Slashdot Mirror
Russia Plans To Extend Edward Snowden's Asylum
mendax writes "The New York Times reports, 'Russia plans to extend its offer of asylum to Edward J. Snowden beyond August, a Russian lawmaker said Friday at the World Economic Forum ... The lawmaker, Aleksei K. Pushkov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Russia's lower house of Parliament, hinted during a panel discussion that the extension of temporary refugee status for Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, might be indefinite. "He will not be sent out of Russia," Mr. Pushkov said. "It will be up to Snowden."'"
Snowden said yesterday that going back to the U.S. is not an option because of the country's poor whistleblower protections "which through a failure in law did not cover national security contractors like [him]." He added, "This is especially frustrating, because it means there’s no chance to have a fair trial, and no way I can come home and make my case to a jury."
Maybe he can reveal how Putin is spying on Russians by any means necessary.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
.... and end this saga! Give him a home in the Sakha Republic - that place will get populated
whistle blows you!
Just in case you'd forgotten that Snowden still exists, here's Slashdot to stir up all that nice outrage.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Well, when "whistleblower protections" are provided to "national security contractors"... it's usually from entities other than those who participated in the original contract!
Engineer is spy.
Nope, that law does exactly was it's supposed to do - protect the guilty.
It's on here because Snowden is the biggest whistleblower of his generation, and this article will get generate views and comments for a less-than-interesting Friday afternoon/evening.
Last time I checked, Russia's continual asylum was conditional on not releasing more information, otherwise Snowden had a year to find a new place to avoid a drone strike. One wonders if he made a deal, or the Russians just enjoy annoying the US.
It's BS that Snowden is unwilling to come back to the US to stand trial. I'm sure there are plenty of great lawyers who would work pro bono to take his landmark case, and if he was willing to fight, he might be able to affect more change to the government spying program and achieve the goals he set out to reach.
I'm not an expert, but I play one on slashdot.
Can't we privately send him to Mars with a 3D printer? He'll do fine over there and he'll be in a new paradise far away from decaying Earth.
Is going to Mars such a horrible thing? 200,000 people have signed up for a possible trip to Mars, why put Snowden at the head of the line?
Except that stuff happens all the time, with a bunch of different countries as the source, and many predate Snowden's events by a very, very long time.
Or both.
Are you serious? Worst troll of the month.
I can understand the earlier developments relating to this whole incident being on Slashdot. There was the technological aspect to it. ... ... Please, editors, let's leave these purely-political stories off of the front page. I don't dispute that they have value, but they just don't belong here.
While I don't disagree that slashdot seems to put trollish/public-subset-opinion-polling/alarmist style headlines all over the front page more often than optimal, I have to disagree here about Snowden. I believe the Snowden revelations, and the way they came about, and continue to transpire as so, have so paradigm-shifted the computer and network security landscape, that articles such as this one are more than appropriate. First, it's merely a side-effect conveniency issue. While yes, some of your points may have merit, you have to forgive a bit that the slashdot audience really is that interested in how the Snowden saga transpires. I mean, this is some Epic War and Peace Shit going on here. A martyr being martyred slowly over years. How exactly, and how much pain and vindication end up in that story, I really think will have a profound place in the history of the internet's chapter in the history of humanity. This is a *BIG DEAL*.
And even setting asside that real-politik drama and the slashdot audience's 'non-technical' interest, you must look at the legitimate 'technical' interest of the slashdot audience. How Snowden is handled by the overwhelming powers that be, truly does shape how many of us here will be developing technology throughout the remaining future of our carreers. At some point, one is tempted to say - 'if computer security matters are treated this profoundly by the un-(directly)-opposable powers that be, then you know what, I'm actually going to stop worrying about whether the firmware in my BIGNAMEBRAND computer system or consumer device is a security risk or not. But if Snowden is fully vindicated, and reclaims the rights and protections of a free citizen of the United States of America, including rigourous protection of his freedom of speech, then I may well say- I'd like to spend more of my carreer working on more secure open source firmware.
Dunno...
Snowden's revelations about the NSA spying on American Citizens should earn him immunity from prosecution as a whistleblower. That was a valuable and risky thing he did.
However, his revelations about NSA spying outside the USA have caused severe and lasting damage to the USA's reputation, and to the USA's ability to collect intelligence that it needs to defend it's interests, **including national security interests**. That was a dangerous and over-the-top thing he did -- it **is** treason, and the severity of that (IMHO) outweighs any potential immunity he might have deserved from the above.
Snowden dropped a tactical nuke when he could have used a stick of dynamite. This indicates to me that his goal was to bury the NSA, not to reform it. In my opinion, this moves him from hero to traitor, and he needs to answer for this.
I think he is relatively safe if he stays in Russia. "Relatively". Should he leave there, he should prepare to be dragged into a van with a canvas sack over his head -- the subject of an "extraordinary rendition." (This is of course illegal. I don't condone it, but I do expect it.) He's barely safe in Russia, and probably not safe anywhere else. He made his own bed, now he gets to sleep in it.
I fully expect this post to get down-moderated into oblivion.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
The thing you have to understand here is that Putin is an authoritarian douchebag -- but he's not an idiot. He knows that there will be extra scrutiny on his polices during the Olympics. By having Snowden around, it's a reminder that the US isn't in a position to finger-wag over such things.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Both you and "ackthpt" should be ashamed of yourself.
Unlike Mr. Edward Snowden, none of you have the guts to do the right thing, and yet, after the personal sacrifices Mr. Snowden has gone through - may even turn out to be a lifelong exile from the country he loves so much - you guys post smart-ass comments as if you are some how "better" than Mr. Snowden.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01...
His response should be "you first".
I can understand the earlier developments relating to this whole incident being on Slashdot. There was the technological aspect to it. But at this point, this is purely political wrangling. There's no technology involved here. There's no science involved here. There's no mathematics involved here. Just realpolitik.
The "technological" angle is really the issue of the US government sub-contracting technological work, and giving those people no legal protections that you'd expect for someone working for the government. This is something that everyone in the tech field should think seriously about when considering doing government contract work.
Whats wrong with legal side of how we got months of insightful new crypto and tech news? Thanks to the efforts of Snowden the history of US/UK gov computer science spending can be filled in from 199x to ~200x.
http://cryptome.org/2013/11/sn...
Without Snowden Slashdot would have been filled with years of the same old boring sock puppets. Bland, safe, bulk daily posting stories about trivial technical matters as they build mod points.
Now we understand the old talking points of:
Data sets are too big, telcos would never connect to govs, its only for foreign use, no vast surveillance of domestic groups, no parallel construction, the Constitution, private sector legal teams, press, political leaders, no cpu or cooling could cover that kind of sorting...
We now know nothing protected the public from a vast illegal domestic surveillance network over the years.
We now have news Snowden view of US legal protections for US contractors (as in computer specialist) who speak truth to power.
http://cryptome.org/2013-info/... Many people have tried to stay in the US legal system but thats getting expensive and color of law seems to be getting re interpreted per case.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I don't care what you call it/try to spin it.
He should be tried and executed like any traitor.
The "should be tried and executed like any traitor" clause should be applied to Dianne Feinstein, James Clapper and all the rest of the bastards who have knowingly violated the Constitution of the United States of America, to the detriment of the nation of the United States of America and to the hundreds of millions of the citizens of the United States of America !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
[He's a] traitor
Except that's wrong, you fucking retard.
The attack that was leveraged against Target has been hitting corporations for at least four years -- well before Snowden showed up in Russia.
So at least one AC doesn't think it even remotely coincides, other than the fact that he ended up in a country that's home to a Russian malware author who is currently famous.
And the stuff that was leveraged against Target points more to someone with knowledge of financial processing systems than someone with knowledge of Big Data or security vulnerabilities -- after all, the tech stuff was purchased on the black market; the real skill was in knowing how to effectively deploy it.
Hey who let James Clapper on slashdot
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
First, I'll stipulate that Snowden is a hero to me. Half my age. Twenty times the guts.
What really bothers me, though, is how the Administration bungled this. Amateur hour! The moment we arrogantly, petulantly forced Evo Morales airplane down in Austria, we pretty much guaranteed that Snowden would need to hole up and that Putin would take the opportunity to stick us in the eye. This is beyond amazing. We've put ourselves in the position where a vicious thug gets to posture as the nice guy and leave us with very little to do. We are depending on a thug to protect the fate and future of a man who initiated one of the most important discussions in our nation's political history. All because we couldn't think straight and realize that Ecuador or Venezuela or *anywhere" would be a batter outcome than what we got.
It's one thing to get poked in the eye with a stick, but quite another thing to run into the stick full tilt. Amateur hour.
My bet is on annoying the US, hell if where Putin I would.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
I would have thought that the Russians had no love whatsoever for the US and that they would like seeing Snowden release everything he has and leave the US with egg on their face.
Or are the Russians using the same tricks and tools as the US (under different code names) and that's why they dont want Snowden to speak out?
Last time I checked, Russia's continual asylum was conditional on not releasing more information,
Easy for him to live up to since he gave the entire trove to Greenwald, et al. Snowden hasn't released anything since, because he doesn't have anything left. Same reason all the talk about the FSB getting access to the files is also baseless speculation.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Anyone think it's more than a little coincidental that Snowden seeks asylum in Russia and then some Russian hackers stole all that credit card data from Target? Knowledge of backdoors and security vulnerabilities is pretty much the NSA's mission statement. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if he sold some information - the guy's gotta eat.
no just no.
Russia is stuffed to the gills with mellicious hacker working for the Russian mob, because Russia doesn't care about hacker targeting other countries.
Snowden fled to left for Hong Kong the free-ish part of China first and handed over his copies of the documents the Glen Greenwald and Laura Poitrus. When thing looked like china would turn him over rather than piss of their biggest trading partner the US, a member of wikileak arranged to get Snowden out of China and into Russia. Why Russia because there are only two countries that are;
A - Big enough to tell the USA to go fuck itself.
&
B - Not in cahoots with the USA.
They are Russia and China. China didn't want to upset trade relations so they were getting ready to hand him over that why Russia.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Yep, this was handled yesterday in: http://news.slashdot.org/story...
http://online.wsj.com/news/art...
Highlights:
In the Thomas Drake case, the administration retroactively marked documents as classified, saying, 'he knew they should have been classified.'
In the Bradley Manning case, the jury wasn't allowed to see what information was leaked.
my theory is that the Russians have less qualms and impediments to using the same types of tricks and tools as the US, however perhaps less technical ability. I say that latter thinking of Silicon Valley in the US and the history of the internet, though like the moon-landing style got-there-firsts, perhaps now the internet is mature enough that an early lead has evaporated.
Back to your question though- another reason to consider the Russians not wanting Snowden to speak out is because it would anger the U.S, and perhaps in a real-politik sense, Russia is still afraid of what a really-pissed-off USA-intelligence-inner-circle-elite can do to Russia. Or again as before, perhaps there is no superpower-imbalance in this day and age to enable that silenced-by-fear effect.
That's not even worthy of a Flamebait mod--that's just stupid.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Only if you have to go there with one of the 200,000 people who have signed up. (Except for the few hot chicks who did it for fun.)
Can't we privately send him to Mars with a 3D printer? He'll do fine over there and he'll be in a new paradise far away from decaying Earth.
Is going to Mars such a horrible thing? 200,000 people have signed up for a possible trip to Mars, why put Snowden at the head of the line?
First of all Mars is in the United States. He can't go there. Second, the population is nowhere near 200K. It's probably closer to 2,000.
We've put ourselves in the position where a vicious thug gets to posture as the nice guy and leave us with very little to do. We are depending on a thug to protect the fate and future of a man who initiated one of the most important discussions in our nation's political history.
Before I comment, I need to clarify that I am an American citizen, a naturalized citizen since I wasn't born in the United States of America.
It is true that Russia is a thug. And it is true that right now, as we correspond on /. the fate of the conscience of the nation of the United States of America rests on the decision of the Russian thug.
However, if we take a step backward, we can see that the government of the United States of America has become a thug itself, and a thug that is not unlike that notorious thug in Russia.
On the Snowden affair, only a thug would tried so hard to hunt down Snowden, so much so that they actually grounded a plane carrying the president of another sovereign nation.
The United States of America was the nation that I chose to be when I escaped from yet another thug - China - and I am very sad to say, the regime which is governing the land who has saved me from a thug has become a thug.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Only if you have to go there with one of the 200,000 people who have signed up. (Except for the few hot chicks who did it for fun.)
I hope "hot chick" is way down on the list of things they look for in an application - a "hot chick" is probably the person I'd least want to live with on mars, and I'd chose the nerdy chick (or dude) that sits in the basement all day building Arduino projects.
That's not to say that there are no nerdy hot chicks, but they don't seem to be the norm. Plus, my only relationship with a "hot chick" ended dramatically with a visit from the police, and almost a restraining order.
Chris Hadfield (recent tweeting/singing Canadian Commander of ISS) has some very encouraging words to say about Russia and Russians. I think myself that Snowden *will* have to stay there and that the Russians were decent to extend his stay, virtually indefinitely. Snowden I think is a loyal American and would like to return home, but the USA with pronouncements and anima pointed against him at this point are not likely to let him return. At least, not when Manning is in jail.
I can never tell if people are joking, but are you mentally ill or just severely stupid?
You'll have to give a little more context if you'd like me to answer your insightful question - I have no idea what point you're trying to make. Am I crazy and/or stupid for suggesting that being banished to Mars can't be all that bad if 200,000 people would volunteer, or is it because I implied that Snowden shouldn't get a free trip to Mars when hundreds of thousands of people are in line in front of him?
My remark was more about equating Putin and Obama's behavior toward dissidents than it was about Snowden himself.
This world is occupied by 4.5 big thugs - China, Russia, USA, Japan, plus UK, which can only be rated as 0.5big, since they are living in their past glory.
USA is trying its best to hunt down Snowden. Japan and Britain are USA's lap dogs.
That leave China and Russia being the two entities left in this planet big and fierce and crazy enough to stand against USA.
So, where do you want Snowden to go ?
Sweden ? that another lap dog of USA ?
Bolivia ? Whose presidential plane was forced grounded by yet another USA lap dog (Spain) ?
I know very well (and I am not the only one in this) that Russia is far from the ideal location for Snowden to seek refuge in, but short of a miracle (that Obama and all his gang of traitors are thrown to jail), Mr. Edward Snowden is facing a stark future of being on the run all his life.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
He should be named James Crapper for the amount of lies and crap that come from his hole.
All of the information that has been leaked was leaked before he escaped to Russia. Snowden planned out a method of slowly releasing the information to journalists over time beforehand. He didn't bring any data with him to Russia or China. Every news item you've seen up until this point regarding leaked information from Snowden has been the slow wheels of fate his slightly younger self set in motion when he made the decision to become a whistle blower.
They are from the NSA, and of course, they have to troll for their master.
I wouldn't be surprise if Snowden attempts to make contact w/US participants in Sochi.
Putin really gets off on showing his citizens that he is not afraid of the US. Sometimes I think China's periodic fucking-with Hong Kong is the same sort of fuckery.
Take a look at the subsequent careers of the lawyers that defended people in GITMO to get another angle on how unfair it would be. Some of them moved out of the USA so they could get work instead of being unemployed on a blacklist.
Last time I checked, Russia's continual asylum was conditional on not releasing more information,
Easy for him to live up to since he gave the entire trove to Greenwald, et al. Snowden hasn't released anything since, because he doesn't have anything left. Same reason all the talk about the FSB getting access to the files is also baseless speculation.
I would be naive to assume that Greenwald has the only electronic copy of these documents. The speculation is Snowden could have stashed them in other safe places, to which he would have access. I almost guarantee the govt has done an automated search of the popular cloud sharing sites for keywords. The recent rumors that he planned this ahead of time with Russia is most likely wild speculation by an irresponsible congress critter. If the US knew that as fact, they wouldn't have told us.
Ironic that its Putin protecting the whistleblower who reported Obama and the NSA have violated the Constitution - now backed up with multiple rulings.
If you want to dumb things down to newspeak then yes - doubleplusgood so, but in English he doesn't quite fit the bill.
Here's a question to sort things out since you are using your own personal definition. Do you think that Oliver North was a traitor for knowingly selling weapons to Hezbolla less than a year after they had killed over a hundred US Marines? If not North then why Snowden?
That question should really establish whether you stand for "King" first and "Country" second or not. North put "King" first, betraying his country for the sake of his leader. Snowden put "Country" first, betraying his leader for the sake of his country.
So where do you stand? Are you for "King" or for "Country". Would George Washington consider you an enemy or a fellow believer in an ideal?
Asylum extends you!
The favorable history of the Obama Presidency, i.e. Obama Junta, rests on the killing of Edward Snowden as Obama himself has concurred in a White House Situation Room Meeting this week.
This week "El Presidente" Obama signed a secret executive order, ordering the killing at all cost and expense of Edward Snowden in the next 100 days.
The Departments of Justice, Defense, Security, Energy and Agriculture are tasked to work together. With these US Federal Departments and resources President Obama tasked the NATO Alliance to coordinate and expedite the killing in of Snowden in Russia. This will involve embedding Olympic Teams with Sleeper Agents. The Sleeper Agents will be selected from US Green Berets and US Navy Seals. Shadow Personnel will be deployed to cover the Berets and Seals "activities" and if necessary eliminate them before discovery by national forces (NATO, USA and Russia).
This will be an unprecedented move by El presidente de los Estados Unidos de América in modern Times si.
Ho ho Ha ha
Can't we privately send him to Mars with a 3D printer? He'll do fine over there and he'll be in a new paradise far away from decaying Earth.
Is going to Mars such a horrible thing? 200,000 people have signed up for a possible trip to Mars
In my case, you just answered your own question, sir.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
My bet is on annoying the US, hell if [I were] Putin I would.
Same here.
No fun having power if you can't use it to piss off powerful people every once and a while :)
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Last time I checked, Russia's continual asylum was conditional on not releasing more information,
Easy for him to live up to since he gave the entire trove to Greenwald, et al. Snowden hasn't released anything since, because he doesn't have anything left. Same reason all the talk about the FSB getting access to the files is also baseless speculation.
I would be naive to assume that Greenwald has the only electronic copy of these documents. The speculation is Snowden could have stashed them in other safe places, to which he would have access. I almost guarantee the govt has done an automated search of the popular cloud sharing sites for keywords. The recent rumors that he planned this ahead of time with Russia is most likely wild speculation by an irresponsible congress critter. If the US knew that as fact, they wouldn't have told us.
I was going to wax philosophical about how and where Snowden might have stashed his cache, so to speak.
Then I thought about it, and decided I didn't want to accidentally say something clever that might... compromise his negotiating position. Better safe than sorry, you know?
Now, if you'll excuse me, there seems to be a commotion going on outsi
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Regardless of the merits of what Snowden has accomplished... Putin said he could stay in Russia if he stopped leaking secrets - and then he stepped up the attacks. This has just turned into international politics, games, and bullshit.
A talented fellow like Snowden should be able to lead a decent life in Russia. Why return to a nation owned by corporate globalist mafiosi who hate you? (Apologies to real mafiosi who haven't killed nearly as many people.)
Russian Slashdotters feel free to weigh in on wether Russia is the hell portrayed in the US media, or something different.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
I thought they may have hired contractors for these jobs exactly because they cannot legally become whistle blowers.
Totally. He can lean back and use this for sooo much PR. "See? the west is corrupt! you have it good, in Russia, da?" And use it for bargaining later for stuff. This was an easy choice for him to make to offer, and the US still keeps making themselves look daft everytime they talk about Snowden.
Waiting for an amusing sig.
Now I've learned something from this thread and I don't feel like it was all a waste of time. Thanks!
I would extend this further to ALL public officials who either have not adequately studied the Constitution (mine's on the wall, about 2 feet from my face right now) or who've knowingly denigrated it. There is only one member of Congress I could presently, willingly exclude from execution, and I don't even like him as a person.
I mean, we can talk all day and say that Snowden made great personal sacrifices, but did anyone ever ask why he was working with the NSA in the first damn place?
Yes, I did, and because I did ask that question, I did some research into how what Snowden had done, and how he managed to get into that little circle under the NSA canopy.
Unlike most regular posters in /., Mr. Edward Snowden didn't graduate from some fancy university, in fact, he didn't even have a high school diploma !!
Mr. Edward Snowden studied at Anne Arundel Community College to gain the credits necessary to obtain a high-school diploma but he did not complete the coursework.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...
Mr. Snowden's first step action in his infiltration into the NSA circle was working as a Security Guard guarding the building in which NSA's contractors was using.
From that position he gets to know people who work with the NSA contractors, and he gets to know what kind of position is opened.
Once he learned that the NSA contractor needed sys-admins, Mr. Snowden studied very hard, self-study style, all the computer/network related skills needed to be employable as a sysadmin.
From there he gained entry to the NSA contractor's computer systems, and from there he gained access to the - alleged - millions of secret files.
I have analysed what Snowden did and I was very impressed with his determination and his other skill in hiding his real intention very very well ! That takes a lot of pre-planning, a lot of self-control, and a helluva load of patience.
As have stated, Mr. Snowden wasn't a kid from a "high caste" of the American society. In fact, his family background, - if I am allowed to put it, and advanced apology to Mr. Snowden and his family for stating the fact - has been routinely categorized as "White Trash" by many Sociologists.
But yet, unlike millions of others, Mr. Snowden loves his country, and it's His Pure Love Of The Country that he did whatever he had to do in order to gain access to the secretive evidences of the illegal activities of the Government of the United States so that he can expose it to his fellow citizens, in the hope that, one day, his beloved country may be better.
True, he worked under the canopy of NSA, and true, NSA is part of the totally despicable regime which is ruling over the nation of the United States of America.
But without getting inside the NSA, how was Edward Snowden going to gain the SOLID evidences of the dastard deeds which the invalid government of the United States of America has committed.
It has been well known for many of us that the USA is no longer free. On the surface it is, but deep inside too many damn dirty things had happened, and we, the citizens, couldn't do a squat about it.
There had been rumors floating around on the many secret programs that were in violation of the Constitution of the United States, but without solid evidences, there is NOTHING to proof.
Before Mr. Snowden's revelation, every single time when I talk to others about the (then alleged) secret programs people looked at me as if I am one of those nuts who believe in conspiracy theories.
It is because of Mr. Snowden, and thanks to his solid evidences, that today, even people who previously pooh-pooh at me whenever I talked about the illegality of the US government are coming to me to talk about the very matter that previously they thought were conspiracies.
Last, but not least, remember the adage:
"Judge not, lest thou be judged"
You have unfairly judged Mr. Edward Snowden due to his working under the NSA program. Unless you want to be judged by others the same way you have judged Mr. Snowden, I suggest that you begin your own path of redemption.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Wow! That newsweekly link really is scraping against the lunatic fringe! I wonder which of the two "independent minds" at that site wrote the article.
Are you going to link the lizard conspiracy next?
Russian spies in Australia at 'near Cold War level'
China's spies come out from the cold
Chen Yonglin, a Chinese diplomat who recently defected in Australia, claimed Beijing had as many as 1,000 spies in Australia alone.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
We should really have all of our current politicians exciled from this once great country. We should rightfully demand communication from their righteous churches that they harbour and salute.
http://gamehacking.org/vb/threads/12747-nensondubois-codes http://twitter.com/nensondubois_
Considering they want to make it reality tv, I wouldn't be surprised if the 4 most aesthetically pleasing (hawt girls) would be send to their death to generate more as revenue.
It's really cynic and has nothing at all to do with science, space exploration or advancement of human mankind.
It only proves that companies will send people to their certain, early, unpleasant death for money, and that people are willing to throw away their lives for 15 minutes of fame. Sad state of humanity.
*ad revenue. Damn autocorrect.
I see parallels with ancient Athens here. There too - Athens were a cause for the good but after some time resented by everybody because of its ability and willingness to bully instead of leading others. The comparison and analogy are only that. The circumstances and technological capabilities have changed. We live in interconnected world where increasingly good reputation counts. It does not count for much but still does. One can be forgiven small things especially if one had shown great sacrifice elsewhere. But showing rampant disregard for rights and wills of others, lack of respect and intellectual and moral capability to lead the way, US is isolating itself. That is dangerous. We see that there are people on this earth that have even less regard for lives of others and are ready to act violently. We may be confronted by them sooner that we think and it would be better if we had a moral high ground and many good friends like a powerful and freedom and human rights supporting US - but not only in speech but in acts of law and in actions of its agencies. Shame this does not seem to be happening.
How many of those 200,000 are actually prepared to do it though? Most of them are deluded kids or uneducated adults who think "whoa, that's cool" but would be completely unprepared for the realities and hardships it would take to make it. Come launch time, see how many of those people are ready to man up and make the voyage and of any who might, how many will go batshit crazy shortly afterwards and start crying about wanting to return home?
Until we see astronauts and/or highly experienced military personnel and/or highly educated scientists signing up, it's just a bunch of people flapping their lips. Colonizing Mars is going to take highly skilled, tough as nails Robinson Crusoe types, not a bunch of kids who watch SciFi flicks and think they are ready to tackle an entire life off-world.
...he should have thought of the ramifications before he stole stuff from the government.
Still others love America a bit too much. Attempting to defend the indefensible. I know who I prefer.
The one thing that Cold Fjord really loves is FASCISM.
No, that creep does NOT love America, nor whatever America stands for.
America stands for Freedom, Liberty, Equality, Democracy.
Cold Fjord doesn't want any of that.
All Cold Fjord wants, all that asshole is after, is cold-solid-power.
Yes, COLD-fucking-SOLID-POWER !
As we can all see from Cold Fjord's message he talks about power, war, threats, enemy, nuclear bombs, and so on, and so forth.
Cold Fjord doesn't care if the illegal regime that current lords over America takes all the liberties away - as long as that regime leaves him with some breadcrumbs (power, title, benefits) he would be happy.
So far Putin's government has arrested and jailed members of the band pussy riot, banned "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors (which bans speech about supporting gay rights), had his political rivals charged with fraud, expelled a US agency that provides poverty and disaster relief (USAID), instituted internet censorship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R..., banned the adoption of Russian children by US parents, arrested an activist who planned protests against Putin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S..., started back up the tradition of using the psychiatric machinery to punish political protesters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P..., and countless other acts.
Snowden is a smart guy, and I'm sure he realizes this. But he needs to get the hell out of Russia. Hopefully he's working on establishing asylum somewhere else, but Russia is becoming more and more politically oppressive, and isn't the right place for someone who values freedom.
AccountKiller
At this point it is just a matter of choosing the poison you want to die of. Russia or the US are different only in degree, not in nature.
Since I came from yet another poisonous concoction - China - I'll say this ...
If I were to have a choice - and I'm going to die anyway - I will die the way I choose, by ***FIGHTING AGAINST*** those fucking bastards.
I rather die fighting than die being poisoned,
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
We see that there are people on this earth that have even less regard for lives of others and are ready to act violently. We may be confronted by them sooner that we think and it would be better if we had a moral high ground and many good friends like a powerful and freedom and human rights supporting US - but not only in speech but in acts of law and in actions of its agencies. Shame this does not seem to be happening.
I fully understand what you mean. I do.
Both of us came from the communist country background and both of us know how wrong can a system become and how badly it can fuck up people's lives.
When ***THAT*** fight comes (against those you-know-who), I do not think we can rely on any other people but our own selves.
USA is not only no longer a reliable entity, my worst case scenario (yes, I do plan ahead) is that illegal regime which lords over America may end up ***ASSISTING*** the "you-know-who" in conquering Europe, and then shove *that* problem to Russia and China (geopolitically USA is more immune to those you-know-who anyway).
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Unfortunately America hasn't stood for those things in a verry long time.
Maybe if you did, and acted like you did. You wouldn't have so many terrorists bothering you all the time.
As I was not born in America, but have stayed in the States for quite a long time, I get to observe USA first hand, with a third-person vantage point.
There are TWO Americas.
One is the REAL AMERICA - the Americans, the people.
The other one is that illegal regime which has lorded over the United States of America for ... God knows how many years ...
The REAL AMERICA still stands for Liberty, Freedom, Equality, Democracy, and still believes in it.
The other one ? That's the one you have mentioned - the paranoid sociopath regime which has acted totally against the very spirit on which the United States of America was created for.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
If Depardieu can be made a citizen over a petty tax dispute, surely the Russian government can extend the same courtesy over a more significant issue.
Think carefully about why they are only extending his asylum instead of giving him citizenship.
Perhaps Russia is extending Snowden's asylum instead of granting him a citizenship because that's (Russian citizenship) isn't what Snowden want.
You can say anything about Putin but there are two things that Putin really stands out ...
1. Putin is no fool
2. Putin does not like to feel like a fool
Perhaps Putin already know Snowden will turn down the offer of the Russian citizenship, that is why he (Putin) isn't offering Snowden what he has offered that French guy. (That French guy actually asked for it so he doesn't need to pay that outrageous 75% income outrageous.
If Putin were to publicly offer Snowden a Russian citizenship and Snowden turns him down, that would be a major embarrassment for Putin and for Russia.
Of course Putin ain't gonna be stuck in that scenario.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
He could also argue that the content was over-classified, but keep in mind that the level of classification is determined by the level of damage to national security the release would cause
Wait a fucking minute here !!!
The documents that have been revealed far do *NOT* the national security of the United States of America but was very damaging to the reputation (or what's leftover) of that illegal regime which is currently lording over the USA instead.
I could never vote for Ron Paul. Ron Paul had the most conservative voting record in congress between WWII and 2001
And Rand Paul is another asshole cut from the same mold. Rand's grandstanding filibuster was nothing more that stating that Obama was an asshole, then reworded Obama's exact same policy as his own.
So than makes both Ron and Rand bigger sacks of shit than Obama.
Of course your probably jerking off to a picture of Ayn Rand as I type this.
Fuck that little fuck.
Snowden is a counterintelligence operative and a fraud whose goal is to spread disinformation and fear about the NSA. He is neither a hero or a villain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
Passed over three times for promotion for doing his appointed job and representing somebody unpopular.
Unfortunately the link to the marine newsletter given as a citation is dead, but you don't have to be spoon fed do you? He's been interviewed a few times and some of those times were presumably for print media, or you may be able to find podcasts of radio interviews.
Of course I've just wasted my time because you'll find another way to string me along if you are a troll. Are you a troll?
Snowden is the biggest whistleblower of his generation
Are we so quick to forget Bradley Manning? The man that started the whole whistleblowing epoch. The man that released thousands of documents to the entire world of all the corruption, military atrocities conducted during the Iraq war, etc.
I guess it's easy come easy go with this retarded "facebook/twitter generation".