar o futuro. A segunda seção, “Chegando à Verdadeira Sustentabilidade”, explora que serão necessárias ações, políticas, mudanças comportamentais e institucionais, além da redução na escala da atividade humana, para que a sociedade se torne verdadeiramente sustentável. Já a última parte, “Abra em Caso de Emergência”, destaca iniciativas e estratégias que precisam ser contempladas caso não seja possível fazer a transição a tempo. São elas: como lidar com migrações, fortalecer a resiliência das populações, ou mesmo, adotar soluções de geoengenharia para frear o aquecimento global.
- See more at: http://www.akatu.org.br/Temas/Consumo-Consciente/Posts/Estado-do-Mundo-2013-pergunta-a-sustentabilidade-ainda-e-possivel-#sthash.qKo7NL00.dpuf
Email
Email
