Fox News “military analyst” Ralph Peters brought his customary inflammatory rhetoric to Fox & Friends this morning for a discussion about NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Without bothering to discuss any charges (which have yet to be brought) against Snowden, Peters leapt right to the sentence – and declared the death penalty is in order. Host Brian Kilmeade made it clear he knew of and was looking for Peters’ kind of attitude with his opening question, “You are a ‘take no prisoners’ person when it comes to the war on terror. How do you feel about (the leak)?”

“Show me one American, one law-abiding American citizen who was hurt, has been hurt by any of these NSA programs,” Peters said.

Kilmeade quickly answered: “None.”

Neither bothered to explain how they would know such a thing given the secrecy of the project – so secret that even members of Congress are in the dark about a lot of the particulars.

Peters characterized the NSA as being between a rock and a hard place. He said, “If the intel community backs off and doesn’t do this stuff and there’s a terrorist attack, then it’s intelligence failure. If they do this stuff, well, it’s Big Brother snooping.” Which, you may be surprised to know, is a sentiment I agree with. But rather than probe the parameters of the fine line or offer up any avenue for a reasonable discussion, Peters went on to say:

Now you’ve got this 29-year-old high school dropout whistleblower making foreign policy for our country, our security policy. …It’s sad, Brian. We’ve made treason cool. Betraying your country is kind of a fashion statement. He wants to be the national security Kim Kardashian. He cites Bradley Manning as a hero.

I mean, we need to get very, very serious about treason. And oh, by the way, for treason — as in the case of Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden — you bring back the death penalty.

Given Peters’ long history of incendiary remarks on Fox, there’s no doubt the “fair and balanced” network was looking for precisely this kind of discussion when it booked him this morning.

Video via Raw Story.

(2/19/20 Update: Video no longer available)