Comment by lern_too_spel
16 days ago
Snowden chose that lifestyle. If he had stayed in the US, he would be out of prison already, just without a security clearance. The longest sentence anyone ever got for leaking government information to the media is 63 months, with a release after 50 months on good behavior.
It's all speculation, but perhaps he was also thinking about how high his risk of 'suicide' would be.
Manning was released early from her 35 years prison sentence only because there was Obama who had balls to do it and go against extreme far right part of society and government employees. Not going to happen again anytime soon in US.
I am actually surprised she survived this and wasnt suicided or sent to Guantanamo for water boarding till heart stops, I guess thats only for those without US passports.
Manning did not leak to media, who would vet the data before releasing it. She effectively directly dumped diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks.