Posted on 10/01/2022 10:50:39 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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.”
The 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.
Think about it: if Obama officials believed Snowden had possession of an extremely sensitive archive of top secret documents - as they insist but Snowden denies - why would they *want to trap him in Russia*?
Because they knew it'd be easy to convince idiots he was a Kremlin spy. — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 26, 2022
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.
Stark Realities undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum.
Questions:
Do you think the IC community can be trusted?
Do you believe that Pres Trump is/was Russian spy?
Do you think feel that Operation Hurricane was legitimate investigation that later led to a ridiculous impeachment?
Do you believe or disbelieve that certain federal entities use certain media outlets as conduits to leak information, spread disinformation in an attempt to sway public opinion, or to outright lie in an attempt to cover up their own misdeeds?
Do you think that the search warrant served on MarALago was a legitimate operation?
Simple yes or no answers will suffice.
Even if he isn’t a spy and was just some idiot, the guy deserves to be hung just for being so irresponsible...he downloaded stuff he had not even read and had no way of knowing how much damage it would do or how other people and critical projects might be harmed by it and took what he downloaded not only out of the SCIF and off site, but even out of the country. You aren’t a whistleblower when you steal stuff you haven’t even read much less understood, you are a glorified looter. He signed an agreement when he took the job and violated it. Instead of taking his concerns to an actual legal authority or an actual representative of Americans, he went international. Then he cuddles up to a reporter who was hanging out safe and sound with terrorists in Iraq.
A dually he took an Aeroflot flight to Hong Kong so he was in Russian hands from the outset.
Snowden provided a valuable service in revealing how thoroughly crooked our government was and is. It’s hard for me to see him in a negative light.
So, you’re ok with the Deep State and government performing all this surveillance on anyone and everyone?
Who would he go to in Congress, the very people that have allowed and continue to allow this sh*t to happen? I’ll answer.....NO ONE.
So, you’re ok with the fact that neither Clapper, nor anyone else, has ever been held to account for any of this or their perjury? I’ll answer.....Yes I am ok with it and am secure in the thought that the same people that Snowden would have went to, to blow the whistle, are the very same people that did and still protect Clapper.
So, you’re ok with what Deepthroat did with Woodward and Bernstein? I’ll answer....Yes I am. I’m ok with government entities running to two over-glorified Washington Post hacks.
Do tell....According to Republicans in Congress, there are dozens of FBI whistleblowers and not one thing has been done but talk. Oh wait....wait until we get the majority again, then we’ll really do something about it.
all of that once his original handlers in the CCP tossed him out of China.
The Eddy Snowjob story starts at the beginning in China, not in the middle of the ending in Russia.
You both gladly lick the boot on your neck. How does it taste?
“Because they knew it’d be easy to convince idiots he was a Kremlin spy. â Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 26, 2022”
Yeah - because when the government hides it’s corruption by making everything about it “classified” then it’s a mortal sin to out them....Who are you trying to convince of your “patriotism”?
Do you have a source that shows he gave the documents to China and Russia?
If these billions of emails and phone conversations are useless, then why is the NSA collecting them?
What's the purpose of the data centers housing them?
All of Congress, FBI, NSA, CIA, et al, took an oath to uphold the Constitution and they have violated it.
If only you held them in similar low esteem as you do Snowden.
You mean an undisciplined FRAND? Overall, i see two types of conservatives on FR.
1. Pro-Christian social conservatives whose main priority is morality, and 1st amendment right to free exercise of their faith, and who support a limited government - opposing its overreach (and thus oppose Climate-Change scientism) but not as being anti-authority in general and support a strong military and 2nd amendment right to bear arms, but oppose Jan. 6 militant protest. And who voted for Trump as a general (albeit with personal faults) a culture war gone hot due to his policies, including draining the swamp and restricting immigration. Yet they tend to oppose Putin as one who opposes freedom of religion and its speech, while supporting his anti-LGBTQ stand.
2. Anti-government libertarians whose main priority is the 2nd amendment right to their arms collection, and who tend to support Putin as well as Snowden due to "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" principle, such being rebels against liberal authority. This class supports Jan. 6 militant protest but tends to have little use for Christian conservatives, as they mainly want to be left alone. But they also voted for Trump as one who promised to drain the swamp and restrict immigration.
As for Snowden, aside from other debatable aspects, while exposing violations of the Constitution is noble, the way it was done invited more control of the CIA by liberals, which, as seen with the FBI, would not be a positive result.
RE: He can come home to the US any time he likes.
So, you’re saying that he won’t be facing arrest when he comes home?
Of course he will. I don’t think even Snowden believes what he did was legal, he just thinks it was justified.
How could DOJ possibly justify not arresting him?
His best chance is hoping for jury nullification or a pardon, which is as it should be.
His actions clearly show he knew he was breaking the law.
That’s an excellent categorization — though, the attributes might be better differentiated over 3 groups.
Awesome. Thanks!
Polls such as this I find faulty. Someday I would like to do a poll of FReepers, though only a percentage would see it and respond, and ask such questions as,
On the issue of faith, do you consider yourself to be (check one) a
Do you consider yourself mainly to be (check one),
As a social conservative, how do you answer the following questions:
#15 (US support of the state of Israel): Yes[] No[]; #16 (support Putin): Yes[] No[]; #17 ( violent actions of Jan. 6): Yes[] No[]; #18 (legal same-sex marriage): Yes[] No[]; #19 (gov. funding contraception): Yes[] No[]; #20 (gov. $ hinder HIV via sodomy): Yes[] No[]; #21 (legalization of abortion): Yes[] No[];
The following questions are for everyone to answer together:
Interesting sets of questions. No doubt the questions will touch upon varying sensitivities.
Regarding #17, the “violent actions” can amount to finger pointing.
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