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Russia Extends Edward Snowden's Asylum To 2020, To Offer Citizenship Next Year (cnn.com)
Whistleblower and former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has been allowed to remain in Russia for another three years and will next year qualify to apply for Russian citizenship. From a report on CNN: Edward Snowden's leave to remain in Russia has been extended until 2020, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has confirmed to CNN. Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor, sought asylum in Russia in June 2013 after leaking volumes of information on American intelligence and surveillance operations to the media. On Tuesday, Zakharova announced an extension of a "couple of years" in a Facebook post that criticized former CIA acting director Michael Morell for an opinion piece he wrote suggesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin should consider returning Snowden to the United States as "the perfect inauguration gift" to President-elect Donald Trump. Snowden settled in Moscow after initially traveling to Hong Kong following his 2013 public disclosure of classified information. The Russian government granted him asylum soon after. In August 2014, Snowden received a three-year extension to his leave to remain in Russia. That extension was due to expire this year.
Putin will wave Snowden around like a puppet as long as he's useful. He'll vanish the nanosecond he is no longer.
Russia will never let him go home. A pardon is a death sentence.
Donald Trump's treasonous collaboration with Russia on Watergate style crimes means Orange Hitler will be seeking asylum in his puppet master's country too.
I know Republicans hate America, but did you really have to pick the world's biggest traitor and scam artist?
I feel like you could have killed enough Americans by just repealing the affordable care act.
Why did you have to turn the White House over to an agent of a hostile foreign government on top of all that?
Do you traitors have no shame???
Last year's reaction: OMG SNOWDEN I NEED TO CHANGE MY PANTS NOW!
This year's reaction: OMG NAZI RUSSIANS MIND-CONTROLLED US TO VOTE FOR TRUMP! WIKILEAKS IS EVIL*!
* But commuting Manning's sentence is great or something, so leaking sensitive information that got people in Afghanistan killed? All good as long as it's politically damaging to nazi-Bush.
Leaking factual information from the DNC that got nobody killed and that proved the DNC directly helped Trump get elected by interfering with the Republican primaries? TREASON! EXECUTE TRUMP SUPPORTERS NOW!
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Since Trump and Putin are BFFs, then Trump should pardon Snowden for helping both Russia and America deal with the NSA which Trump doesn't trust anyway.
Sun Tzu on The Use of Spies:
The enemy's spies who have come to spy on us must be sought out, tempted with bribes, led away and comfortably housed. Thus they will become converted spies and available for our service.
... If all the NSA folks and anyone else who was in on it are tried for civil rights violations
No he didn't seek asylum in Russia after he leaked volumes of information to media. He did seek asylum due to the fact that the US canceled he's passport.
Russian President Vladimir Putin should consider returning Snowden to the United States as "the perfect inauguration gift" to President-elect Donald Trump
Either Russia systemically hacked the democratic election process of the united states in a secret plot to elect donald trump to the whitehouse as president of the united states, and therefore must be economically and politically sanctioned for doing so
or Russia is a transparent and beneficial partner of the united states, and diplomatically should concede to gifting its democratically elected leaders during their inauguration.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I don't understand the logic behind pardoning Manning but not Snowden.
Snowden was very careful about how he released material not to get people hurt, the information he released was relevant and sincere whistle-blowing, not just random data dumps from sensitive sources.
Manning was just a show-off trying to data-dump anything she could get her hands on without a greater purpose in mind. She did it because she could, not because she had any morale compass.
Snowden should be the one forgiven and returned to the US public sector, not Manning. Obama got this one backwards.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
TRUMP: Fake News! Aren't you sad that you got duped!?
That would certainly complicate a lot of people's opinions of Donald Trump around here.
Not for me. I'd still think he was an asshole who has no business being president. One good deed doesn't excuse a lifetime of douchebaggery.
43% of likely voters said federal corruption was the issue that affected their decision the most.
Trump owes his election to some extent on the Snowden revelations which caused ordinary Americans to diminish their view of the government, especially under the administration.
Make him head of the FBI or something like that. Let him throw out with impunity the critters who monitor the emails.
So, the Russians made the democrats, Hillary and all the rest do all those unsavory (criminal??) things just to get Trump elected.
Whatever "unsavory" thing you imagine the Clintons to have done, Donald Trump can match it or top it for sheer asshattery. And judging by the Bond villians he's nominating for cabinet positions he's just getting warmed up on the unsavory activities. Is Hillary a saint? Hell no. Nobody who runs for high office is without sin. But Trump is worse in pretty much every imaginable way when it comes to being a criminal and an all around terrible person.
Sorry, but the Hillary loss can be placed at the feet of Hillary, the Democrats, the MSM and the RINOs who were conspiring against the american people.
"Conspiring against the American people"? Snort... That's rich. I think you might be off your medications if you think the republican party is any more concerned about the well being of the American people than the democrats are. Doubly so if you think Trump has the best interests of you and me at heart.
Putin has many reasons to hold on to Snowden and almost no reasons to turn him over to the US.
Turning him over to the US _might_ curry favor with Trump, however
A: Trump is too inconsistent for something like that to have a dependable long term effect, and
B: More importantly we're pretty sure Putin already owns Trump, probably along multiple lines. You don't need to curry favor with your pawns.
C: And whether Putin owns Trump or not, it certainly doesn't benefit him to _appear_ as if he owns Trump any more than he can avoid, and sending him Snowden as an "inauguration gift" would definitely lend itself to that appearance.
On the other hand, Snowden is an embarrassment to the US (or more accurately, he brought to light and continues to emphasize the way in which the US has embarrassed itself) which is valuable PR for Russia. Even if Putin owns the president it never hurts to have multiple lines of attack available.
Keeping Snowden in good standing encourages other people who might have negative information about the US or whose mere existence and freedom might embarrass the US to look to Putin for support, potentially giving him more ammunition in the future.
And as long as he has Snowden under his control Putin can always offer him up as a bargaining chip in the event that the puppet strings on Trump fail and he really needs to make a deal for some reason. (At which point of course the FSB will suddenly discover evidence that Snowden has been betraying Putin all along, so that it won't be a betrayal on Putin's part to return him to the US.)
Or alternately if he orders Trump to do something for Russia that is so outrageous that it strains credulity he can offer up Snowden as an excuse for Trump making the deal. (Again, shortly after the FSB "discovers" evidence against Snowden.)
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Can the president pardon Snowden's revelations of the NSA's domestic spying and leave active the charges of leaking secrets of the NSA's overseas operations? This would show support for him being a legitimate whistleblower to some extent.
My hope is that the Trump administration will continue to highlight the inequalities that are baked into the current system.
Unless there is some path to actually do something about them what exactly would be the point of that? I have close to zero confidence that anything will meaningfully change any time soon.
The two party system must come to an end.
Only way that will happen is if we change the voting system to be something other than First Past the Post and we get rid of Gerrymandering. However since both of those things support the interests of the two major parties neither is likely to see any meaningful reform any time soon.
> The Guardian -- not exactly an unbiased source
So, exactly what sources do you consider unbiased?
I really want to know what they have to say about Snowden, wikileaks, russia, et al...
Because, obviously you are much better informed than I am. Please help a brother out.
The problem there is that unless he pardons the NSA staff, there would be trials expected for those staff that infringed the rights of the American people. Better to leave that can of worms unopened.
Because the ACA Medicare expansion pays for his meds. He almost died a couple of times because we couldn't afford them. So yeah, people are gonna die because of that leak. Lots of them.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
If Russia is going to offer him citizenship, how long until it becomes a mandatory offer?
As in, either he becomes a citizen and thus an even greater propaganda tool for Putin, or Putin throws him to the wolves.
I don't think anyone here, other than tools like cajunarson, believe Snowden's asylum in Russia is anything more than the least worst choice for Snowden. I suspect he really does not want to be a russian citizen because I believe Snowden when he says he's motivated by patriotism.
I wouldn't hold it against him if he accepted Putin's offer that he couldn't refuse. But I'd like to see a better outcome for him.
Which is why she did it anonymously......?
You mean she didn't have time nor the resources to sort the data. Either she'd still be doing that today, or would have leak bits and pieces, increasing the chances of the government finding out.
In any case, it's a sad commentary on the human condition that you are concerned with the propriety of the leaker but the crimes revealed by said leaker just aren't important enough to talk about. You know, stuff like torture, the Collateral Murder video, giving young boys to "allied" Afghans to be raped...
Sanders was never a real candidate, the DNC picked Hillary before the race even began. It's a moot point.
He sold classified information to the Chinese and Russians. He is not like Manning, and did it all for profit.
Grats, Ed!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Does Snowden actually have permission to work in Russia? How is he getting by these days? Is the Russian government supporting him in any way, providing housing, etc.? I'm really glad he's at least getting by, even if he has to live in exile. I'm sure he just wants to find a way to get on with his life after doing such an incredible service to his country.
I'm being serious about this. Rent, water, electric, internet access and food all cost money. Is all this being provided for him or does he work at the local grocery store bagging groceries? Does he have speaking fees? Donations? I have a tech job and worry about having enough for rent come the first of the month.
Anyone who watched the process KNEW full well that there was massive collusion by the DNC and Media to INSTALL Hillary as the candidate. In the first election, she won 6 straight coin tosses to take Iowa. That was day 1. So did Russia fix all of the coin tosses, card flips, and dice rolls of which Hillary won 100% of the "tie breakers"?
Good grief, I honestly wonder how much medication some of the people spreading these conspiracies are missing. I personally really enjoy researching conspiracies, which has led to me personally debunking most of them. What people are claiming over this last election cycle fails the most basic of scrutiny. Russia did not make Hillary attack women who accused William J of rape. The Russians did not make Hillary setup an illegal server. The Russians did not make her spread the lie that a crappy Youtube video caused 4 Americans to die. The Russians did not make her give 2-4 Hundred thousand dollar speeches where she said foolish things about erasing borders. The Russians did not make Hillary praise Sanger and Byrd. Those are things off the top of my head which have been public information for a very long time, all reported by sources OTHER THAN RT.
The Democrats ran a worse candidate than the Republicans. That is why Hillary lost! Not some baseless allegations. Good grief, think about the allegation. "Trump hates Obama so much that he paid hookers to piss on the bed that the Obama's slept in."
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Secrets like how many sand n1ggers are being imported by obama each month.
NOW GO AHEAD AND DOWNVOTE
Why did he take so many sensitive documents that had nothing whatsoever to do with domestic surveillance?
Why did he choose first to go to Hong Kong instead of a country that didn't have an extradition policy with the US?
Why did he lie about how much money he made on Ars Technia?
Why did he go on a obscenity filled tirade against Ben Bernanke when he lost 20k in the stock market?
Why did he alter his employee evaluation in the CIA which he ended up being forced to resign over?
Why did he steal the CIAs administrative answers before taking his employment test?
Why did he claim that he had the authority to intercept President Obama's private communications while working at the NSA?
Why would he claim that while he's touted as the champion of domestic surveillance?
Why did he steal and release documents on specific techniques that were used to intercept Taliban communications?
How was he able to board a flight to Russia without a required visa?
His asylum expires at the same time as Windows 7 support. I guess Russia will also be upgrading to a newer whistleblower then.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Putin got a lot of PR, and possibly his preferred POTUS, because of Snowden. If the throws Snowden under the bus, future potential whistleblowers/leakers may not give out info. It is in his enlightened self interest to treat Snowden nice.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
Trump enjoys
Sex with Russian boys
Donald might forgive him, but Hillary never will. Too many people who crossed Hillary have ended up "committing suicide" with 2 bullet holes to the back of their head.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
I am fairly confident, then, that Fox can be used as a poster boy for fake news, given they fought in court the right to produce fake news.
Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor
yeah, that's all you need to know about why Snowden is significant
nevermind that "schizophrenic" fears of government conspiracy were proven true
Another one of these endless stories for the last few years trying to make everything about Snowden and Mass Surveillance seem normal.
When you see something like this it is literally equivalent to some one saying to your face "hey you fucking retard remember how you realized that society is nothing but a slave pen? now forget it, no one cares, stop talking about it, these exhaustive news stories cover the truth up and down every time, go back to work, faggot"
Seriously, the government, the major business owners, they are all conspiring to literally mind control the ENTIRE WORLD by using mass surveillance to supply the data to make complete psychological model of the population.
And this is how we are dealing with it. Things don't look good by this measure.
Wait a minute. Using an RX modulator, I might be able to conduct a mainframe cell direct and hack the uplink to the download.
/hackerman
It means that with the right computer algorithms, I can hack you back in time. Just like a time machine.
Putin has fleas.
They jailed the guy who took photos of a sub, let HRC off and commuted another's sentence all the while bashing hacking and never doing much about the ha KS of the last 6 years (100s of thousands fed staff info stolen etc).
The way to void First Past Post in a party supported system is to rid it of the problem, and the problem is the Parties themselves.
Good luck with that. Got any other suggestions for things that will never happen in our lifetime? Maybe if you finish work on that Infinite Improbability Drive...
Your president doesn't care about right and wrong, just votes. You have to admit he is an asshole!
He should probably take the citizenship. The actions of this government in reducing the rights available of their citizens do not represent me. I have given them 19 years of my life, and they have returned the favor with criminal actions, lack of transparency, and a complete disregard for the constitution.