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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.

33 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Trump and Putin sitting in a tree... by sjbe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Trump and Putin sitting in a tree... by chispito · · Score: 2

      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.

      That would certainly complicate a lot of people's opinions of Donald Trump around here.

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  2. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The fact that Trump surrounded himself with former Nixon supporters, KGB sympathizers, and crony capitalists is no joke.

  3. Re:fake news from cnn by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Umm.. he sought asylum in Russia not because if he flew to England they wouldn't let him in, but because if he flew to England, they would put him in chains and on a plane to the US.

    --
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  4. Strange Logic by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Strange Logic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Posting AC because I've moderated.

      President Obama did not pardon Manning. He commuted her sentence. Commuting leaves the crime and punishment intact but reduces the time spent in jail.

      A pardon essentially wipes the crime from the person's record. This CNN article explains more clearly the difference between the two acts:

      A presidential commutation reduces the sentence being served but it does not change the fact of conviction, whereas a pardon forgives a certain criminal offense.

    2. Re:Strange Logic by Frank+Burly · · Score: 2

      This has a pretty good case for Manning: https://lawfareblog.com/obama-...

    3. Re:Strange Logic by quantaman · · Score: 2

      You are, of course, correct, but still, he's showing leniency to a criminal and letting a hero continue to be on the hook.

      Manning stood trial and served an unusually harsh punishment due to her transgender condition. And while her leaks were politically damaging (and did put the lives of sources in danger) she didn't impair the functioning of the security apparatus.

      Snowden fled the country and took up residence with two rival powers. His leaks also exposed a lot of the NSA's surveillance apparatus and really set back their ability to gather legitimate intelligence (while of course exposing a lot of wrong-doing).

      I'm personally ambiguous on both, they both exposed a lot of wrong-doing, but at the same time caused a lot of collateral damage. Either way I can understand why someone can be in favour of commuting Manning's sentence while continuing to pursue the capture of Snowden.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    4. Re:Strange Logic by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Urgh,

      Manning wasn't pardoned. She had her sentence commuted

      I shall now go and take a lie down somewhere. Again, apologies.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    5. Re:Strange Logic by zedaroca · · Score: 2

      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.

      According to Manning in her final statements:

      I believe that if the general public, especially the American public, had access to the information contained within the CIDNE-I and CIDNE-A tables, this could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general as [missed word] as it related to Iraq and Afghanistan.

      I also believed the detailed analysis of the data over a long period of time by different sectors of society might cause society to reevaluate the need or even the desire to even to engage in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations that ignore the complex dynamics of the people living in the effected environment every day.

      When someone claims a purpose that matches his actions it seems wrong to claim they didn't have a purpose. Manning's leaks were what actually took the troops out of Iraq, when their government was forced to threaten taking American criminals to international court. Stratfor leaks relating to Syria show that officials believed the public would not support air attack without media attention to a massacre. Obama bombarded Libya without congressional approval.
      She not only had a purpose, but she actually achieved it.

  5. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, by "hacking the elections", which is pure hyperbole, meaning "hacked the democrates, the DNC, HRC campaign and exposing the collusion with the MSM and even some Republicans, the criminal enterprise known as the Clinton Foundation, you're saying that all of that was .. done by the Russians to help Trump?

    So, the Russians made the democrats, Hillary and all the rest do all those unsavory (criminal??) things just to get Trump elected. You're a special kind of person aren't you.

    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. But yeah, keep blaming the Russians!

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  6. One good deed by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  7. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by nobuddy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes. Timing is the key to understanding it. Sanders would have defeated Trump easily. The timing of the releases were carefully placed so as to build suspicion with independants while not hurting her primary bid. Then once she clenched that, proof that it was a rigged primary sent a lot of independants away from the DNC to either Green, Libertarian, and even a number to Trump.

    If they had released it all in the beginning, we would be swearing in Sanders tomorrow.

  8. Give him a US cabinet position by micahraleigh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Give him a US cabinet position by unixisc · · Score: 2

      Snowden != Assange

      One person in this election already talked about giving Snowden a cabinet position, and no, it wasn't Trump. It was Jill Stein. While Assange timed his leaks to hurt Clinton every way possible, Snowden was actually supportive of the Dems, like when he debunked Trump's claim that those Wiener laptop emails couldn't have all been scanned in 1 week

  9. Re:fake news from cnn by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Snowdens passport was revoked by the US the day before he flew from Hong Kong to Moscow .

    He left Hong Kong and entered Russia using a revoked passport - he didn't seek asylum in Russia because of the revoked passport, he entered Russia because that had already been agreed with the Russian authorities. Snowden had been talking with the Russians during his stay in Hong Kong.

    Snowdens application of asylum in Russia was after he handed his treasure trove over to a reporter in Hong Kong.

    So its not fake news - the sentence you cite is actually 100% accurate. What we really have here is you trying to discredit CNN.

  10. Re:Try to at least remain consistent, america by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Replace "Hacked the democratic process" with "Exposed Democratic(DNC) process to hack the election" and you'd be right.

    The HRC loss can be firmly placed on HRC, The Democrats, the MSM and a few RINOs, By all measures, Trump should have lost, and "bigly", but enough people hated HRC, the Democrats and the MSM to ... actually ... not vote for them. I know, it is SHOCKING that Trump won. But consider that HRC was the ONLY candidate the DNC could have put up that he could actually beat.

    This isn't the Russians fault at all. But keep on blaming them all you can, and you'll never really understand why the Democrats keep losing ... bigly.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  11. Trump is worse by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  12. Not Surprising by Daetrin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  13. Two parties are here to stay by sjbe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  14. My buddy lives and breathes by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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/
  15. Re:fake news from cnn by WaffleMonster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And there is no way in hell Russia will ever release Snowden. They have coerced him for example to "call" into the Putin's Propaganda hour show (either that or Snowden is really really naive). The Russians will not release

    His interview question was fair in my view. It at the very least put Putin on record as being a liar when competing information enters the public domain.

    Snowden so he can talk about his treatment or detail what he released to the Russians. They have absolutely nothing to gain.

    What impressed me about Snowden was what he has actually said about the Russian government while in Russia.

    Some tweets from Snowden:

    "Signing the #BigBrother law must be condemned. Beyond political and constitution consequences, it is also a $33b+ tax on Russia's internet."

    "#Putin has signed a repressive new law that violates not only human rights, but common sense. Dark day for #Russia."

  16. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How could they "release it all in the beginning?" How are they supposed to release emails about how Hillary got the debate questions in advance from CNN in March 2016 when the primary season started in summer 2015? Did the Russians hack time, too? Why the fuck not apparently they've hacked everything else.

    --
    We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  17. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by meta-monkey · · Score: 3, Informative

    If he had left his inheritance alone, he would be twice as wealthy as he claims to be now.

    You're still repeating this crap? Fred Trump didn't die until 1999. The "analysis" you're talking about assumes Donald got Fred's 1999 fortune in the 1970s. Unless Trump also has a time machine, that doesn't work out.

    --
    We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
  18. Re:fake news from cnn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, no. Snowden didn't (necessarily) talk to Russia before leaving Hong Kong. When the USA revoked his passport they made a mistake in the spelling of his name, and Hong Kong authorities (or the guys who checks passports in the airport) didn't have any choice but to let him board the plane. A revocation of a passport works not by its intent, but by the paper it's written on. Make a spelling mistake, and poof, there goes your guy.

    When Snowden got to Moscow, the USA had redone the revocation, this time correctly, which is why he was unable to leave for another country. And even if he had, that flight had probably been unlawfully intercepted by the USA (see: Bolivias presidential plane forced to land in EU).

    You have a low enough UID that your account is something like 20 years old. Please, whatever your political position, try to look at both sides before spewing "truthy" nonsense.

    (here's a source by the way: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/23/edward-snowden-gchq )

    (captcha "classify" -- hah!)

  19. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by scatbomb · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, maybe start by looking into your stories before reposting things you heard in some Liberal echo chamber.

    The Russia "dossier" was shown to be a complete fabrication, even CNN backpedaled on it.

    In fact, none of the stories linking Trump and Russia have turned out to have any credibility whatsoever.

    It seems like the media are taking part in the ongoing political effort to "delegitimize" PEOTUS Trump before he takes office. I think they have every reason to fear Trump, he is a threat to the establishment. He wants to ban lobbying to people who worked in congress. He wants to investigate the CIA's involvement in fake news. He wants to audit the Federal Reserve, reduce corporate power in Washington, and bring us back to a capitalist economy. He wants to unravel the fraudulent pricing going on in US Healthcare (want to know how much care costs? Depends on your insurance. That's fraud.) among other goals. The establishment feels threatened, and I am seriously concerned for Trump's life. The fake news targeted at him and his supporters is just the beginning. And the Democrats seem all too happy to drink the cool aid and demonize the PEOTUS.

    Make no mistake, Democrat = Rupublican on all issues but social ones which they use as a wedge to prevent 3rd parties from being part of the conversation. Somehow, Trump managed to become the Republican's candidate despite the fact that he does not align with their globalist and corporatist ideology. I believe the Republicans tried to get rid of him, but were unsuccessful. Maybe they were too late, and his popularity was already too great. I really don't know how it happened, but this is a very significant event.

  20. DNC picked Hillary before the race started. by scatbomb · · Score: 2

    Sanders was never a real candidate, the DNC picked Hillary before the race even began. It's a moot point.

  21. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    From: http://www.investopedia.com/updates/donald-trump-rich/

    The Trump Family Fortune
    Trump's father, Frederick Christ "Fred" Trump, made a sizable fortune by building and selling housing for American soldiers and their families in World War II. It was at his father's real estate company that Donald got his start in business. In 1971, he took control of his father's apartment rental company, Elizabeth Trump & Son Co., and later on, he renamed it The Trump Organization. Trump stuck mostly with real estate investments during this period, particularly condo associations, huge apartment buildings and Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed housing, all in the New York metropolitan area.

    Read more: This Is How Donald Trump Actually Got Rich | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/updates/donald-trump-rich/#ixzz4W92cwGlG
    Follow us: Investopedia on Facebook

  22. Wholly Delusion Batman! by s.petry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  23. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by amiga3D · · Score: 2

    Who is the "KGB" sympathizer? Who is the former Nixon supporter? Crony capitalist is so inclusive as to be meaningless.

  24. Do you even know Snowden? Then aswer these: by DirkDaring · · Score: 2

    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?

  25. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 2

    Nixon did a lot of good. He seems to have been a bad *person*, but that doesn't always mean a bad POTUS. He did a lot for helping US-China relations, created the EPA, and enforced desegregation in Southern schools.

    --
    Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
  26. Re:Down with Putin - Down with Trump by Sassinak · · Score: 2

    Actually the US caused the issue, by not acting in a rational manner.. All Snowden did was do what most people do.. read the signs (ie: "My life is in danger.. and the guys I thought were my friends are trying to kill me.. Let me go someplace they can't get to me")

    You can't tell people "Come forward and talk with us" while grabbing your bat and gun when you don't like the answers given and expect them to stick around to be "silenced". In short, whistle blowers are treated like traitors when in fact, they are trying to HELP by talking with you instead of selling secrets to the highest bidder.

    --
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