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Russia Considers Sending Snowden Back To US As a 'Gift' To Trump (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: U.S. intelligence has collected information that Russia is considering turning over Edward Snowden as a "gift" to President Donald Trump -- who has called the NSA leaker a "spy" and a "traitor" who deserves to be executed. That's according to a senior U.S. official who has analyzed a series of highly sensitive intelligence reports detailing Russian deliberations and who says a Snowden handover is one of various ploys to "curry favor" with Trump. A second source in the intelligence community confirms the intelligence about the Russian conversations and notes it has been gathered since the inauguration. Snowden's ACLU lawyer, Ben Wizner, told NBC News they are unaware of any plans that would send him back to the United States. "Team Snowden has received no such signals and has no new reason for concern," Wizner said. Former deputy national security adviser Juan Zarate urged the Trump administration to be cautious in accepting any Snowden offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House had no comment, but the Justice Department told NBC News it would welcome the return of Snowden, who currently faces federal charges that carry a minimum of 30 years in prison. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talk about returning Snowden is "nonsense." If he were returned to American soil, Snowden -- a divisive figure in America who is seen by some as a hero and others as treasonous -- would face an administration that has condemned him in the strongest terms.
But at least your tech jobs will be protected by Trump's H-1B visa clampdown, right? Hope you can sleep well at night.
Need I say more?
This doesn't pass the smell test.
One thing that the Russians (and, for that matter, the Americans) understand well is protecting people who turn to their side. If the Russians send Snowden back, it will be a long time before they get another actual defector* to come out of the cold.
* Snowden is not a defector.
You realise those same security services protected your country
It's fine to have a national intelligence service.
It's not fine to turn it inward on its own population, Stasi style.
It's not fine to use "parallel construction" and have the government lie about the nature of evidence it presents against people.
The NSA violated the highest law of the land on a vast scale, as a matter of policy, and thus has lost its legitimacy as a public institution. That fact needed to be made clear to the people.
Dude sealed his own fate when he let himself be seduced by Putin. You know - the guy that murders journalists and political opponents.
Hmmmm.
Seduced by Putin? or...
Here's a place that'll have me with no extradition treaty with the US.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
The Gaurdian loses a lot less then news corp, they lost over $400 million Australian this year.
Funny how you RWNJ call a balaced source a left wing rag becaiuse it doesnt lie and pander to your desire for alternative facts.
The traitore are the cowards of the right, who have allowed our freedoms to be taken away by their fascist heroes, when you are more likely to die falling out of bed than by terrorism. Gutless loudmouthed trash.
If they do this, it wouldn't be to "curry favor" with Trump, it would be a move to further destabilize the US. As a result of multiple factors (including Russian interference) we have a the most unpopular president in a century who is extremely divisive. Returning Snowden would be a move to stoke those flames and cause more unrest. There are many reasons for doing this but ultimately, a less stable US is better for their own nation.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The two sources are both from the US intelligence -- the same intelligence community that sold us the debunked "Russia hacked the US election" story. The same intelligence community that The Intercept reports as being increasingly powerful political actors and manipulators in the US, and that The Intercept reported as having an interest in undermining the democratically-elected Trump administration, and by extension the democratic process itself.
All the other parties involved -- the US government, the Russian government, Edward Snowden & friends -- deny the story.
There are no other sources other than the US intelligence, and they have a recent history of lying for political reasons. They're not credible sources. Plainly, it's bullshit.
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
Putin and his colleges completely and totally outsmarted greed driven US defence industries and the scam they were pushing. The planned for the sanctions and for Russia they worked fantastically. Basically the Russian government was able to cut off supply of imported product whilst continuing to export energy, without the Russian public complaining about the lack of European goods. In that time Russians were weaned off imported product and became accustomed to locally produced product and development of locally produced product grew enormously. They were also able to substantially increase importation of South American product and build strong ties there. They are quite content for the sanctions to continue whilst they continue to export energy.
Likelihood of Russia handing over Snowden, somewhere in the very large negative numbers, they want more Snowden not less, especially now. Russia knows their networks are hacked and the volume of misinformation flowing across them would be huge. Computers are really good at generating empty data and all sorts of crap to entice US knob heads would be flowing and every time some idiots leak, Russia knows what bit of the network was hacked.
When it comes to intelligence agencies by far the bulk of data flowing would by honey pots and misinformation, it makes logical sense. How much crap should be produced compared to real data, something 1,000 pieces of crap for each bit of real data and 99% of that should lead to honey pots. The Russians are likely laughing the tits off right now.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
He wasn't trying to go to Russia, he got stuck there. It was an accident.
More to the point, we stuck him there. After his travel documents were revoked, he couldn't go anywhere else. He is precisely where we apparently wanted him.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"