Snowden's Dad: He'll Come Home If...

Lonnie Snowden sends letter to Justice Department, says son is not a traitor
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 28, 2013 11:27 AM CDT

Lonnie Snowden wants his son to come home, and he thinks he knows how to entice him to come. Snowden has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder saying that he's fairly confident Edward would return to the US to face trial if the Justice Department guarantees he won't be detained before said trial, that he can choose the location of the trial, and that he won't be subject to a gag order, he tells Today. Of course, this is all coming just from the senior Snowden; he hasn't spoken to his son since April.

"At this point, I don't feel that he's committed treason," Snowden tells Today. "He has betrayed his government. But I don't believe that he's betrayed the people of the United States." Over at Daily Intel, Joe Coscarelli doesn't have much confidence Snowden's plan to get his son back home will work; neither does Dashiell Bennet at the Atlantic Wire (Snowden wants his son to "be allowed to keep doing the very things that he's wanted for in the first place," he points out). Plus, Coscarelli writes, "While Lonnie's heart is clearly in the right place, his son is probably thinking something along the lines of, Please, Dad, not now!" (More Edward Snowden stories.)

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