Slashdot Mirror
Snowden Ridicules David Cameron For Defending 'Private' Matter of Panama Papers Leak
An anonymous reader writes: Edward Snowden, a former contractor with the NSA who worked with journalist to reveal a number of classified mass surveillance programs, has criticized the UK Prime Minister's insistence that his father's implication in the list of high-profile tax avoiders was a "private matter." Ian Cameron's firm Blairmore Holdings Inc managed tens of millions of pounds for the wealthy but has never paid taxes on the profits. Cameron responded to the news saying: "This is a private matter, I am focused on what the government is doing." In response to a Reuters story on Cameron's response, Snowden wrote: "Oh, now he's interested in privacy." Snowden followed up with a second tweet after the Prime Minister of Iceland resigned over his implication in the Panama Papers leak: "Resignation of Iceland's PM may explain why the UK PM is so insistent public has no right to know a PM's 'private' finances."
Ha, so you're an American, you don't know much about Cameron, but the "issue at hand" is the Prime Minister, who you don't know much about, of a country you're not resident in, who has categorically done no wrong. Even if we take the Panama papers at their worst, he is the beneficiary of a father who did things that were unethical but categorically not illegal.
And yet from that we are meant to say that he's a "slimey" motherfucker, "toxic" and "deserves any criticism that he gets".
The germ of all of this is the Panama papers, not Snowden. Snowden has merely decided to latch onto the stories around Cameron's family - who, let's remember, may have lodged money unethically but have definitely not done so illegally - and for whatever reason Slashdot has given him publicity. So let's, in the interest of discussion around news - that's what /. is meant to be about, right? - broaden the focus to *why* Snowden may have done this, especially in light of the vast allegations against Putin and his circle contained in the same papers.
1) Putin, and his circle, have been demonstrated to be monstrously corrupt
2) Putin, and his circle, have been demonstrated to be monstrously corrupt, and aided by external companies directly in the face of UN - not US, but UN - sanctions
3) Putin, and his circle, have been demonstrated to be monstrously corrupt, in the face of every claim they've made to the Russian people
4) Snowden is now deeply indebted to Putin and his circle and probably in danger of his life
5) David Cameron's father has been demonstrated to have been a (legal) tax-evader
6) Snowden is now deeply indebted to Putin and his circle and as they are is aware of the fact that everyone knows and is reporting this and has been told to kick up a stink about Cameron
Let's not forget (7)
7) Putin, and his circle, have been demonstrated to be monstrously corrupt and, aided by external companies, have violated UN Security Council sanctions which, entertainingly, were endorsed by Putin's own government
I eagerly await Snowden's condemnation of the deeply illegal corruption of the Russian government, along with that of, say, the Icelandic PM, to go along with his condemnation of the UK Prime MInister who, for all his very, very many sins, is actually entirely guiltless in all of this.
I think I'll be waiting a FUCKING LONG TIME.