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Edward Snowden Is Not Dead Despite Mysterious Tweets, Says Glenn Greenwald (inquisitr.com)
Saturday Slashdot reader MouseTheLuckyDog wrote:Some mysterious going ons on the web is causing people to ask if everything is alright with Edward Snowden. His last two tweets, since deleted, were a cryptic message...followed a few days later by a 64 character hex string. This combined with the recent move against torrents sites has the more conspiratorially oriented people speculating that perhaps he is dead and various agencies are slamming torrent sites to slow the spread of more Snowden leaks.
Saturday night The Inquisitr reported: The cryptic code tweets led many to believe that Snowden may have been captured or killed and the codes were the result of a "dead man's switch" designed to release if he did not check in to the computer at a certain time. However, a journalist with The Intercept that has worked with the whistleblower in the past says that Snowden is "fine," but would not elaborate further.
On Saturday Glenn Greenwald tweeted simply, "He's fine". While Snowden's first tweet was reported as "It's time," its complete text seems to suggest Snowden was gathering information for a book. "Did you work with me? Have we talked since 2013? Please recontact me securely, or talk to @bartongellman. It's time." That tweet ended with a URL that led to a tweet by Gellman. "If you have information on the work @Snowden did in the IC, help me tell it truthfully." And Saturday night Gellman also added a message on Twitter for "everyone requesting proof" that Snowden was alive. "Take a deep breath..."
Saturday night The Inquisitr reported: The cryptic code tweets led many to believe that Snowden may have been captured or killed and the codes were the result of a "dead man's switch" designed to release if he did not check in to the computer at a certain time. However, a journalist with The Intercept that has worked with the whistleblower in the past says that Snowden is "fine," but would not elaborate further.
On Saturday Glenn Greenwald tweeted simply, "He's fine". While Snowden's first tweet was reported as "It's time," its complete text seems to suggest Snowden was gathering information for a book. "Did you work with me? Have we talked since 2013? Please recontact me securely, or talk to @bartongellman. It's time." That tweet ended with a URL that led to a tweet by Gellman. "If you have information on the work @Snowden did in the IC, help me tell it truthfully." And Saturday night Gellman also added a message on Twitter for "everyone requesting proof" that Snowden was alive. "Take a deep breath..."
This is just an attempt by Snowden and his pet journalists to keep his name and Greenwald's name trending. Same reason Greenwald only dribbles out pieces of information every few months instead of just releasing the information and letting everyone see ALL of the information instead of just those pieces that support his campaign of animosity against the US alive. The man is the worst possible steward of the information he conned Snowden into throwing his life away to obtain. It was Greenwald who arranged to have Snowden in Chinese controlled territory when the news was first released. Greenwald's manipulation of the data is just as bad as the governments manipulation. Of course the big difference is Greenwald is using the data to enhance his career while the government is trying to muddle through the intrincies of managing international diplomacy and security. Assange and Greenwald's tactics are identical except for Assange voluntarily put himself in a prison and Greenwald was smart enough to maintain some separation until he got back home safely.
This doesn't mean the government is right by any means. By all accounts they cause just as many problems as they fix but I would be interested to see what would happen if the government dismantled every counter terrorist and counter intelligence program to see what the world would really look like. Somehow I doubt it would magically usher in a period of peace and prosperity all over the world. In fact history would suggests just the opposite. The upheaval in the world today is not the result of the powerful doing too much it is because the powerful have not did enough. The US alone could put a halt to the violence in the ME the same way the put a halt to the violence in WW2. In WW2 that required killing everyone even capable of continued fighting. It meant taking heavy handed ownership of the entire country of Japan and Germany and only returning sovereignty after rebuilding the countries infrastructure and governments. Right now the US only uses enough power to prolong conflicts, Russia uses it's waning power to reduce the impact of any US efforts, and China does absolutely nothing except perpetuate the idea that they are some kind of super power based solely on the GDP figures they release while ignoring the more important per-capita metric. And one refurbished air craft carrier does make someone a naval power. China's bigger problem is that their economy was built upon cheap labor which by itself is unsustainable once their workers realize they should make more for their efforts. They also have to deal with other countries in South East Asia that can now compete with China when it comes to using cheap labor. Their response to this competition has resulted in the tensions over ownership of the entire South Eastern Sea.