By Debra Sweet

In arguing that Russia should send Edward Snowden back to the U.S. to face charges for exposing, from inside the NSA, a vast surveillance network on whole populations, Attorney General Eric Holder was in the ironic position of alleging that:

“I can report that the United States is prepared to provide to the Russian government the following assurances regarding the treatment Mr. Snowden would face upon return to the United States,” Holder wrote. “First, the United States would not seek the death penalty for Mr. Snowden should he return to the United States.” In addition, “Mr. Snowden will not be tortured. Torture is unlawful in the United States.”

Here are layers of irony, in brief:

1) Most countries in the world don’t have the death penalty, oppose it, and know the U.S. kills by far more people per per capita than any country, even including the countries which also use the death penalty.

So, for Holder to have to pledge that the U.S. won’t seek the death penalty for Snowden is quite an admission, but one masking the real horror of 1,340 killed since the 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court made the death penalty legal again.

2) “Torture is unlawful in the United States,” says Holder, which shows you what the law is good for.

Right now, 80,000 people every night are in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and detention centers, whether they have been convicted, or not, as in the case of Bradley Manning.

3).  “Torture is unlawful in the United States,” says Holder, which is exactly why the Bush regime set up Guantanamo and a whole system of indefinite detention and torture outside U.S. borders.

Edward Snowden explained on June 10 that he knew what could happen at the hands of the U.S. and then elaborated on his knowledge of what had been done to Bradley Manning while in pre-trial custody, and before a huge outcry that forced the Obama administration to move him out of solitary confinement.  We all fear for Snowden’s future, regardless of where he finds refuge, because as he said:

“You can’t come forward against the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk, because they’re such powerful adversaries that no one can meaningful oppose them. If they want to get you, they will get you in time.”

Here is someone who knows the risks, and chose to come forward so that the public could be informed about illegal surveillance by the U.S. government.  In the process, over and over again, that same government must be exposed for illegitimate suppression of dissent and protest.

Debra Sweet is the Director of World Can't Wait and blogs at debra.worldcantwait.net.