Ed, Just don't stay for TEA.
Look forward to your return.
Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
121–130 of 232 posts
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s an easy PR win. The US behaves like a petulant child, and Russia can come off like the benevolent country protecting freedom. That seems like an extremely easy decision to make.
> Russia can come off like the benevolent country protecting freedom. Not even the most devoted partisan can claim this was a straight face. Russia kills journalists that speak against Putin, poison political opposition, and paint with microwave radiation any diplomat misguided enough to attempt a dialogue. It's a mafia state, pure and simple.
Yes, but mafia states do PR so that they aren't recognized as clearly as mafia states.
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#123The big question is what Russia has to gain from this. Is it just to troll the US?
Russia has everything to gain from a divided us, because a divided us is less capable of opposing Russia. Classic divide and conquer.
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#124Happy for Snowden, but I hope that if Biden wins, he'd pardon Snowden - following Obama's footsteps in commuting Chelsea Manning. Although it might be harder since Biden to the Right of Obama, and given how hawkish, war-mongering, neo-libs have cozied up to Biden, and commuting Snowden isn't really possible since he has never been tried in court.
You know Obama's justice department conducted more leak prosecutions than all modern presidents combined? IDK what Trump's numbers are but his justice department is using processes and reasoning established by Obama's.
Maybe Biden would pardon Snowden but it will be a hollow symbolic victory. Unless he explicitly sets to dismantling Obama's machine, it will churn ever on at the whims of whomever is president.
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#125Due to the extent of mil intelligence docs stolen, and since the domestic programs deployed were lawful at the time, whistleblower is a disingenuious title for Mr. Snowden. Putting aside domestic disclosures, it's difficult to see how the scope of stolen materials merits praise or euphemistic titles. Snowden is a fugitive. As it pertains to the majority of what was stolen, he is not a whistleblower, but a thief. Had…
since the domestic programs deployed were lawful at the time Just last month: > Seven years after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the mass surveillance of Americans’ telephone records, an appeals court has found the program was unlawful - and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth. > In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, the…
No mass surveillance is similarly irresponsible, albeit in an entirely different manner, to unchecked mass surveillance.
The sweet spot is to have mechanisms and institutions in place to adequately "watch the watchers watching the watchers". Instead, we get judges putting on a dog and pony show, while our IC leaders were originally forced to lie or mislead about the secret programs.
Americans are wildly spoiled. We now have, by far, the most libertarian policies regarding E2EE, on a global basis. Take a bow, Ed, this is all your doing.
See you in 2050. Watch Hawaii.
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does it really matter that Snowden received assistance from Russia considering the data he leaked was proven legitimate and even US courts found the program he leaked from as being illegal? You're trying to build a backstory for something using bits and pieces of disparate information when the most plausible explanation is that Snowden was probably well aware that his freedom and likely his life were in danger and so…
> Does it really matter that Snowden received assistance from Russia considering the data he leaked was proven legitimate and courts even found the program he leaked from as being illegal? One program he leaked was found to be illegal. 98% of what he leaked had nothing to do with domestic surveillance, wasn't illegal, and only was released to hurt US intel efforts and standing in the world. Which is why people view t…
Not that long ago people were running from Russia and doing their best to defect to the US, with any information they could bring with them. I'm sure that if you were alive back then you never once characterized that the same way you do it now with Snowden. If you wanted accuracy you'd have come here with way more than a flimsy story and a conclusion that's pure speculation. But that's what you brought.
> people view this as a Russian op
"People". Does any of them make a stronger case than you? Or does everyone simply reference "people" to support their conclusions? People also say the onlines are full of trolls and sock-puppet accounts creating narratives.
You should be in the streets demanding that the people responsible for that "only one illegal program" be put in prison but here you are arguing that the person who gave them away should be there instead purely because he may or may not be associated with a US enemy.
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#127The big question is what Russia has to gain from this. Is it just to troll the US?
Russia has everything to gain from a divided us, because a divided us is less capable of opposing Russia. Classic divide and conquer.
Where is the divide and conquer in this? Don't mismatch a popular strategy.
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#128Just a PR stunt to give something else to talk about after the botched Navalny assasination. Changing topics. So Putin may look like a good guy.
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#129Happy for Snowden, but I hope that if Biden wins, he'd pardon Snowden - following Obama's footsteps in commuting Chelsea Manning. Although it might be harder since Biden to the Right of Obama, and given how hawkish, war-mongering, neo-libs have cozied up to Biden, and commuting Snowden isn't really possible since he has never been tried in court.
I’m not aware of anything that says a pardon requires a court trial, so correct me if I’m wrong, but a pardon isn’t saying “you’re free to go,” but actually saying (in essence) “that crime never happened.” When Manning’s sentence was commuted, that was “you’re free to go” because commuting a sentence (in essence) means “you’ve served your time”
Re: Russia gives Edward Snowden permanent residency
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was a consulate, you genius, and he spent several days there. He must be a moron if he expected that would stay secret. You do realize especially with his situation, he had to cover all legal aspects. Anyone would visit the consulate before traveling to Russia, and he would, too, even if he didn't plan to leave the international zone. Staying Russia wasn't his plan, but it was definitely an option as he must've kn…
People are (still, amazingly) claiming he just happened to get stranded in Russia. Clearly this was either his backup plan for what most likely would happen, or his actual plan for what he knew would happen (with Russian intel advising him the whole way). Pretty far away from "do people not realize that his passport was taken and he got stuck in the Moscow airport?" Really far.
People say that because that's the very likely truth. We know his passport got declared invalid. It's standard procedure. The timeline is also normal as the story was developing quickly once he revealed he was the source.
There are a lot of claims that he gave the Chinese intel, so somehow, after they didn't give him any protection, he just immediately gambled on selling info to Russia?