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
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.
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.
There are numerous other sites I can go to when I wish to read about such non-technical matters. Slashdot shouldn't be one of them, however. It should be the site I go to when I want news about science, technology and mathematics.
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. There are other venues where they're appropriate. This is not one of those venues.
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.
I don't care what you call it/try to spin it.
He should be tried and executed like any traitor.
Nope, that law does exactly was it's supposed to do - protect the guilty.
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.
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.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
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".
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.
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.
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 !
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.
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 !
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.
I wouldn't be surprise if Snowden attempts to make contact w/US participants in Sochi.
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.
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
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.
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_
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.
...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?