The Snowden problem
I guess Ed Snowden the NSA contractor who took the job so he could make himself famous is proving to be problematic for all the nations of the world. He’s applied for asylum in a number of countries, hoping one will finally bite. Business Insider has the list;
Here are the 19 countries:
Republic of Austria, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Finland, the French Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of India, the Italian Republic, the Republic of Ireland, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Nicaragua, the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Poland, the Russian Federation, the Kingdom of Spain, the Swiss Confederation and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Equador’s Rafael Correa says that they’re not considering allowing him in that country, even though they’re providing a haven for Julian Assange, the Wikileaks dude;
The president, speaking at the presidential palace in Quito, said his government did not intentionally help Snowden travel from Hong Kong to Moscow with a temporary travel pass. “It was a mistake on our part,” he added.
Asked if he thought the former NSA contractor would ever make it to Quito, he replied: “Mr Snowden’s situation is very complicated, but in this moment he is in Russian territory and these are decisions for the Russian authorities.”
On whether Correa would like to meet him, the president said: “Not particularly. He’s a very complicated person. Strictly speaking, Mr Snowden spied for some time.”
The New York Times reports that Vlad the Putin says that Snowden needs to stop releasing US sensitive information if he wants to stay there;
Mr. Putin has tried to stake out a neutral position since Mr. Snowden landed at Sheremetyevo airport eight days ago. If he grants Mr. Snowden asylum, Mr. Putin will inflict severe damage on Russia’s relationship with the United States. If he plays a part in his capture, he will appear to have bent to Washington’s will.
At a news conference on Monday, Mr. Putin tried to thread the needle, saying Mr. Snowden was welcome to stay in Russia as long as he stopped publishing classified documents that hurt the United States’ interests. He went on to acknowledge that this was unlikely to happen.
“If he wants to go somewhere and they accept him, please, be my guest,” Mr. Putin said. “If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must cease his work aimed at inflicting damage to our American partners, as strange as it may sound from my lips.”
The Washington Post reports that, in a new statement Snowden blames Obama and the United States for his dilemma;
For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.
Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
Yeah, nice try there, Goober. You’re a spy, regardless if your intentions were better than they appear at this distance. In order to decide your guilt or innocence, you have to go to trial first and it looks like you’re not willing to do that anytime soon. It wasn’t the Obama Administration who made you stateless – it was you. Snowden said early in this theater of his that he was willing to pay the price, like he was a martyr, but not so much now.
Category: Politics
I can’t imagine any NATO allies would allow this dillweed asylum, but on the other hand, the EU is pretty pissed off about the whole spying thing.
Putin is playing an interesting game here, trying to appear the reasonable one, but overall, I get this feeling that the FSB will be probing Eddie with a salad fork for as long as they can before either finally granting him asylum or simply booting him out the door when he’s no longer useful.
I do not know why EU would be pissed off, heard they had their own hands in on the PRISM project.
Snowden is in my opinion a traitor, and only took the position he did in order to have access to NSA systems to do what he did. He did not “discover” this and get disgusted, he knew some info before he got to NSA and wanted to be able to get his hands on all of it.
He was not there very long, he got in, grabbed what he could before being caught and screwed straight to China.
I guess I missed that right in my schooling, the right to seek asylum, that is. If someone can give me a cite to it, I’d appreciate it. As for Snowden’s accusation that obamaman “has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon,” no shit Sherlock. Obamaman has been threatening to grant citizenship to millions of illegal aliens for years now and is getting very close to succeeding.
Yeah, that’s what pisses me off as well. Snowden is blaming Obama for his situation. It’s not like he didn’t create this mess for himself. What did he expect? To be allowed to come back to the US? To live his life peacefully somewhere without consequences? He’s a dipshit.
Perhaps he should apply for asylum at UC Berkeley or Columbia University. They don’t like Americans, they are their own little world and they have modern computer labs. Sure, they’d have to be concerned about him dropping out but at least he’s have some sanctuary.
Zero sympathy for the “plight” of Snowden…his self inflicted plight is a product of poor planning, poor execution, and extremely criminal acts. He has no more right to seek asylum than Manning.
To paraphrase a popular saying here, “Play criminal games, win criminal prizes”
I hope he spends the remainder of his days here in regret for being much less intelligent than he thought he was.
Snowden is learning that it’s a b1tch when you find out that you are not, in fact, the smartest guy in the room….
Snowden can rot and be left where ever he is. His return to the U.S. doesn’t promise a good reception. He should have read the classified information disclosure agreement a bit closer before he signed it.
Here’s what I posted on Facebook –
Obama didn’t make you stateless. You made you stateless. You made a decision to release classified information. What did you expect? To be welcomed anywhere in the world with open arms, because the US is so hated by everyone (typical Paulian attitude)? Come on, dude! Take some responsibility for the decision you made. If you truly believe it was correct to do what you did, understand that the decision to reveal this info comes with consequences, and be willing to accept those consequences.
Shitbag. He needs to be composting quietly somewhere. Preferably sooner rather than later.
North Korea would take him
Like traitors everywhere, Snowden must live with the perception that having betrayed one country, no other country will ever trust him. The only reason anyone would accept him is a) to see what he already has and b) thumb their nose at the US. There’s not a lot of countries willing to do both.
Putin cracks me up… roughly translated, his remarks boil down to “we’d crawl over broken glass to see what you already have, but you try any more of that crap here and you’re going to wind up under a gulag.”
For the best treatment ever of how to deal with a defector who has important info, find a copy of “The Defection of A.J. Lewinter” – absolutely one of the greatest Cold War novels.
I know I am in the minority here… but I think what he has done was a good thing. Unlike somebody within a military or civil service chain of command, nobody corporate wise would have done anything with what he would have brought up as issues- I’ve worked as a contractor with a much lower level of clearance and still ended up seeing stupid stuff. Mentioning what I saw vaguely to a coworker and was responded to with – your funeral if you want to bring it up… we just keep our heads down and try not piss the uniforms or civilians(being a contractor we were lower than whale snot) off.
We finally have some evidence that the Fuckstick known as Obama has gone and done some truly evil stuff.
I understand the oaths you swear when you get your clearance, except two things make we twinge – one – Obama is clearly an enemy of this country(domestic and maybe foreign if you want to go all birther in this stupid post too) and two – Obama has not hesitated to violate many of the oaths he took when he was sworn in.
Like I said – I know I am on the opposite side here… and go ahead and let loose the hogs of war on me(Archer
quote)… just my .02/
James, you’re kissing the wrong end of the cow on this one. He didn’t go all starry-eyed into NSA and then find something out of whack. He deliberately got that job to access and then release information. HE SET OUT TO BETRAY THE TRUST HE WAS GIVEN. The difference is enormous.
No – he went starry eyed at a previous employer and worked out how to find a way to share what he found…
Mind you, the cow reference is still pretty valid Im sure!
James – whether you feel Obama violated his oaths does not excuse how Snowden violated his. Snowden’s statements do not support it, either.
Oh, and it’s “let loose the dogs of war” and it’s Shakespeare
Basically, he pulled a new-and-improved version of Bradley Manning. He miscalculated the response he’d get from his first ‘revelation,’ and that is what makes him dangerous. He set out, not to do anything to protect anyone, but to cause major disruption, both in the populace and in the government. He’s acting as a free radical, and he’s not our friend.
@12, tell me exactly how what Snowden has revealed in PRISM betrayed any US Citizens right to prviacy or violated their rights in any way shape or form. Same with the meta data collection of phone call information that contained no recording of conversations or even the names associated with the phone calls. Not one bit of personnally identifiable information was obtained or stored from that. So explain to me how that was a violation of someones rights.
Does the NSA have the abilities and capabilities to do nefarious things… probably do, but Snowden provide zero evidence that they have done anything illegal at all.
The CIA, NSA, DIA, etc… have been collecting data and intellignece for decades on our enemies, adversaries, etc.. while much of it only helps after the fact, it is important that they are able to continue to collect intelligence.
Snowden intentionally got hired by the NSA in order to be able to obtain information on Intelligence Gathering so that he could “expose it”. That was his motivation, that he himself has expressed, and look where he went to do it!
@12. Regarding obama as an enemy and Snowball here as a weasel are not mutually exclusive.
@17. The general warrant of the type admisistratively authorized here (or, at least, that’s what we’re told) is NOT okay with me. The gov’t can screw itself w/o a warrant NAMING ME and the particular places and things under my control that are to be searched and seized.
The whole secret tribunals/judges aspect is the part I dislike… regardless of whether their intentions and actions are a pure as the new-driven snow used to be, almost any secretive action taken or contemplated by any government targeting their own non-criminal citizens should be regarded with deepest suspicion. The actual gathering of metadata or message externals does not bother me as much.
James, if he was truly doing the country some great service then he could have attempted to file a Whistleblower Act case. Instead he stole information he specifically set out to acquire, took that information to China, and hasn’t shut up since. The PRISM project was just one of many things he’s yapped about. If we’re going to conduct spying on any number of countries that’s the US government’s business and perogative to do so. Again, if he was doing this for the protection of US citizens then he wouldn’t be talking about all of this other stuff.
The dumbass also needs to go back and reread what constitutes his citizenship. For one thing it hasn’t been revoked. He’s still a US citizen. His passport is an issued document that he had to apply for – which means it can be taken away at the US government’s pleasure. That’s not a human rights violation, that’s normal business. I’m pretty sure if he asked the Russians to escort him to the US embassy in Moscow nobody would stop him.
I’ll put it another way. This Snowden POS is one of those no government people that would rather live in anarchy with the ability to simply decide for himself who lives and who dies. Right now, he has no clue if he is going to live or die and neither do you, James. He hauls ass for a Chinese controlled country and called for thunder, Snowden better be prepared for Hell to come with it.
With him now on the ground in Mother Russia and Putin playing the middle ground card, I know what would happen if it were me. That SOB would be locked up in a 4×4 room and believe it, he’d be singing those blues. Then I’d ship his happy, skippy ass out for an isolated part of Russia, never to be heard from again.
….After reading Snowden’s comment, all I have to say is that clueless, arrogant, and stateless is no way to go through life, son.
Mike
There was an interesting take on Snowden today. It was pointed out that since he was not charged with Treason he is not subject to the death penalty. Lots of countries won’t extradite anyone facing a death penalty. It was posited that Snowden might be charged once we get him back. Personally, I think he deserves a ride on the needle.
Snowden and Manning would make a lovely couple @ Leavenworth.
Snowden (synonym, “retard”).