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Edward Snowden Leaves Hong Kong
hazeii writes "Ed Snowden, the U.S. whistleblower responsible for exposing the degree to which the U.S. watches its own citizens (as well as the rest of the world) is reported as having left Hong Kong for Moscow. According to the South China Morning Post, he is on a commercial flight to Russia but intriguingly it seems this is not his final destination. It's not clear whether this move is in response to the U.S. request to extradite him."
What has the world come to?
He's anything but a coward. A coward would have kept his mouth shut.
Its the folks still working at NSA who should be rotting in jail. What they have been doing is illegal. Personally I think anyone still there should be treated as a collaborator. We didn't accept "just following orders" as an excuse after WWII, it would be good for the nation if we locked away everyone at NSA doing anything above sweeping the floors.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
It's probably a decoy. I highly doubt he's heading for a NATO country.
Frankly, Sparky.. I think he's a flippin' national hero, on a par with many of the heros of the first American revolution, and I'm betting theres a LOT of us out here who think this.... He knew his life was gonna change dramatically and he'd likely be on the run from the pigshit running this country now, YET he blew the whistle on the blatantly UNconstitutional crap these three-letter fiefdoms were perpetrating on the American people.. Sure, I'll grant you that he violated a bunch of laws/rules/regulations, BUT he followed the only really important law.. the Constitution, the one mentioned in the oath that government workers take, where they swear to "protect and defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic..." He was defending it from the pigshit poseurs who are trying to shred the Constitution at every turn.. So you can call me and the rest of us who think he's a hero a moron, but we know we're the people the founding fathers had in mind, and YOU are the moron, if I was into ad hominim attacks, which I try to avoid.. But since YOU started it, I'm gonna play along.. You and your ilk are part of the problem with America today... YOU are the moron...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
You are deluded if you think Russia vs United States, Russia is the 'good guys'. In fact, I don't consider the US to be 'good guys', but compared to Russia they appear to be. Putin orders hits on reports who write unfavourable articles on him, more than once, and its fairly widely accepted in Russia. End of story.
The US and all its NSA bullshit isn't quite comparable to the threat of death for speaking out, if so all of the reporters who've covered Snowden would be fearing for their lives.
You are confused. Just because Congress authorized it doesn't make it legal. Coming to mind quickly is the McCain Feingold campaign finance reform (authorized by Congress), which has come to the Supreme Court three times and every time been ruled unconstitutional, hence illegal. The NSA spying is illegal according to the 4th amendment no matter what Congress says. If they don't like it, the way to make it legal is pass an amendment to repeal the 4th amendment, whcih they know won't be possible.
Snoden exposed illegal activity by the NSA, also exposing Congress "authroizing" illegal activity without worrying about consequences because they kept it hidden from the public. So in addition to exposing the illegal activity, he also exposed the illegal cover-up of the illegal activity.
He is the definition of a whistleblower, also showing that there are no whistleblower protections for citizens in the USA.
Two words, my friend. "Secret laws".
Yes, lets get this idea of In Transit in front of your Average American. In most countries, you can land at an airport and 'not be in the country' - you are in transit. You don't have to show your passport, you don't need a Visa, you don't need much except directions to the next flight.
In the current Soviet States of America, you may need all of those things and some additional paperwork.
The upshot is that Snowden is likely just connecting to somewhere else without the annoying hassles he would if he tried it in the US. Russia isn't necessarily the good guys, it's just that the US is turning out to be the obese 1600 pound poorly trained gorilla.
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I'm sorry; I tried to follow your advice by reading the Pravda (English version; I can't read Russian), but I couldn't keep a straight face:
(...) Obama nervously looked over his notes as Putin spoke clearly from his memory and intelligence. At meetings end Obama then went on to try and slap a handshake. It was met with President Putin's stone hand which withered Obama's smile away. Putin's firm grip declared who's top dog in this world.
And this wasn't in the Opinions section!
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Your main mistake is assuming that there are any 'good guys' at all. There are not. All countries act to one degree or another to further their own interests. The fiction that there are 'good' and 'bad' countries is just that, a fiction.
authorized by and deemed legal by Congress and the court system
That's not entirely true. The court system has not ruled one way or another whether the secret programs are legal. The Supreme Court has so far refused to hear cases brought against the NSA's spying program because the defendands have not been able to prove that their constituional rights were violated by these programs (due to their secret nature) but with Snowden's leaks they can now easily prove that their communications have in fact been targeted and, as a Verizon customer, the ACLU has filed a case against the NSA in federal court.
Thanks to Snowden the Supreme Court will likely be forced to rule on the constitutionality of these programs and if they are found uncsontitutional it matters not what laws Congress passed or Executive Orders the President issued to authorize them because those all become null and void.
16 Am Jur 2d, Sec 177 late 2d, Sec 256:
The general misconception is that any statute passed by legislators bearing the appearance of law constitutes the law of the land. The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and any statute, to be valid, must be In agreement. It is impossible for both the Constitution and a law violating it to be valid; one must prevail. This is succinctly stated as follows:
The General rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of it's enactment and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it. An unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted.
Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principles follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection, and justifies no acts performed under it.....
A void act cannot be legally consistent with a valid one. An unconstitutional law cannot operate to supersede any existing valid law. Indeed, insofar as a statute runs counter to the fundamental law of the lend, it is superseded thereby.
No one Is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it.
the 80s and early 90s every european kid wanted to be american.
No we didn't.
Exactly, the initial reporters that were talking about him being a "true american hero" all have completely shut up and some have retracted their statements quickly.
Real journalism in the USA has been dead for a very long time. You do what you are told and report as expected.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I am going to call Bullshit here! For starters I am not going to be hiding behind an anonymous coward. Secondly I don't hate Americans, I rather like Americans. I like the American ideals and how people want to do things. What I dislike are parts of the American government.
Now to get to the scoop. You don't have a threat of death for speaking out? Really, how about we ask this fellow:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/18/AR2006051802107.html
""Everyone knows that Mr. al-Masri was a mistaken victim of the rendition program. He is now a victim of the misuse of the state-secrets privilege." "
So the CIA did an oopsie, hurt this fellow, detained him, and tortured him. They did this by "accident" and when this guy asks for his rights the American government says, "oopsie no can do, state secret you know." Do you know which country does this? Oh yeah RUSSIA! While you might say at least this guy is alive, well how about those that are not alive? Do we hear their story?
Again I am not critiquing Americans and America as I have many American friends, have lived there and like it there. What I am critiquing is that there are parts of the American government that since 9/11 have gotten a blank cheque to do whatever they feel is right regardless of the law. America as an ideal stands for freedom, justice and being able to pursue without being persecuted. This is a good thing, and something that all humanity should strive for. But these other programs are just overreaching IMO.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
On CNN on the other hand I only hear short stories about snowden and wether or not he can be extradited. There was ZERO information about the real issue: the government collecting all the data of all the US citicens all the time.
So this time rt.com seems to be the more complete source of information and CNN seems to be biased or at least not giving a full report and critical report. However i'm sure those roles are reversed when there is some big scandal in russia.