Is it possible Snowden just wants cash?

[Archae]

It may be possible Snowden was offered a lot of money, by someone.

Maybe the Chinese government.

Maybe right-wingers here in the US.

I don't know, but it is very possible.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Perhaps like Manning he wished to expose war crimes and crimes against US citizens.

And having seen PFC Manning held in solitary confinement for three years without trial, opted out of the US prison-industrial complex. Also, being charged with espionage, he is eligible for the death penalty, so yes, it's all about his wanting his own reality TV show.

[dtom67]

4. right on ....

I love all these apologists that think "fame and fortune" are a motive for whistle -blowing. The rest of Mr. Snowden's life is going
to be a horror show. Prison, torture, execution. Sounds like the rockstar life to me.....

[dtom67]

2. I would more likely accept the notion that he is insane....

Because you would have to be crazy to risk your life and/or freedom to try to expose spying programs,because most Americans cannot be botherd to get off of the couch .
Maybe the government is right to take away our free speech, right to assembly, the right to privacy and all other constitutional rights. Do we deserve them?
Maybe we would feel safer without them .........

[Recursion]

3. Doubtful; you get cash by keeping things secret, for the most part

As far as personality and motivation, Snowden remains a cipher to me. Not that I particularly care.

[pnwmom]

5. We don't know which of the thousands of documents he claims to have stolen

might be worth real money to someone. Maybe these first releases are his version of "loss leaders."

[Monkie]

7. maybe the moon landing is fake? you might be the evil mastermind behind all this?

we dont know, maybe you plotted all this? you could be the mastermind directing snowden by remote control.

[pnwmom]

8. You don't have to dispense with logic to suspect that there will be a payoff for Snowden

down the line. He's got to make a living somehow in whatever foreign country he ends up in.

[Monkie]

10. but it is a fact that he is a threat to a $80 billion dollar snout-in-trough industry

i dont see how so many americans can ignore the big picture here, there is a unchecked self regulating $80 billion dollar a year spying feeding frenzy going on, do really think the people at agencies such as the NSA or CIA care anything about democracy, let alone these megacorps profiting from this industry?
let me remind you of what people that work at agencies such as these really think about democracy.
when the CIA supported the coup of generals in greece the US ambassador complained that this was a rape of democracy,
the reply of the CIA station chief in athens was, and i quote, "you cant rape a whore".

[ManiacJoe]

6. Money is no good if you cannot spend it.

[pnwmom]

9. If he's offered asylum in Ecuador, he'll have no difficulty spending any money he gets. n/t

[Monkie]

11. if he was given immunity in the same way the telecoms were in the warrantless wiretapping scandal

this is something i also dont understand, one can give a whole industry immunity for warrantless wiretapping of the people of the united states, but one man wishing to whistleblow on abuses cant be given immunity for such a minor crime as leaking to some documents.
if this offer had been made instantly he could of been home the first day, and 90% of the damaging leaks would of been kept "in house".

[pnwmom]

12. Anyone who has ever been entrusted with classified documents, as he was,

knows that leaking them is an extremely serious crime. The government would never offer him immunity for his own crime, and he would have been just as unlikely to accept it.

[Monkie]

13. he would be unlikely to accept immunity? im sorry but this crosses the line into fantasy

in a way i would never expect to hear in rational conversation.
if he had been offered immunity you would of had proof of his claim, and the counterclaim against him.
is he a whistleblower or a spy.
if he was really exposing criminality in the NSA then surely the government would welcome his information.
you say leaking is a serious crime, but if he had only leaked for one story, how serious is that?
they could of had him home on the next flight.
elsberg leaked, nobody calls him a traitor.

and i see you skip over the fact that the telecoms industry was given blanket immunity for collaboration in a massive and illegal warrantless wiretapping program and you are worried about a few documents that were leaked on information "your side" is saying was old news anyway.
your position seems untenable to me.

[cali]

14. Lol. Unlikely. It's a rather enormous risk for money

he had no guarantee he wouldn't be extradited or kidnapped. In fact, the odds against his retaining his freedom were and are enormous. He doesn't strike me as that stupid.

[backscatter712]

15. If all he wanted was money, he could have kept working at Booz-Allen. n/t

[bemildred]

16. No, it's not. nt

[baldguy]

17. And you just know Greenwald will line up a book deal for him soon.

With a hefty advance.