Snowden Granted One-Year Asylum In Russia

New submitter kc9jud writes "The BBC is reporting that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia. According to his lawyer, Snowden has received the necessary papers to leave the transit zone at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, and the airport press office is reporting that Snowden left the airport at 14:00 local time (10:00 GMT). A tweet from Wikileaks indicates that Snowden has been granted temporary asylum and may stay in the Russian Federation for up to one year." Reader Cenan adds links to coverage at CNN, and other readers have pointed out versions of the story at Reuters and CBS.

Comments

Don't EVER be a freedom-loving libertarian

[mozumder]

Sorry to all you Republican-lite libertarian freedom-lovers, but metadata was never private communications.

Metadata is everything EXCEPT your private communication, including NOT communicating.

When third-parties know all your metadata, that means it's NOT private. Do you know how many dozens of people/companies see your IP headers as it goes across the internet? Are you Republican-lites dumb enough to think that kind of metadata was supposed to be private?

The only private communications are the ones only between sender and receiver, which the NSA does not spy on without a warrant, per US constitution's 4th amendment.

Also, every single NSA employee is well aware of constitutional law as well as the Posse Comitatus act. If there WERE illegal activities at the NSA, you would know about it from actual employee leakers, like what happened during your beloved Bush administration, when several bona-fide employees leaked the illegal activities of the Bush administration under evil Dick Cheney.

Sorry to all you Slashdot Republican-lite libertarians, but the NSA under Democratic leadership is VASTLY different from the Republican party that you idolize.

That is because the Democratic party is vastly different from your dearly beloved Republican party.

Or did you think the Republicans were going to pass socialized health-care?

Everything you Republican-lites believe in is 100% incorrect. Just stop now with your dumb ideas. Don't ever have your dumb ideas anymore. You're just not smart enough. Your small-government libertarian theories is for 12-year-olds, backwater rednecks, and really poor high-school dropouts, like Edward Snowden and other morons that think people with low power have "freedom." These are some of the most insanely dumbest theories in the world that no adult takes seriously just dumb as rocks.

A big government is much better than a small government. We liberals know that, and intend to grow the power of government at the expense of private parties.

We liberal socialists do NOT want private parties to have unlimited powers. We prefer to control private parties so they don't gain too much power. There is nobody in this world that is interested in giving private citizens unlimited powers, regardless of what you free-market libertarian hippies want to believe.

Life is not about what you want to do. It is about what we want to do.

The only thing the Republican-lites need to do is follow the orders of us liberals.

Thanks.

Re:Don't EVER be a freedom-loving libertarian

[drinkypoo]

You know why the left hates the libertarians? Because the libertarians are everything that the left wing used to be before they sacrificed their ideals to the alter of political correctness.

Supporting slavery has never been left-wing. By insisting that they be able to pay people whatever the market will bear rather than a living wage, libertarians are insisting that they should be able to keep slaves.

Re:Don't EVER be a freedom-loving libertarian

[Princeofcups]

I can tell, because in addition to the end of secret courts and the rest of the Patriot Act, Guantanamo closed, we left Iraq on the Bush timetable, and drone strikes have ceased.

So now the Dem's are just as bad as the Rep's because they haven't done enough to clean up the mess left by the previous administration? Seriously, did you criticize W for not cleaning up the horrible mess left by Clinton. Oh wait. There was no horrible mess.

You mean like the Medicare Part D that was passed by a Republican House, Senate, and President? You are right, that would never happen.

Otherwise, it goes a bit too far, but is a pretty solid troll.

Yeah, the Rep plans that guarantee even greater profits for the medical and insurance industries to the detriment of patients because basic meds and tests are not on the approved list. Yeah, wonderful health care record that.

Seriously, can you be more biased? I mean the Dem's are bad, but the Rep's are so much worse there isn't even a contest. If anything, the Dem's are just following the Rep's lead when it comes to being evil.

Re:Gone

[cold fjord]

...aaaaaaaaaaand he's gone. Hopefully out of reach of all repressive regimes, including the USA.

Snowden left a free society and the first place he landed was a city in a one party communist state, the People's Republic of China, well known for its repression. From there he somewhat improved things by going to Russia, which left communism behind, but now has been sliding back towards authoritarianism for some time. From there Snowden hopes to travel to one of several leftist regimes in Latin America. Those regimes are not exactly known as beacons of freedom and respect for civil rights. Snowden traded life in a free society for life in repressive regimes. I suppose it is somewhat fair given the damage he did to the security of the US and its allies.