Obama: not ‘scrambling jets’ to get NSA leaker Snowden

[Playinghardball]

President Obama said he should not have to speak personally with the leaders of Russia and China regarding self-professed NSA leaker Edward Snowden, and said he was “not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker” during a press conference in Senegal on Thursday.

The president was on the first leg of a trip to Africa when he struck the seemingly dismissive tone regarding the former defense contractor who claimed to have leaked details of two top-secret government data-gathering programs before initiating an international manhunt that has grown to involve the governments of China, Ecuador, and Russia.

Obama said that the revelations first published in British newspaper The Guardian and The Washington Post – and the ensuing search for Snowden, who has been charged with theft of government property and two offenses of espionage statutes – have the makings of a big-screen spy caper, but that he would not engage in “wheeling and dealing and trading and a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so he can face the justice system here in the United States.”

More at: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/27/19166043-obama-not-scrambling-jets-to-get-nsa-leaker-snowden?lite

[PoliticAverse]

1. Jets are old school, what about drones ? n/t

[randome]

2. China didn't want him. Russia doesn't want him. Wikileaks doesn't want him.

How much more evidence do the diehard Snowden supporters need that he is not to be trusted and has nothing to support his wild claims?

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[PoliticAverse]

3. What 'wild claims' are you referring to ? n/t

[KurtNYC]

8. Perhaps the ones about Verizon sending records of every phone call daily (?)

How would we ever verify the accuracy of such wild claims?!

[PoliticAverse]

10. You refer to this claim...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order

[KurtNYC]

12. Yes and aside from Verizon, Obama and everyone else confirming that, what evidence do we have????

[Recursion]

9. Reading the President's email, seeing what you're typing as you type it, being able to access...

...arbitrary servers at will, seeing a list of every NSA asset, copying all Internet traffic into a database.... the list goes on.

[whatchamacallit]

4. Maybe Obama's acolytes should take a cue and

chill the fuck out.

[HardTimes99]

5. Obama's acolytes? Snowden's acolytes? (Unclear pronoun

reference "his" leaves me unsure whether your a racist or an authoritarian thug

[whatchamacallit]

6. Haha thanks!

More

[marions ghost]

7. Obama would be wise

to leave Snowden alone.

[1-Old-Man]

11. What a blazingly stupid statement for a President to make

Hi there, I'm the President and although I could I do not intend to send armed military aircraft to the ex-Soviet Union, the second most heavily armed country on earth and a long time enemy, but don't forget, if I wanted to I could.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. The WH finally understood the word NYET?

Good...now we better go back to revelations.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Ok, this is chuckle worthy from the article.

Menendez said he would lead efforts to stop the renewal of Ecuador's duty-free access to America markets under the Generalized System of Preferences program, which expires on July 31. He also said he'd try and block renewal of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, which also expires at the end of July.

LMAO does the Senator understand ALBA nations want US drug warriors out?