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Edward Snowden Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize
SmartAboutThings writes "Edward Snowden has a chance of getting the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, as two Norwegian members of the Parliament have nominated him — Baard Vegard Solhjell (a former environment minister) and Snorre Valen. So, the fact that members of the Norwegian Parliament have proposed him for the Nobel Peace Prize could improve his chance of winning. After all, if Obama got this prize, why wouldn't Snowden get it?"
I'd like to nominate Dr. Thomas Neff (http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/01/29/0157208/megatons-to-megawatts-program-comes-to-a-close) as more deserving.
This is a HELL of a lot better than when Obama got the prize, just for being elected. An unknown nobody who had run a successful campaign got a peace prize just for moving into the White House? Totally bogus.
Maybe the committee has decided that they would like to have some credibility.
I'm all for Snowden getting the prize. To bad it has been cheapened with some of the past awards.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Obama won one of these, so what does winning this prize really mean?
Gives a whole new meaning to the classic phrase "it's not what you know; it's who you know."
I thought the Peace Prizes to Gore and Obama to be the most asinine thing that the committee has ever done.
To implicitly compare those two politicians to the likes of King or Gandhi just disgusts me.
What next, giving one to Jethro Tull?!
to take away Obama's and give him that one. They should do it while playing the candidate Obama vs President Obama videos in the background.
If he wins, then we'll have one Peace Prize winner being honored for resisting the authoritarianism of another Peace Price winner.
Just about every human being that does not drone-strike weddings was a better choice than Obama.
Congratulations to the Nobel Prize comittee for making such a particularly bad choice out of a universe of about 7 billion.
Yes, but you could argue that G.W. Bush had a chance at the Peace Prize, too, since he was nominated. So could a flying pig, if it was nominated. Anyone who is nominated has a chance at winning.
I thought that you were supposed to keep any nominations for a Nobel Prize secret? I know that the Nobel committee keeps them sealed for something like 60 years but I have no idea whether it's a convention, a rule, or just simply not bothering to tell anyone on the nominator's end.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
This is just a setup to get Snowden out in the open, so the US can catch him and bring him back to Black Mesa.
I hope he wins. Having an independent source of income will remove a lot of stress from his life.
Prof. Farnsworth: "... that may well win me the Nobel Prize!"
Leela: "In what field?"
Prof. Farnsworth"I don't care! They all pay the same!"
"First secure an independent income, then practice virtue."
-- Old Greek Proverb
I see your point, and I'm inclined to agree, mostly. But here's possible counterpoint.
Consider a country like North Korea. It's not really at war with anyone (unlike the U.S.), but it does plenty of saber-rattling (like the U.S.) It's also an authoritarian police state. Suppose one of its citizens pulled a Snowden, in a way that damaged the NK government's ability to be a police state, but also damaged its ability to conduct foreign espionage. Would it be reasonable for that NK citizen to receive the Peace Prize for that action?
If you say yes, than I would argue that in several important ways, his actions are similar to Snowden's.
...just because someone is nominated doesn't mean they are worthy, or that they are going to receive it. Let's not forget that in 1939 Adolf Hitler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize!
Snowden hasn't done a damn thing for peace. What he has done is cripple the ability of the west to gain intelligence.
...and I think we're all agreed that the West has a lot of room to improve in the intelligence department. Although I'd disagree -- Snowden has educated the west, and hopefully helped people make more intelligent decisions.
Governments on the other hand, yes, they've been somewhat "crippled" if by crippled you mean "held accountable to their own charters and agreements".
We all know from time on the school playground that the most peaceful times are when those with the power are so busy squabbling amongst each other that they don't have time to oppress everyone else. If western nations are spending their energy improving diplomatic relations, that means they're less likely to be spending that time on world domination.
You are confused, there is no notion of the USA's gathering intelligence to avoid terrorist attacks or wars.
The federal government were watching the attackers of 9/11 to see what they would do. well, we saw what they did.
The federal government used "intelligence" to justity a pointless invasion of Iraq (as aside note we supported Saddam and gave him money and dual use technnology to build the WMD he used to gas Iranians and Kurds)
The CIA is using "intelligence" to protect their narcotics cash crops in Afghanistan, bombing competitors and protecting chosen drug lords.
The federal government currently has FBI and DHS finding low IQ morons, losers with no ability to do anything, courting them for weeks while filling their heads with violent thoughts and ideas and then providing them with fake bombs. And then swooping in for arrests and headlines and congratulations all around for yet another blow in the "war on terror".
This is the type of "intelligence" you are claiming is necessary? fuck you and all other shills for the US's corporate fascist government.
Intelligence is critical... to avert wars.
Right, but not in the way you think.
Take the Syria conflict, for example - President Obama was preparing to use our soldiers and pilots as the "rebels" private air force, until the public became aware that said "rebels" were actually members of Al Qaeda. So, yes, intelligence averted the US entering yet another conflict, as well as arming our own enemies again - but it was the government who wanted to start the war in the first place.
Sunshine is still the best disinfectant.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Hate Snowden all you like for whatever reason you like but that doesn't mean you can twist reality into something it's not.
The reality is that a lot of the world has come together to realize that the super powers are conspiring against them. This has bonded many countries together while hurting the relationships that the U.S. and Britain have with the rest of the world. Unfortunately for your world view the U.S. and Britain are only small pieces of the world puzzle. I would also argue that honesty has always proven to be a better tool for long term piece than the constant lying that was going on.
he was trusted to look the other way while the people he worked for were breaking the law?
if he found out his bosses were, say, importing dope and selling it to kids to boost company profits, would you still be mad at him for "violating trust"?
no? well then i say to you sir that you are a hypocrite.
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
Well, it's hard to say if it ever had any credibility.
International war is not the only enemy to peace. So is a police state, where the government has declared war on its own populace. And we're getting dangerously close to a single executive order being able to turn our once-great nation into the most repressive police state the world has ever seen.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
You forgot the brain rays. The Zionists are using brain rays to alter people's subconscious into passivity. Fortunately, these rays can be blocked by a thin layer of aluminium.
Asinine, yes. But more asinine that Kissinger? Or Arafat? That's a pretty high bar.
As interesting as Snowden is, this is a distraction from the more important (and probably more urgent) question of... when are the criminals at the NSA going to be brought to justice?
Also, when do we fire the people that sold out our actual spy talent - with their far more targeted, far more 4th Amendment compatible tools like THINTHREAD - instead of continuing to give a paycheck to the assholes that let 9/11 happen so they could keep funneling money to their contractor friends to develop the far more expensive TRAILBLAZER? The families of the victims that died do this willful neglegence will probably want to file civil lawsuits, too.
A cornerstone of the very idea of "justice" is equal protection before the law, and these people need to get their day in court. If they do, then maybe we can start to put this feckless imbroglio behind us and move on, with only the usual political drama to worry about.
On the other hand, if we fail to accomplish this task - if we fail to obtain some basic symbol that the Constitution is still respected as the highest law of the land - then we've really given up any last pretense that this is any kind of civilized nation with a social contract.
Ce n'est pas une signature automatique.
in a long long time.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
There aren't many "Snowden's claims". The weird leaks are coming from security researchers pouring over all the power point presentations Snowden got from the NSA. So unless you think he faked those before passing them off to the media...
Oh yes the dreaded Power point presentations. They look more like something you would use in a presentation to justify budget increases. They contain no details or even proof that the programs described ever made it into the real world. There has been a remarkable lack of interest in trying to determine the voracity of the information that has been released. He could be making up shit wholesale and there is really no way to verify the information came from the NSA. I am not saying all the information is false I am just pointing out nobody has even investigated the claims. He has also taken it upon himself to judge whether or not the information being released is harmful to the US. With that type of arrogance he must be one hell of international relations expert. The minute he started releasing information on foreign intelligence activities he sealed his fate. The only deal he could get would be the US dropping any charges related to information theft and fraud while prosecuting the espionage act violations to the hilt.
North Korea is technically at war with the US, South Korea, and the UN armed forces. It is involved with counterfeiting on a global scale, illegal arms trade, drug trade, and supports terrorism. That is on top of diverting food aid sent to help its starving peasants to the North Korean military. Three generations of a dissenter's family get sent to prison camps where they are likely to die. They are used in experiments.
If you can't figure out the difference between North Korea and the US then your meter is broken.
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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