should the united states give amnesty to edward snowden?elcome to "washington journal" on this monday, december 16. for republicans please call -- you can also tweak at us. question is posted on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. you can also e-mail us at journal@c-span.org. we will take your calls in just a few moments but first let's turn to "the new york times" to get the latest on the nsa. the headline says -- american intelligence and law enforcement investigators have concluded that they may never know the entirety of what the former nsa contractor extracted. that is from this week's "new york times." on cbs 60 minutes, they took a deep dive into the nsa and spoke with leading intelligence officials who disagree or not with offering edward snowden amnesty. [video clip] my personal view is yes, it is worth having a conversation about. i would need assurances that the rest of the data could be secured. it would be more than just an assertion on his part. >> is that a unanimous feeling? >> it's not unanimous. >> among those thinking making

should the united states give amnesty to edward snowden? welcome to

united states? >> sure, he hopes to come back to the united states. >> would we give him some deal, some amnesty? >> we don't really call it amnesty. lying to congress is a crime. torturing prisoners is a very serious crime. there are lots of times when people violate the law and society decides for one way or another to look forward instead of backwards. mr. snowden's disclosures had been profoundly valuable to the country and the world. they've really changed the whole debate here, and i think there is much the united states could gain through conversation with him. >> i understand your point of view, and i wonder if you could understand those who believe that here is mr. snowden who has great faith in the american constitution who is in exile in russia, a country that does not have faith in our constitution or in the freedoms that it affords. >> absolutely, and i actually think if there is one thing we all should agree on, it's that edward snowden shouldn't be in russia. the reason he's in russia is the united states revoked his passport as he was trans iting through there. and i open the u.s.

so would you support giving snowden amnesty for coming back to the united states and not releasing all? >> absolutely not. look, this is like, you know, negotiating with an armed hostage taker. the fact of the matter is, he took what he took. he's already shared it. whether or not it becomes public, we have to do the damage assessment and sort of plan for the potential release, but you cannot allow someone to steal this kind of information at a tremendous harm to the united states and then use that to negotiate his own asylum. it just encourages more bad behavior by people with access to classified information. >> fran townsend, thanks very much. >> thanks, wolf. >>> a few other notes on the sa. president obama has promised a full review of intelligence protocols. changed expected to be announced very soon about what those changes will be. we'll stand by for that announcement. major tech companies also have asked the nsa to stand down collecting some of this information. they say it could hurt their bottom line. "60 minutes" is coming under criticism for the interviews inside the nsa s

amnesty and come back to the united states? >> this is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting ten and then say if you give me full amnesty i'll let the other 40 go. what do you do? >> plus a group of new mayors met with the president to talk about income inequality and unemployment. we'll take you inside the room with one of the mayors who was there. >>> good morning, i'm chris jansing and we are following that breaking news. harvard university and cambridge police are sweeping four buildings on campus looking for any possible explosives. they got an unconfirmed report earlier this morning and so they evacuated the buildings out of an abundance of caution so they can investigate. harvard has, however, cancelled all final exams for the day. students go on winter break on saturday. we will keep you posted on any developments. >>> to "politics now" and it's now up to the senate to seal the bipartisan budget deal with 60 votes, although it is far from a sure thing. we've heard yeses from two vulnerable state democrats. >> the struggle is still on in the united states senate. we will need about eight republica

give him some sort of amnesty? >> no, i do not. and i feel strongly about that. he violated the trust put in him by the united states government. he has committed a crime in my view. a whistle blower doesn't run. a whistle blower does not disclose information that has nothing to do with what he says his cause is. the privacy and civil liberties of americans. if i could talk to mr. snow den myself what i would say is, edward, you say you are a patriot, you say you want to protect the privacy and civil liberties of americans, you say that you wanted americans to have a debate about this and make up their mind about what to do about this. if you really believe that, if you really believe that americans should be the judge of this program then you should also believe that the americans should be the judge of your behavior in this regard. so if you are the patriot that you say you are, you should come home and be judged. >> schieffer: mike morell, thank you very much. wish you the best of the season. thank you for joining us. we'll be back in one minute with our annual cbs news correspondents year-end round up. my customers can shop

give him amnesty. an idea that the white house quickly dismissed. >> he should return to the united states as quickly assible where he'll be afforded due process. that's our position and it has not changed. >> reporter: still it's a body blow to the administration. >> well, it's just an absolutely scathing rejection of the nsa program that the government has defended so strongly, and it is worth noting that the judge was a george w. bush appointee, someone who had worked for republicans in congress, hardly a screaming liberal. >> and jim sciutto joins me live now from washington, d.c. jim, if i could go back to edward snowden who you mentioned in your report briefly, the concern regarding the amnesty was potentially to stop any further disclosures of sensitive information, and yet edward snowden is still busy today and he is active. what's he doing? >> that's right. he's written an open letter to the people of brazil, published in a paper. in return, though, in exchange for asylum. here's what he wrote in this letter. he said many brazilian senators agree and i have asked for my assistance with their in

united states doesn't deserve amnesty to us. if we need to go through an expensive procedure to do the way we do things. i wouldn't gives guy air to broeth. >> we don't know where the documents are right now. he would have to account for that, right? and who in turn has seen them already. >> exactly. it may be that snowden gave some to the chinese or to the russians or if he was carrying material in computers and what not what they took that he didn't know about. there is a lot of uncertainty out there. and that is another relationship not to speculate about it publicly. the risks are so high and the gapes for the united states so low, i don't so the upset. >> i haven't heard from his father and i started the conversation wondering if there was a back room deal. we can't answer. that but thank you john boltop. >> thank you. >>> why a key demo graphic may be souring on the president's policies at the wrong time. >> goggle going big on robotics and in the center of cutting- emg military technology. >> remember that guy? >> chilling final words. nowly released audio as 19 hot shot firefighters fought to stay alive. we are

united states out there. >> glenn, let me ask you, an nsa official said it would be a conversation worth having the idea of perhaps giving amnesty to edward snowden and other officials of the nsa are clearly completely against that. one of the conditions alleged about having this discussion was about guarantees other documents wouldn't be released. is that something that edward snowden could even guarantee given that you have possession and others have possession of these documents? >> if you go back and read an op-ed in the "washington post," what he essentially said three months ago is edward snowden was right to flee the country because whistle-blowers don't get a free trial. what edward snowden said from the start, if i could guarantee i would be given fair treatment and not persecuted for the stories brought to light, i would do that. but generally the federal government is vindictive to those who expose their wrongdoing. government officials break the constitution and violate it, they get promotions. the people who expose it like mr. snowden get indictments. that's the real injustice that needs to be resolved before he can

give him amnesty, an idea the white house quickly dismissed. >> he should be returned to the united states as soon as possible where he will be accorded full due process and protections in our system. that's our position and it has not changed. >> reporter: still, the court's decision is a body blow forred administration. >> it is just an absolutely scathing rejection of the nsa program that the government has defended so strongly. and it is worth noting that the judge was a george w. bush appointee, someone who had worked for republicans in congress, hardly a screaming liberal. >> reporter: the judge ordered the government to stop collecting data on the plaintiffs in this case. it was brought by a leeing conservative activist. however, for the rest of us, he stay his ruling to allow the government time to appeal it, noting, quote, the significant national security interest at stake in this case. that process could take six months. meanwhile, intelligence reform legislation on the hill, tech company giants in the white house complaining about this case, this ruling certainly to be influent

sleegs on "60 minutes" to get snowden back here, give him amnesty, an idea that the white house quickly dismissed. >> he should be returned to the united statesbe given due process in our systems. that's our position and it has not changed. >> well, it is just an absolutely scathing rejection of the nsa program that the government has defended so strongly. and it is worth noting that the judge was a george w. bush appointee, someone who had worked for republicans in congress, hardly a screaming liber liberal. >> now the court has ordered the nsa to stop collecting data immediately. for the rest of us, he staged his ruling. that would taken six months. he decided the extreme national security interests in this indicate but certainly an influential decision. he's spoken to some legal experts that it's going to have to go all the way to the supreme court, carol, for a final anxious. >> jim sciutto live from washington this morning. >>> a critical vote this hour from capitol hill where the senate will get a first chance to weigh in on a budget deal that's already passed the house. our chief correspondent dana bash is on the hill with more. good m

giving snowden amnesty. now, the white house strongly disagrees. here's white house press secretary jay carney. >> mr. snowden has been accused of leaking classified information and he faces felony charges here in the united stateseturned to the united states as soon as possible. >> do you think he has any chance of getting amnesty in the u.s.? doesn't sound like it. >> you know, i'm just a -- i don't understand washington kabuki. i don't know the games they orchestrate by sending one nsa official on to tv to say they should consider amnesty, another to say they shouldn't and this scripted line out of the white house. it certainly seems like there's some discussion in the government about approaching snowden in a more reasonable way. they know where we are. they know we're interested in having this kind of conversation with them. i won't say more about it than that. >> here's what glenn greenwald said about the story out there, the swapping help for the brazilian government in exchange for asylum. he said one, snowden doesn't request asylum, two, the brazilian government said we're not considering it because no formal request has been made, three, u.s. media, brazil rejects asylum. so typical take on how the med

give ed snowden amnesty and punish those in the government who committed crime. tell me why. >> employees of the government, regardless of level, take an oath to uphold the constitution of the united statesend it against enemies both foreign and domestic. and that includes themselves. it's a huge responsibility to run a defense agency that has the kind of charter nsa does. so when one goes out and gathered data, it is always been nsa's effort to avoid collecting and looking at the data of u.s. citizens. so it's a tremendous responsibility. >> but on the flipside, you have a guy here who now claims he has some 1.7 million documents that could really shed even more light, more secrets. leak, whistleblow, whatever the verb here. he's a criminal. he's facing felony espionage charges. you just don't see it that way. >> no, i don't, because much as a u.s. soldier does not have to follow an illegal order, if you remember back to the days of vietnam and lieutenant cali and the melie incident and the ruthless killing of the vietnamese people, we have a right way to go about collecting data and a wrong way. and every agency employee has been taught for years, this is nothing new, that you do not s