Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations

[Soulboy]

Yet another interesting article by Jon Rappoport on the topic:



Why hasn’t the US government snatched Ed Snowden yet?

June 26

by Jon Rappoport

www.nomorefakenews.com

Is the NSA a leaking sieve?

Well, Ed Snowden proved it, didn’t he?

He strolled into work with a thumb drive, plugged in, and stole the holy of holies.

This is the vaunted NSA we’re talking about. They can reach out and spy on anybody in the world, but they just didn’t remember to put safeguards in place, in their own offices.

They forgot. For years.

You know, just an oops.

And people nod and shrug when they hear about it.

The NSA says, “Now that we’re aware of the problem, we’re going to install new procedures to tighten security.”

Sure.

And then there is this. The NSA can spy on anyone in the world, but they can’t find Ed Snowden now.

So… to sum up: we’re supposed to believe NSA can’t protect their own files, and they can’t find the most wanted man in the world.

People actually accept this nonsense.

So the question arises: if the NSA really does know where Snowden is right now, why hasn’t the Pentagon dispatched a team to snatch him and bring him home? Or why hasn’t the team killed him?

Two reasons. If Snowden really does have more damning information, and if, as Glenn Greenwald says, Snowden’s already sent it to multiple people in case anything happens to him, then capturing or killing him would trigger the release of that information.

And two, the groundswell of support for Snowden is growing at a rapid pace. Can you imagine what could happen if the government grabbed Snowden and brought him home to go on trial for treason?

The uproar would explode. The NSA would find itself under far greater attack. Politicians like Pelosi and Feinstein, who’ve come out against Snowden, could easily be swept away on the tide.

The current image of Snowden is sincere, honest, frank, and self-sacrificing. He doesn’t want to go after individual spies. He wants to change the system.

As we speak, government-contracted PR people and psyop specialists are burning the midnight oil, doing a risk-benefit analysis, trying to figure out how they could handle bringing Snowden home and placing him on trial. How they could change his image.

Is it worth it? What happens if they let Snowden roam free for a few more months? If they bring him home, can they spin media coverage to make him look bad? Worse than bad? Will that backfire? Do they have enough media ducks lined up?

Will Brian Williams, Scott Pelley, and Dianne Sawyer tune up just right on this issue? Will they be able to hypnotize enough of the public into believing Snowden is a traitor?

What about the “online community,” which is firmly on Snowden’s side after the revelations about nine tech giants cooperating fully with the NSA? How about 100,000 sites and bloggers going wild about the injustice of snatching Snowden and putting him on trial?

If, as I’ve argued in previous articles (see Spygate on this blog), Snowden is actually still working for his old employer, the CIA, and forwarding a turf war between the CIA and NSA, we’d have to say CIA has done a good job in positioning Snowden. The CIA might be crazy, but they aren’t (always) stupid.

Right out of the box, Snowden made a complete statement to the press about his intentions and motives. He just wants to expose the illegal spying on all US citizens so the public can decide what should be done, because after all, this is still a democracy.

Snowden says he doesn’t want praise. He’s not a hero. He just wants transparency. And the NSA is breaking the law over and over.

Snowden looks the part. Young, bright. A self-effacing yet steadfast nerd. Perfect. Nothing nasty about him. He doesn’t have that Julian Assange edge. He’s just a boy. Look at him. He obviously means well.

Honorable hero? CIA operative? Either way, the US government is in a pickle. It’s not going to be a slam-dunk with this guy.

The Matrix Revealed

In a related issue, it’s astonishing (to anyone who is awake) that the Congress hasn’t come down on NSA like a ton of bricks.

We should be hearing a grilling like this, directed at NSA head, Keith Alexander:

“Let me get this straight, General Alexander. Snowden captured and stole your most secret data. Anyone of his rank at NSA could have done the same, because you have no security protection against it. And now, with the most sophisticated spying system in the world, you can’t find Snowden. This makes the NSA the most bumbling stumbling trillion-dollar organization in the history of mankind. Can you give me a good reason why we shouldn’t move to de-fund NSA completely and start over from scratch? This is outrageous.”

And that would just be the beginning of the assault.

Yet, that’s not what we’re getting. Instead, so far, we’re hearing a few modest criticisms.

Why?

The most obvious answer is, Congress is afraid of the NSA. This bunch of legislators, these crooks and con men and perverts and felonious scum are scared that they’ve been under the NSA spying lens for a long time.

And what could come crawling out of NSA files is terrifying to them.

So they hold still. They take a deep breath. They pray for safety. They go on the attack against Snowden. They fall all over themselves calling Snowden a vile traitor who must be brought to justice.

Which tells you something about who’s running things in Washington.

It also tells you something about the level of resentment that’s built up over the years against the NSA. Not just in the Congress. In certain quarters of the CIA and the elite media, because NSA has been spying on reporters and editors and taking huge chunks of federal budget $$ away from the CIA.

Lots of important people have been hoping for a way to take down NSA a peg or two.

So this is the kind of Congressional-NSA conversation that’s going on right now, behind closed doors in Washington:

“Here’s the thing, General Alexander. We spoken about this before. Your NSA has been invading our lives with your snooping for far too long. Now we have a trump card. Ed Snowden. We’re playing it. I’m not admitting he’s our creature, I’m just saying he’s doing the kind of work we ourselves should have done years ago. So we want some give and take here.”

“What kind of give and take?”

“Get off our backs. We’ll go easy on you. We won’t turn all our guns on you. We’ll call Snowden a traitor. We’ll focus all the public attention on him. But give us our privacy back. Now.”

“Well, I suppose we might do that.”

“But we have to know you’re setting us free to do whatever the hell we want to do, without fear of being seen doing it. We need guarantees.”

“How might that work?”

“We need people we appoint to have oversight on NSA. Real oversight.”

The beginnings of an uneasy truce. A problematic truce, to be sure.

Oh, people might say, this sort of dealing never takes place.

Really? And you’re living in what world? The rainbow happy-happy goody-good sandbox planet just to the left of Oz?

The only question is, do the political enemies of NSA have enough juice yet, from the Snowden affair, to engage in this kind of conversation and come out with a win?

But that’s about tactics. The intention is clear. There are political players who want to take the NSA down a notch. Some of them may be honorable patriots; but some of them are definitely rank criminals in politicians’ clothing, who want to feel free from the Big Watching Eye.

Ed Snowden is their man of the hour. They will use him and what he symbolizes to make hay while the sun shines.

Exit From the Matrix

Why is all this important? And why does it matter who Snowden really represents?

It’s important because, the way this political game works, the NSA will escape the current scandal with its major spying programs intact, there will be dirty deals and compromises, and the NSA will still hold tremendous power.

No one in Washington imagines that NSA’s spying on private American citizens will significantly decline.

If people really understood that, if they understood that no savior is coming to unhook NSA’s computers, they might begin to view the Snowden affair differently. They might be willing to consider the real games that are being played.

They might admit that what we need is a nullification of Washington power that goes far beyond anything that Ed Snowden can provide.

Our real problem is the limited mind, or perhaps we should call it the literal mind.

The literal mind can’t conceive of the levels of deception and bent deal-making below the surface of events presented on the evening news.

The literal mind can’t, for example entertain the possibility that Snowden’s revealed some important (though hardly surprising) information, while at the same time, he has less than the purest of motives.

The literal mind is a programmed mind.

You present it with the image of the most competent and brilliant spying agency in the world, the NSA, and the “fact” that this agency can’t find its own ex-employee, Ed Snowden, and there is no perceived problem. No inconsistency.

The literal mind accepts all contradictions like hundred-dollar bills.

You could, for example, spend a year educating that mind about the US corporations that aided the Nazis in World War 2. You could spell out all the details. IBM, ITT, Standard Oil, etc.

And then, you could ask, “Do you think there is any chance the War was manipulated?”

And that mind would say, “Of course not. It was us versus them.”

You could say, “The science on manmade global warming is settled,” and the literal mind would never think of replying, “Explain what you mean by ‘settled.’ Who settled it? Exactly how?”

You could say, “Every year in the US, pharmaceutical drugs kill a minimum of 106,000 people. Nutritional supplements kill no one. But the FDA, which permits those drugs to enter the marketplace, relentlessly attacks supplements. It does nothing to stem the tide of deaths owing to the medical drugs.”

The literal mind would reply, “Yes? And? So?”

Some preposterous doofus on the news says, “Ed Snowden is walking around with three laptops that contain the deepest secrets of the NSA. Chinese or Russian hackers could have already gained access to all that information.”

The literal mind would never wonder why, then, the NSA can’t accomplish the same feat and discover what Snowden has pilfered.

The literal mind, under guidance from elite media anchors, will connect the dots directly in front of it, but it will avoid, at all costs, imagination. It will never posit alternative realities or explanations which then make those dots take on different meaning, fuller and deeper and truer meaning.

The literal mind is full of fear and protection. It wants to protect itself and it is afraid that something novel might swim into view and shatter it to pieces.

The literal mind is a clog in the bloodstream of life. It’s a believer in the extreme fairy tale of ordinary reality.

The literal mind imports, wholesale, images of ordinary reality and clings to them like a leech.

The literal mind, when it accidentally rubs up against creative life, retreats into a corner and mutters and curses.

The literal mind lives a second-hand existence through the news, which is the only food it can eat.

When the literal mind reaches the end of its tether, it seeks out codified religious blather invented by a priest class for the purpose of cutting people off from their own authentic spiritual energies and insights and connections.

The literal mind is a coward. It only asks for other cowards with which it can commune.

The day is too long, the night is too long, the fear is too great. The literal mind must therefore play out the string of a shrunken number of days and wither away, hoping it can deceive the void it feels at the center of its own experience.

The literal mind crawls around on a bed in the Universal Hospital. It dreams of extinction, while knowing it is already extinct.

Do not hold out a helping hand to the literal mind. It will try to snap your finger off. That gesture is all it has left.

In the end, the literal mind turns out to be the most fictional thing in the world.

Jon Rappoport

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

[turiya]

Posted by Cidersomerset (here)
'US pushes smear campaign against Snowden to distract from NSA leak'

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MQGwTvip7vc

Published on 18 Jun 2013
Edward Snowden's revelations had already led to some tension between the US and China. Beijing has demanded that Washington explain its surveillance program and cyber spying to the international community.

James Corbett, editor of an independent news website the Corbett Report, says
further damage to relations between the two countries is inevitable

Most interesting, in that video is that James Corbett says its on record that the NSA is the creator of Stuxnet.
Good to see that there may yet be more NSA whistle blowers popping out of the woodwork.
Especially like Russell Tice's bomb dropping information regarding NSA's ability to potentially blackmail high-level political leaders. And that includes President Obama... All Supreme Court Justices... Members of Congress...
Russell Tice Goes on Record

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=g1Lurd5QvZA

Sibel Edmonds Blows the Whistle on Government Blackmailing

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3esnkqM7E

In this remarkable conversation, Sibel Edmonds reflects on Russ Tice's recent revelations to Boiling Frogs Post and The Corbett Report that the NSA has wiretapped top government officials for years. Edmonds discusses from her own experience how the FBI collects dirt on Congressman and public officials for use as political leverage. We also talk about how this scandal proves that there is no "official channel" for whistleblowers to follow when they want to expose wrondoing because the system is being controlled from behind the scenes by the criminals in the national security establishment.

Compromised: How the National Security State Blackmails the Government

General Petraeus - Colin Powell - ALL Supreme Court Judges - Barack Obama, etc...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pfXxl0PX__g

That the NSA is covertly spying on all three branches of the American government is nothing short of scandalous. Tice's revelations are especially appalling to anyone even remotely familiar with how exactly the type of information collected in such intercepts can be used for the purposes of political blackmail, and how profoundly that blackmail can shape the political landscape of the country. In fact, there is a long history of intelligence agencies and covert groups using precisely this type of information to blackmail politicians in the past.

turiya

[Cidersomerset]

Quote Posted by Soulboy (here)

......Something tells me that this is some form of distraction..........



Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7PxEuYUUMJI


This is an interesting article about Russia's order of warships from France I saw
yesterday.......



Assembly Awaits: Mistral helicopter carrier stern on waves in St.Pete

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5unL5QrZdP8

Published on 26 Jun 2013


The first part of a long-awaited addition to Russia's sea
fleet power has been unveiled in St. Petersburg. The stern
of the heavyweight Mistral ship will now be sent to France
to be fully assembled. RT's Maria Finoshina explains what
this naval deal means for Moscow and Paris

[Camilo]

I'm really glad that Mr. Putin is standing up to the USA.

[sdv]

Posted by Camilo (here)
I'm really glad that Mr. Putin is standing up to the USA instead of being submissive to its demands of returning Edward Snowden to them, which makes the USA look weak to the whole world.

Ecuador is also standing up to the vindictive bullying:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...a51f8f8281.391

Ecuador waives US tariff benefits over Snowden case
(AFP) – 18 minutes ago
QUITO — Ecuador on Thursday waived preferential rights granted under a trade agreement with the United States, in a show of independence as it considers asylum for fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
"Ecuador unilaterally and irrevocably renounces these preferential customs tariff rights," Communications Minister Fernando Alvarado, said, reading from a government statement.
"Ecuador does not accept pressure or threats from anyone, and does not trade on principles or make them contingent on commercial interests, even if those interests are important ."
The government of leftist President Rafael Correa said that while it had received the preferential rights in exchange for its cooperation in the war on drugs, they had become a "new instrument of blackmail."
The 30-year-old Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who embarrassed the government of US President Barack Obama by revealing details of vast Internet and phone surveillance programs, has requested asylum from Ecuador.
Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino has said it could take weeks to decide whether to grant asylum to Snowden, who remained Thursday in the transit area of a Moscow airport after fleeing Hong Kong.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved

[Cidersomerset]

Thanks turiya I like James Corbett and Sibel Edmonds vids and analyst, they are both very knowledgeable on these subjects.


Nothing has changed they have just got more sophisticated with 'Black Mail'
and ' Surveillance' Techniches ......




A couple of 'Tricky' Customers.....

[Cidersomerset]

Falkvinge: American Empire stands naked by Snowden leaks but not ashamed

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JrerrU6pBoY

Published on 27 Jun 2013


While the cat-and-mouse game over Edward Snowden continues,
there've been yet more revelations on the US snooping programme.
The NSA has been collecting huge amounts of email data for more
than two years during the Obama administration, and is actually
still mining the US internet. That's according to the british daily,
the Guardian, which was referring to some secret documents.
Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party gives
more on the issue.

[Cidersomerset]

Chasing Snowden: Don't Shoot The Messenger

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pahsAehlhe0

Published on 27 Jun 2013


Edward Snowden's story is worthy of a spy novel. He was charged with espionage
for blowing the lid off US security operations. He was in Hong Kong at the time,
and then reportedly wanted to flee to another country via Russia - but had his
passport revoked by the US. Snowden was expected to show on a flight to Cuba
after he booked a ticket, but journalists were left staring at an empty seat,
instead of the whistleblower - on that Havana-bound plane. RT's Paul Scott,
Thabang Motsei and Ivor Crotty, who've all been monitoring the developments
as they happened, share their opinions on this story.

[Cidersomerset]

Should CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden face trial?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=k-KnNfNw42c

We discussed his fate with journalists Charlie Wolf and Owen Jones.

" We are a Republic not a democracy ".....


====================================================

Greenwald defends NSA leaker Snowden

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=1CMR4oX3TKs

The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald reacts to Edward Snowden's flight to Moscow. For
more CNN videos,


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glenn Greenwald Destroys MSNBC's Attempted Propaganda

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=BJyp6_4P_6Y

Published on 10 Jun 2013


http://xrepublic.tv Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, who broke the stories on
the NSA's phone and internet surveillance programs last week and helped reveal on
Sunday the identity of Edward Snowden, the former CIA employee who is behind
the NSA leaks, speaks with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski about his
interviews with Snowden.

[Cidersomerset]

NSA scandal fallout

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Rd3T5-dNY

Published on 27 Jun 2013


Since The Guardian first began revealing the secret surveillance
practices of the NSA many government officials have defended
the controversial program.When Edward Snowden was identified
as the man behind the information leak, an international manhunt
has ensued to bring the whistleblower to justice, but could
Snowden's actions have an economic fallout? RT's Sam Sacks
and Bob English join us for more.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New NSA leaks show email surveillance under Obama

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Iv_2auG6DH0

Published on 27 Jun 2013


Again, The Guardian has published another article about the National Security
Agency's surveillance program. A couple of weeks ago the news outlet reported
how the NSA had been collecting telephone metadata on millions of Americans, but
now it turns out that they had also been collecting email metadata as well. RT's
Meghan Lopez has more.

[Soulboy]

Ooh, I'm lovin' it!



Ecuador snubs US trade ‘blackmail’ over Snowden, offers human rights training

Published time: June 28, 2013 09:40
Reuters / Chris Helgren



Ecuador renounced trade benefits which the US threatened to revoke over the Latin American country’s consideration of harboring NSA leaker Edward Snowden. It offered $23 million a year to fund human rights education for Americans instead.

The government of leftist President Rafael Correa came up with an angry response on Thursday after an influential US senator said he would use his leverage over trade issues to cut preferential treatment of Ecuadoran goods at the US market, should Ecuador grant political asylum to Snowden.

"Ecuador will not accept pressures or threats from anyone, and it does not traffic in its values or allow them to be subjugated to mercantile interests," government spokesman Fernando Alvarado said at a news conference.

He added that Ecuador is willing to allocate $23 million annually, an equivalent of the sum that it gained from the benefits, to fund human rights training in the US. It will "avoid violations of privacy, torture and other actions that are denigrating to humanity," Alvarado said.

US Senator Robert Menendez, who heads the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate, said this week that Ecuador risks losing the benefits it enjoys under two trade programs because of its stance on the NSA whistleblower.

"Our government will not reward countries for bad behavior," he said.

The US is Ecuador’s prime trade partner, with over 40 percent of exports going to the US market.

Both programs were due to expire by the end of next month and were subject to congressional review. Before the Snowden debacle arose, the US legislature was expected to scrap one of them while renewing another one.

Snowden has applied for political asylum, hoping to find protection from American prosecutors, who charged him with espionage over his leaking of classified documents on US surveillance programs.

He is currently thought to be staying in the transit zone of a Moscow airport. He became stranded in the Russian capital after arriving from Hong Kong, because the US annulled his travel passport as part of its effort to get him to American soil for trial.

[Cidersomerset]

CrossTalk: Whistleblowing 2.0

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=VqezYVWSmyY

Published on 28 Jun 2013


Is the national security state trumping the rule of law?
Does each society need people like Bradley Manning and
Edward Snowden? Is going to the media the only way to
expose government lies? And is the national security
state sustainable? CrossTalking with Charles Wolf,
Elizabeth Goitein and Michael Kohn.

[Cidersomerset]

US Army Censors Snowden Leaks

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qm_TfO36vN4

Published on 28 Jun 2013


Edward Snowden's leaks about the NSA have been available for Americans to see
on the internet over the last few weeks. But, some Americans don't have access to
news stories about those leaks. Namely, soldiers in the United States Army. On
Thursday, the US Army confirmed that stories regarding the NSA leaks have been
censored from their computer system. So what does it say that the fighting force
entrusted with defending Americans ideals is embracing the very un-Americans
ideal of censorship? Political Commentator Sam Sacks breaks it down.

[Cidersomerset]

Snowden's father says his son to come back to US

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LZ6KAkTkq5E

Published on 28 Jun 2013


Lately, Ecuador seems to be the go to place where whistleblowers go to seek political
asylum. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been granted asylum in the South
American country, but the only problem he is trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy in
London. Now, American Whistleblower Edward Snowden is causing more friction
between US-Ecuadorian relations due to his attempt at escaping extradition to the US
for leaking NSA sensitive information regarding their surveillance program. Ecuador has
since renounced its trade agreements with the US and RT's Lucy Kafanov has more from
Moscow.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edward Snowden's Father Full Interview w/ Eric Bolling on Fox - 6/17/13 Lonnie Snowden

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=A4c6WWvBraQ

Published on 17 Jun 2013


(June 17, 2013) - Eric Bolling teased his exclusive interview with Edward Snowden's
father Lonnie Snowden on this morning Fox and Friends. This afternoon on The
Five, Bolling presented his full interview with the NSA leaker's father, at one point
asking the man to speak directly and frankly into the camera to his son. Lonnie
Snowden told Bolling that he hasn't seen or spoken to his son since early April,
calling Edward a "sensitive, caring young man" who "knows the difference between
what is just and unjust and right and wrong." He described how difficult it has been
to go from thinking his son was missing to discovering he was the one responsible
for leaking NSA secrets.

Snowden said he couldn't have done what his son did, but at the same time he
said, "I don't know what he has seen, what he has been exposed to." He did
express some of very same concerns that his son has expressed when explaining
why he chose to blow the whistle.

"I don't want the government listening to my phone calls. I don't want the
government archiving the places that my other children visit on the internet or that
I visit or my wife visits. I don't want them reading my e-mail. I don't want them
reading my texts. In my opinion, they have no right, not even under the guise of
we need to keep you safe."
At Bolling's request, Snowden looked directly into the camera and spoke to his son,
saying, "we're certainly saddened by your decision, but it has not diminished our
love for you." He added, "I hope, I pray, and I ask that you will not release any
secrets that could constitute treason."

Later in the show, Bolling played one more part of his interview with the elder
Snowden, asking if he wants his son to return to the United States, even if that
meant he would go to prison. "I would rather my son be a prisoner in the U.S.,"
Snowden said, "than a free man in a country that did not have, again the freedoms
that are protected that we have. You know, the U.S. constitution and the Bill of
Rights, that's what defines us, that's what makes America, America."

Bolling has been outspokenly sympathetic towards Edward Snowden and critical of
the Obama administration for its support of the NSA surveillance programs over the
last couple of weeks, which may have helped him land this exclusive sit-down with
Lonnie Snowden. In his introduction to the interview, Bolling said
Snowden "reached out to someone in D.C. that he trusted, and that person
happens to trust me."

[Cidersomerset]

Snowden hide'n'seek media frenzy 'diverts' from real NSA story

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7YU7UdMTKQQ

Published on 30 Jun 2013


Ecuador's President meanwhile says that Snowden's fate is out of his hands - and
the whistleblower's next move depends on what Russia does. US vice president Joe
Biden urged Ecuador not to grant asylum to Snowden - but they can't do it yet
anyway, because he's not on Ecuadorian territory. Moscow though insists that they
wont be discussing what to do with the 30 year old anytime soon. RT's Thabang
Motsei takes a look back at the whistleblower's journey so far.

[Cidersomerset]

Putin: Snowden can stay in Russia if he stops damaging US

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=97i3Itb-QhI

Published on 1 Jul 2013


President Vladimir Putin says NSA leaker Edward Snowden may stay in Russia, if he
wants to, but only if he stops activities aimed against the United States.

"There is one condition if he wants to remain here: he must stop his work aimed at
damaging our American partners. As odd as it may sound from me," Putin told a
media conference in Moscow. READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/wct8fc

[Cidersomerset]

Putin offers U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum - on condition he stops
damaging 'American partners' with further leaksSnowden has asked for asylum in
Russia, according to a consular officialVladimir Putin said 'Russia never hands
anybody anywhere and has no intention to do so' He said Snowden must stop
damaging leaks if he wants to stay in Russia Snowden asked for asylum in Russia,
according to Russian consular official

Whistleblower is officially staying in the transit area of a Moscow airport

By Will Stewart In Moscow

PUBLISHED: 17:37, 1 July 2013 | UPDATED: 18:32, 1 July 2013




Whistleblower Edward Snowden has asked for asylum in Russia, according to a
Russian consular official.


Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular office in
Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, has said Snowden's representative, Sarah
Harrison, handed over his request yesterday, according to reports.
Earlier today Vladimir Putin dramatically offered U.S. whistleblower Snowden
political asylum - as long as he stops damaging 'our American partners' with his
leaks. A Russian consular official said Snowden asked for asylum in Russia.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2Xojnaaqm
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Cidersomerset]

Snowden applies for political asylum in Russia

Vladmir Putin says US whistleblower can stay if he stops 'bringing harm to our
American partners'



Miriam Elder in Moscow
The Guardian, Monday 1 July 2013 18.16 BST




Vladimir Putin hinted Edward Snowden could remain in Russia. Photograph: Ivan Sekretarev/AP


Vladimir Putin has for the first time floated the idea of the US whistleblower Edward
Snowden remaining in Russia, hours after the fugitive applied for political asylum in
the country.Snowden applied for asylum at the consular office at Moscow's
Sheremtyevo airport at 10.30pm on Sunday through his Wikileaks handler, Sarah
Harrison, a consular official said."The UK citizen Sarah Harrison passed on a
request by Edward Snowden to be granted political asylum," said Kim Shevchenko,
a staff member at the airport's consular department. He said he then called the
foreign ministry, who sent a courier one hour later to pick up the request.

He declined to say where Harrison or Snowden, who have not been seen since
landing in Sheremtyevo last week, were staying. "She didn't say and I didn't ask,"
he said.In a move likely to enrage the US, Putin said on Monday: "If he wants to go
somewhere and someone will take him, go ahead. If he wants to stay here, there is
one condition – he must stop his work aimed at bringing harm to our American
partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my mouth."

Snowden has been trapped in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since 23 June after
flying in from Hong Kong, from where he leaked top secret documents detailing
NSA surveillance programmes.Stripped of his US passport, he has been stuck in
limbo since. His attempts to gain political asylum in Ecuador, whose London
embassy is currently sheltering the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, appear to
have dried up amid intense US lobbying and reported disagreements within the
Ecuadorian government.

Snowden met Russian diplomats on Monday morning and handed them a list of 15
countries where he would like to apply for political asylum, the Los Angeles Times
reported, citing an unnamed source in the foreign ministry.Putin appeared to leave
himself some latitude, noting that Snowden would be unlikely to meet his
conditions for staying in Russia.

"Considering that he considers himself a human rights activist and a fighter for
human rights, he probably doesn't plan to stop this work, so he should choose a
host country and head there," Putin said. "When this will happen I, unfortunately,
do not know."

Putin, speaking at a press conference after a meeting of gas exporting countries,
reiterated that Russia would not extradite Snowden to the US. "Russia never gives
anyone up and doesn't plan to give anyone up. And no one has ever given us
anyone."For the second time Putin, unprompted, insisted that Snowden was not
working with Russia's secret services. "Mr Snowden is not our agent, never was and
isn't today. Our special services have never worked with him and are not working
with him."

Russia maintains one of the world's most developed intelligence mechanisms and is
widely believed to engage in snooping on its own citizens. In stark contrast to
Russia's approach to Snowden, whom Putin likened to the Soviet-era dissident
Andrei Sakharov, Russian whistleblowers are often attacked – one, the anti-
corruption activist Alexey Navalny, is currently on trial and another, the lawyer
Sergei Magnitsky, died in prison.And yet Assange remains a champion of the
Kremlin. Earlier this month, the WikiLeaks founder, who had a television show on
the Kremlin's English-language propaganda channel Russia Today, said he had
advised Snowden to seek asylum there.

Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, is currently in Moscow for the two-day
gas conference and it was believed he and Putin would discuss Snowden's fate.
Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yury Ushakov, said the pair had not discussed
Snowden yet.A campaign calling for Snowden to stay in Russia has gathered
momentum since he first arrived in Moscow last week. On Monday , several MPs
and influential Russians floated the idea during a meeting of the Public Chamber, a
body that advises the Kremlin.

"It's not right that Snowden is sitting in this terminal like in a prison," said Sergei
Markov, a former MP who maintains close ties to the Kremlin. "Unlike prison, he
can't even go out and breathe fresh air. On humanitarian grounds, I think he
should be presented with a way to enter Russian territory."

Several MPs said they would nominate Snowden for a Nobel peace prize. The
overtures to Snowden, charged under espionage laws in the US, come as US-Russia
relations plummet to cold war lows.Just before Putin made his comments, one of
his top aides said that US-Russia attempts to find possible solutions to the conflict
around Snowden were rather difficult.

"Of course [Putin and Obama] don't have a decision that would suit both sides, so
they have ordered FSB director [Alexander] Bortnikov and FBI director [Robert]
Mueller to be in constant contact and find possible solutions," Nikolai Patrushev,
head of Russia's security council and a former head of the FSB, told state-run Vesti
television."We must also stress that the task they have is rather difficult, because
they must find a solution within the framework of international law. We can't
directly say today that such norms exist, or that there's a ready recipe," he said.

Since Putin first acknowledged Snowden's arrival in Moscow, officials have
repeatedly noted the absence of a bilateral extradition treaty. Russia has often
expressed concern over its citizens held in the US, namely Viktor Bout, a convicted
arms trafficker with suspected ties to Kremlin officials.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...n-russia-offer

[Cidersomerset]

Barack Obama on Edward Snowden

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ybNpQ04vhDA

Published on 1 Jul 2013


US president Barack Obama implies that European countries could be spying
on the US, saying there are plenty of European leaders who want to know what
he is thinking, during a press conference in Tanzania.

Read more here: http://www.channel4.com/news/prism-sp...

[Cidersomerset]

NSA's New Spy Game?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OPh_Lc1o1Ds

Published on 1 Jul 2013


The old spy game, as portrayed in Hollywood with moles and secret
briefcase exchanges, is no more. It's been replaced by a new spy
game led by the NSA, which the world is just now finding out about
thanks to Edward Snowden's leaks. The latest leak covers a global
surveillance system run out of the NSA targeting now just enemies
of the United States, but allies as well. So what does this new spy
game look like? And are there any limits to it? Political Commentator
Sam Sacks breaks it down.