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Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

correntewire.com

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Re: Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

#31

Post by Joeri »

spitx wrote: post #6

CBS' Bob Schieffer on Snowden's junket: "For one thing, I don't remember Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks running off and hiding in China. The people who ran the civil-rights movement were willing to break the law and suffer the consequences." "That's a little different than putting the nation's security at risk and running away." "What I see in Edward Snowden is just a narcissistic young man who has decided he…

Snowden knows exactly what the consequences would be, because he's not the first whistleblower. Bradley Manning is still potentially facing the death penalty, and at the very least he will never see the outside of a jail again. And still plenty of people found enough reason to label him a coward. It is way too easy to be in a comfy chair and say that other people should throw their life away to stand by their principles.

IMHO, Snowden should just ask for political asylum if that is what he went to hong kong for. Given the circumstances, he would probably get it.

Re: Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

#32

Post by [deleted] »

unreal37 wrote: post #22
spitx wrote: post #6

CBS' Bob Schieffer on Snowden's junket: "For one thing, I don't remember Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks running off and hiding in China. The people who ran the civil-rights movement were willing to break the law and suffer the consequences." "That's a little different than putting the nation's security at risk and running away." "What I see in Edward Snowden is just a narcissistic young man who has decided he…

I think Snowden did the best he could do under the circumstances. Expose the truth, run to a safe place, and then identify himself publicly. He's not running, he just prefers freedom to a jail cell. Who doesn't? MLK and Rosa Parks weren't facing 100 years in jail or the death penalty, were they?

[deleted]

Re: Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

#33

Post by spitx »

david_shaw wrote: post #23
spitx wrote: post #6

CBS' Bob Schieffer on Snowden's junket: "For one thing, I don't remember Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks running off and hiding in China. The people who ran the civil-rights movement were willing to break the law and suffer the consequences." "That's a little different than putting the nation's security at risk and running away." "What I see in Edward Snowden is just a narcissistic young man who has decided he…

> "The people who ran the civil-rights movement were willing to break the law and suffer the consequences." That's correct, and I agree that participating in civil disobedience, by nature, requires being willing to "do the time" as part of making a point. Whistleblowers, however, are a different story. I don't believe that Snowden was trying to be a martyr for Americans' right to privacy; I think he saw something tha…

What about Bradley Manning?

That's as pristinely analogous a case as it gets to Snowden's, with diametrically opposed approaches the actors took to pursue their causes.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Bradley_Mannin...

Re: Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

#34

Post by glurgh »

gruseom wrote: post #4

This is by far the most informative [edit: if speculative] article I've read on Snowden's choice of Hong Kong, which has been the most puzzling detail of the whole story. If true, it explains a lot, not just about why he chose Hong Kong but also about his subsequent interview with the press there. Can HNers who know Hong Kong shed light on how plausible it is? It's striking how one obscure blog post can be more valua…

It's striking how one obscure blog post can be more valuable than all the media speculation on this question (that I've seen) put together.

The infographic is taken from the South China Morning Post, a mainstream media outlet. It's followed by some verbiage about the speed of the Hong Kong judiciary and then a mention of a murder trial (actually, two trials) that's gone on for nearly 10 years - but that's a murder trial, not an extradition proceeding.

This is just as speculative as anything else but from what little we've learned about Snowden, he just doesn't strike me as some fiendishly clever schemer. If I had to guess, I'd say he went to Hong Kong because he has an interest in Chinese language and culture and went to the most comfortable place in China that's China-but-not-quite.

Re: Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

#37

Post by kissickas »

alextingle wrote: post #19
steve19 wrote: post #12

Somewhat disingenuous to suggest swapping sim cards to avoid being tracked. This myth is one that law enforcement love. They just track phones with IMEI numbers.

Because nobody sells phone for cash, right?

GP still has a valid point, SIM card swapping as mentioned in the article is not track-proof.

Re: Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

#38

Post by anonymfus »

steve19 wrote: post #12

Somewhat disingenuous to suggest swapping sim cards to avoid being tracked. This myth is one that law enforcement love. They just track phones with IMEI numbers.

If you can patch firmware of your phone you can forge IMEI. Most of phones have IMEI in OTP flash, but with unlocked boot loader modification of code which actually send it to network is usually possible.

Many cheap Chinese phones on MTK chipsets produced at non-working time without knowledge of factory owners don't have unique IMEIs, they have all zeroes or all ones in it so user can flash it itself one time; loads of fake iPhones with quadro SIMs and analog TV support can have IMEIs of few real iPhones.

Re: Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

#39

Post by panacea »

Apocryphon wrote: post #35

I've been thinking of alternative destinations. New Zealand, home of exile Kim Dotcom, could work. But what about Sweden? Aren't they very neutral? Or Switzerland, the nation that's synonymous with neutrality?

Sweden? The country that's trying to extradite Assange?

Re: Choosing Hong Kong Is a Brilliant Move by Edward Snowden

#40

Post by SqMafia »

msg wrote: post #14
spitx wrote: post #6

CBS' Bob Schieffer on Snowden's junket: "For one thing, I don't remember Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks running off and hiding in China. The people who ran the civil-rights movement were willing to break the law and suffer the consequences." "That's a little different than putting the nation's security at risk and running away." "What I see in Edward Snowden is just a narcissistic young man who has decided he…

Martin Luther King didn't live in a world where we imprison innocent men in legal limbo without trial or habeas corpus, or where we officially sanctioned torture and the oubliette. He could trust that he would be vindicated by the justice system. The whole point of the Snowden story is that the government is not trustworthy in this era. I would not trust the US government to give him justice any more than they did Aa…

"Martin Luther King didn't live in a world where we imprison innocent men in legal limbo without trial or habeas corpus, or where we officially sanctioned torture and the oubliette. He could trust that he would be vindicated by the justice system."

You're kidding me right?!? You honestly think the era he lived in was fair and just to people like him? Do you know how many lynchings there were in Florida alone? Does the name Emmett Till ring a bell? What did you think MLK fought for?

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