Charged NSA leaker, Reality Winner, to Iranian Foreign Minister: 'We stand with you'

If you want to claim that your illegal leak of classified NSA material was somehow justified, you really only have one course of action. That's the whistleblower defense. Basically, you're saying "I'm a patriot, I love my country, and I felt compelled to expose the actions of my corrupt government." We saw this play out with Eric Snowden. It didn't quite work for him, since running to China and Russia tends to raise questions about your motive, but he did - at least - reveal federal activities that most of us feel were way beyond the pale. Given the nature of what he released, he could at least make the claim that he had no real choice in his post-leak maneuvering. The Snowden debate is ongoing precisely because he made a somewhat-credible claim about "trying to do the right thing."

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Most "loyal patriots" don't have a history of proclaiming their support for anti-American, genocidal, fascist theocracies

In the case of now-charged NSA contractor and leaker Reality Winner, that claim is going to be a lot harder to make. That's because most "loyal patriots" don't have a history of proclaiming their support for anti-American, genocidal, fascist theocracies ...like, for example, Iran: (Realtime tweets are listed below)

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As Business insider writes:

After Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted a video defending Iran's ballistic missile program, which US officials under Trump and former President Barack Obama, as well as former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, had condemned as a violation of the spirit of the Iran deal, Winner offered her support.

Yep, that's the Twitter feed of Reality Winner - devout Bernie Sanders supporter - proclaiming her fealty to the Mullahs of Iran. If I'm the prosecution, it's also "Exhibit A" when I need to dismantle the idea that she's some kind of pious whistleblower.

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We will never use our weapons against anyone, except in self-defense. Let us see if any of those who complain can make the same statement. pic.twitter.com/xwGquvqLvb

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) February 3, 2017

There are many Americans protesting US govt aggression towards Iran. If our Tangerine in Chief declares war, we stand with you!

— Sara Winners (@Reezlie) February 7, 2017

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