Can Edward Snowden cite human rights and still applaud Putin?
The whistleblower had few options, but let's not forget Russia's illiberal record when dealing with opponents
Peter Beaumont
The Observer
Saturday 13 July 2013 16.00 ED
... to list Putin's Russia, as Snowden did, among his little list of countries for "being the first to stand against human rights violations" suggests a dangerous moral relativism ...
Amnesty, whose representative was at the Snowden meeting, had earlier announced the latest murder of a journalist in Russia, Akhmednabi Akhmednabiev, who was killed by an unknown gunman in the North Caucasus region after his name appeared on a death list ...
If that is too abstract, consider the treatment of Tanya Lokshina, the Human Rights Watch researcher, one of those invited to meet Snowden on Friday and who tweeted the whistleblower's picture. Last year, the then pregnant Lokshina, who has been a prominent human rights campaigner for more than a decade, received a series of text messages threatening both her and her unborn child.
Commenting on the affair, Human Rights Watch's executive director, Ken Roth, said: "The climate for human rights advocacy in Russia is as bad as we've seen in 20 years. Russia's international partners should make clear that the surest route to pariah status is to reinstate the bleak human rights environment of the Soviet era" ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/13/edward-snowden-anna-politkovskaya
= new reply since forum marked as read
....With the three Latin American countries that recently offered Mr. Snowden asylum having gone silent, and with the White House, on Friday, cautioning Russia not to offer the former NSA contractor a “propaganda platform,” Snowden apparently decided it was time to speak, emerging for a press conference Friday at the Moscow airport where he has been stranded since June 23.
....Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have offered Snowden asylum, but Snowden’s decision to try to stay in Russia suggests, at least, that he is having difficulty arranging transport to those countries. Most commercial flights to reach those countries would cross either US airspace or the airspace of countries in Western Europe that are friendly to the US and that could try to force a plane down to seize Snowden.
At his press conference Friday, Snowden indicated some concern about prospects for receiving asylum in Russia, as he implored the Russian lawmakers and human rights activists present to lobby their government on his behalf. Snowden seemed to be addressing Mr. Putin directly when he stated that his actions “didn’t do any damage to the United States.”
Putin had stipulated at a July 1 press conference that Snowden could stay in Russia only if he stopped divulging US government secrets. “If he wants to remain here there is one condition – he should stop his work aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners,” Putin said....
Funny how Snowden INSISTS he's not damaging the US, and Glenn Greenwald is busy saying that Snowden's shit will fuck the US up but good....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/13/glenn-greenwald-worst-nightmare_n_3591847.html
Glenn Greenwald: Snowden Documents Could Be 'Worst Nightmare' For U.S.
BUENOS AIRES, July 13 (Reuters) - Fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden controls dangerous information that could become the United States' "worst nightmare" if revealed, a journalist familiar with the data said in a newspaper interview.
Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst.
"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinian daily La Nacion.
Talk about a conundrum!!! Which is it?
"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,"
or
Snowden seemed to be addressing Mr. Putin directly when he stated that his actions “didn’t do any damage to the United States.”
I think a couple of "too clever by half-ers" have found themselves fucked. The whole "issuing threats" thing doesn't go over too well, not just with us, but with the former head of the KGB, who no doubt still keeps his hand in as leader of the Russian Federation--can't teach an old dog new tricks. If I had to guess, I'd not be surprised if the whole "snitches get stiches" thing came straight out of the KGB/FSB, not the mean streets of USA.
And I also have to wonder if Eddie is being subjected to this sort of "freedom-loving" treatment at the hands of Pootie's minions:
which were perfected by the East German Stasi.[61]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Security_Service
