In an interview with the reactionary right-wing Fox News network, former Central Intelligence Agency director James Woolsey said U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden «should be prosecuted for treason.
If convicted by a jury of his peers, he should be hanged by his neck until he is dead». Woolsey, a staunch neo-conservative, was fired as CIA director by President Bill Clinton in 1995.
Clinton believed that Woolsey had not been aggressive enough in holding senior CIA officials accountable over the exposure of top CIA officer Aldrich Ames as a longtime agent for Soviet intelligence.
Some CIA insiders believe that Woolsey thought that if the CIA engaged in a massive «mole hunt», other agents, particularly those loyal to Israel, a country with which Woolsey has a suspiciously close relationship, would be uncovered. Woolsey, of course, is the last person in the world whose opinion on Snowden’s fate should be given any credibility.