Posted on 10/01/2022 9:19:46 PM PDT by george76
When Russian President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Monday, the news revived a long-simmering debate about the propriety of his revelations of U.S. government secrets. At the same time, it prompted reiterations of a widely-embraced falsehood: that Snowden “fled to Russia.”
That disinformation-trafficking wasn’t limited to random people on social media. Among others, The New York Times, The Guardian, ABC, Christian Science Monitor and Canada’s CBC all asserted in the past week that Snowden “fled to Russia” in 2013 after revealing that the United States government had created a mass surveillance regime targeting its own citizens, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.
What many people don’t realize — and what some people both inside the government and out of it purposefully ignore — is that Snowden wasn’t traveling to Russia, but merely through it.
When he left Hong Kong after meeting with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and turning over hundreds of thousands of stolen files, Snowden’s ultimate destination was Quito, Ecuador.
It’s important to note that Snowden says that, before leaving, he destroyed his cryptographic keys that provided him access to the files, and didn’t bring any copies of the files with him.
At the time, the Ecuadoran government was providing political asylum to Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange at the country’s London consulate, and Snowden hoped Ecuador would provide him asylum as well.
Snowden’s itinerary was arranged such that he wouldn’t land in countries that would extradite him to the United States. Nor would he cross U.S. airspace along the way. He was to make four flights in all, taking him from Hong Kong to Moscow, then Havana, Cuba; Caracas, Venezuela and finally Quito.
However, upon arriving in Moscow, Snowden was escorted by Russian security officials to an airport conference room, where they informed him that, while he was flying to Moscow, the Obama administration had invalidated his passport.
He’d spend the next 40 days at the Sheremetyevo airport, during which he applied to 27 countries for political asylum. “Not a single one of them was willing to stand up to American pressure,” Snowden wrote in his memoir, Permanent Record, “with some countries refusing outright, and others declaring they were unable to even consider my request until I arrived in their territory — a feat that was impossible.”
Seemingly tired of the spectacle, Putin granted Snowden asylum, and he’s been in Russia ever since. The essential point, however, is that Snowden is in Russia because the Obama administration deliberately trapped him there.
In 2013 and ever since, rabid Snowden detractors have failed to acknowledge how that move by the Obama White House belied its own assertions that Snowden was a traitor who traveled to Moscow with highly valuable intelligence information and was at high risk of turning it over to the Russian government.
...
Aside from revealing the unconstitutional surveillance regime, Snowden’s disclosures also proved that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had committed perjury in testifying before Congress:
...
Clapper didn’t merely escape perjury charges, termination or a shameful resignation — CNN actually put him on the payroll as a “national security analyst,” giving him a pulpit from which to continue spewing all manner of falsehoods on behalf of the national security establishment, on everything from Russiagate to Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Meanwhile, though Snowden has been vindicated many times over — including a 2020 federal court ruling that the NSA’s surveillance program violated the Constitution — he’s compelled to live in Russia to escape prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917.
Which brings us to another myth that goes hand-in-hand with “fled to Russia” falsehood: Detractors routinely say Snowden was a “coward” to flee the United States at all.
The noble course of action, they say, would be to go to trial in America and let a jury of his peers decide whether he was justified in exposing his government’s crimes by leaking secret documents to journalists.
However, as government-whistleblower attorney Jesselyn Radack explained in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, that’s not how Espionage Act prosecutions work:
“The Espionage Act has morphed into a strict liability law, which means the government does not have to show the defendant had a felonious intent. A defendant cannot argue that the information was improperly classified…The motive and intent of the whistleblower are irrelevant. And there is no whistleblower defense, meaning the public value of the material disclosed does not matter at all.”
In short, the only way for Snowden to be treated justly is for him to be pardoned or given a plea deal with a very short sentence.
As the intelligence community continues to wield excessive influence on our government, neither outcome is likely anytime soon.
They lie about EVERYTHING.
Some say this was a CIA hit on the NSA. I don’t know if it’s true. What do you think?
>> They lie about EVERYTHING.
yeah, totally #’d up.
I always thought Quito, Ecuador was an odd choice. He might have been safe from legal extradition, but it seems like he would have been super easy for the CIA to snatch.
Do not know. Anything is possible.
“...and didn’t bring any copies of the files with him.”
I wonder where they ended up?
Perhaps he never had any intention to stay in Russia, but he’s there now, and that proves he was ALWAYS a Russian agent...at least by Neocon standards.
...and yet he and his minions or puppet masters fought against everything Trump did, and stole the last election from Trump, and raided his home...
Julian Assange said in 2011 that Afghanistan was a money laundering operation and never ending war.
Now that is over the Ukraine war showed up and is the new never ending war.
Pro Obama propaganda
No it didn’t.
Snowden isn’t trapped, he can return to the US any time he likes.
If he has the integrity.
Why would he? So he can be railroaded into federal prison?
So he can be treated worse, if that’s possible, than the folks from Jan 6?
How many people think he handed over MILLIONS of copies of Super Duper Top Secret documents and files to the Chinese and Russia? Many on here, yet they have not one shred of evidence. On this matter they believe the same government that said Donald J Trump was a Russian spy and that very same government launched an illegal surveillance operation against the man. The same government that raided Mar A Lago. The same government that sent 20-30 FBI Agents to lock up a preacher for a year old “incident” that the locals didn’t even touch.
Yeah.....that government.
From the article......
When he left Hong Kong after meeting with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and turning over hundreds of thousands of stolen files, Snowden’s ultimate destination was Quito, Ecuador.
It’s important to note that Snowden says that, before leaving, he destroyed his cryptographic keys that provided him access to the files, and didn’t bring any copies of the files with him.
What information was in those files? That the US government was spying on whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted, for whatever reason they wanted.
So, in this case, what the government and media says is 100%, bona fide TRUTH. But that same government and media lie about everything else. Got it.
He won’t go to prison unless he broke the law.
You know, the laws enacted by us through our representatives and the ones we all agree to abide by.
If he doesn’t like our society’s legal system he should stay somewhere with a more fair one, like Russia.
But he’s not stranded, it’s his choice.
JANUARY 6th, 2021
Lets start with this, shall we.....
Man Released After Running Over Teen He Deemed a ‘Republican Extremist,’ Court Docs Show .... https://www.thedailybeast.com/north-dakota-man-shannon-brandt-released-after-running-over-teen-cayler-ellingson-court-docs-show
Now we’ll go to this, shall we.....
Capitol riot defendant “viciously and savagely” beaten by guard in Washington, D.C. jail, lawyer says .... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-riot-defendant-ryan-sammsel-viciously-beaten-guard-washington-dc-jail-lawyer-says/
Idaho woman, 69, battling cancer reports to prison this week for trespassing at Capitol on Jan. 6 .... https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/07/11/idaho-woman-69-battling-cancer-reports-to-prison-this-week-for-trespassing-at-capitol-on-jan-6-1260402/
VERIFY: Yes, some Capitol Riot defendants are being held without bond before their trials .... https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/why-capitol-riot-defendants-being-held-without-bond-before-trial-january-6-congress/65-1e4d4dd6-eded-4187-85f1-d4dfcc3a9519
Nolte: PolitiFact Finally Admits Brian Sicknick Not Killed by Fire Extinguisher ..... https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2021/02/23/nolte-politifact-finally-admits-brian-sicknick-not-killed-by-fire-extinguisher/
“He won’t go to jail unless he broke the law.”
He did break the law. Only a fool wouldn’t acknowledge that. However, I’m completely ok with his violation of the law and if I were on the jury I’d be voting for Jury Nullification the first minute I was on it. The same way I would if a father whacked the guy that had molested one of his kids.
And I’d be pushing for the guy to get the Presidential Medal of Freedom and I’d be calling him as a witness against leadership in the IC community during their trials for Perjury.
So, what’s it like to be a Deep State shill on FR, reporting to your handlers about all the Conservative Thought that takes place on this site?
Since you use a ‘knickname’ like everyone else, why not feel free to let us know who you work for: FBI, DIA, CIA, DOJ....In the words of your President, c’mon man.
Best way of getting rid of headache Snowden is Putin should conscript Snowden and send him to the front lines in Ukraine.
Conservatives respect the rule of law.
Where did his female travel companion end up?
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