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Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

reuters.com

41–50 of 232 posts

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#41
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The president can't pre-pardon him though. He'd have to go to trial first.

You can but accepting a pardon is admission of guilt.

this is technically true.

however, is there any case where the admission of guilt has been used to coerce testimony from a pardon recipient?

is there really a practical downside to being pardoned?

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#42
post #36

Is it still popular opinion that he seeked asylum in Russia? I feel most people don’t realize that he was on transit to Ecuador when the Russians told him passport had apparently been expired. He never planned to stay there.

Yes it's call a "cover story". He visited the Russian consulate in HK (for a birthday party no less) before he left and his main legal advisor was the lawyer from Wikileaks , a Russian intel cutout. All just coincidence I guess.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#43
post #36

Is it still popular opinion that he seeked asylum in Russia? I feel most people don’t realize that he was on transit to Ecuador when the Russians told him passport had apparently been expired. He never planned to stay there.

Yes it's call a "cover story". He visited the Russian consulate in HK (for a birthday party no less) before he left and his main legal advisor was the lawyer from Wikileaks , a Russian intel cutout. All just coincidence I guess.

Do you have a source for this?

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#44

I'm happy for Snowden, he seems like a decent person willing to take a stand for what is right and face all the negative outcomes from exposing crimes within an organisation.

Kind of weird to say he "faced all the negative outcomes" when he fled the US to avoid the most major of the potential negative outcomes.

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#45
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is revealing systemic domestic surveillance at zero value in your mind?

Not to mention this formerly secret mass surveillance program has been making its way through the courts and the Ninth Circuit court of appeals found it to have been illegal, that the NSA has been lying about it for years, and that they were additionally lying when they said it helped convict several terrorist supporters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-nsa-spying/u-s-court-... > Evidence that the NSA was secr…

IIUC, this case would have never been possible without Snowden's evidence that the spying program existed. You can't stop a government program that doesn't exist.

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#46

I'm happy for Snowden, he seems like a decent person willing to take a stand for what is right and face all the negative outcomes from exposing crimes within an organisation.

Kind of weird to say he "faced all the negative outcomes" when he fled the US to avoid the most major of the potential negative outcomes.

Fleeing the homeland of your birth and moving to Russia is itself a pretty negative outcome.

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#47
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The president can't pre-pardon him though. He'd have to go to trial first.

You can but accepting a pardon is admission of guilt.

That's a myth. See #4: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths...

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#48

The big question is what Russia has to gain from this. Is it just to troll the US?

What do they get out of protecting political dissidents from unfair persecution in their home country? I don't know, why not ask America from the 1900's?

Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency

#50

I'm happy for Snowden, he seems like a decent person willing to take a stand for what is right and face all the negative outcomes from exposing crimes within an organisation.

Kind of weird to say he "faced all the negative outcomes" when he fled the US to avoid the most major of the potential negative outcomes.

That’s kind of like saying “he avoided most of the potential negative outcomes because they killed him”.
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