UPDATES:
It’s no longer about the 4th Amendment and government abuse of power, it’s all about him.
“The old, bad tools of political aggression” are being used against him, and the U.S. is “using citizenship as a weapon” in order to silence him.
He also thinks highly of traitor Bradley Manning.
Snowden’s complete statement, via WikiLeaks, of course.
Political hot potato.
From Fox News.
Edward Snowden reportedly is seeking asylum in Russia, as the NSA leaker faces diminishing options for getting out of the Moscow airport where he is believed to be staying.
The Interfax news agency cited Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s consular office in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that Snowden’s representative, Sarah Harrison, handed over his request for political asylum on Sunday.
The confirmation, though, comes after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin publicly issued a condition for any asylum request from Snowden — he must stop leaking America’s secrets.
Putin also reportedly said that his government had no plans to hand Snowden over to the U.S. But he said that if Snowden wants to stay in Russia, he must stop leaking documents, a condition Snowden so far has shown no interest in meeting.
……Officials still believe Snowden is in the transit zone somewhere in the Moscow airport. He found his status even more in limbo late last week, as Ecuador revoked travel documents that WikiLeaks, which is aiding Snowden, got from a lower-level Ecuadorian official. Snowden originally was trying to seek asylum in Ecuador.
Putin’s “stop leaking secrets” stipulation is horseshit. He wants to pick Snowden’s brain and see the classified information Snowden has. If Snowden does indeed possess specific details about the PRISM program and decides to reveal everything, then he will have gone from whistleblower to traitor.
He just released more documents that say the NSA bugged United Nations and European Union offices, and gained access to their internal computer networks where it was able to read documents and emails.
How is that a revelation? Allies and enemies alike spy on one another. So far, Snowden hasn’t revealed anything constructive aside from the bombshell that with the help of companies like Google and AOL, the NSA eavesdrops and collects metadata on everyone in the United States, regardless of who they are. Right now, Snowden is marooned at the Moscow airport with no country willing to take him, and he’s looking more foolish and less credible by the day.
If he wants redemption in the judgement of the American people, he needs to stand up to the government in a court of law, not run from country to country, making a spectacle of himself.
Related post:
https://sfcmac.com/snowden-still-on-the-run-charged-with-espionage/