Blogger C. Fitzpatrick on Snowden's future in Russia and his deadmans's switch

[flamingdem]

* Fitzpatrick continues to point to / speculate about the Assange-Wikileaks-Russia connection and saw Russian asylum as inevitable.

Snowden Asks for Asylum in Russia: "That Place You Can't Come Back"

--- snip

"It wasn't immediately clear why it took Snowden so long to formally submit the request," says the AP. Well, that's because he thought he could bargain with Moscow and set conditions, like being able to continune on his leaker/hacker/saboteur career as he saw fit, and not as Moscow saw fit to exploit him. He has been steadily disabused of that notion.

I continue to maintain:

o Snowden is not naive, although he may be narcissistic and infantile, and that can cover up naivete to the untrained eye. This was a planned maneuver, and one where he thought he would come out on top;

o Snowden conspired with WikiLeaks operatives Assange and "lawyer" Sarah Harrison and WikiLeaks advocates Jacob Appelbaum and Laura Poitras to concoct this entire adventure - eventually this will be more clear;

o WikiLeaks knew perfectly well what the ramifications and consequences were of going to Moscow and did this deliberately in keeping with their anarchist ideology and their need for state support;

The real question is who has the "dead man's switch now". Glenn Greenwald, who has been Snowden's champion and fellow hacker activist, even as he tried to serve as his informal attorney and play journalist, has essentially committed blackmail -- invoking the presence of other sensational documents that might or might not be in Snowden's possession but are very likely copied to WikiLeaks USBs or servers somewhere. He's definitely implied despite his later protestations that if anything "happens" to his client, "America will get it in the neck."

But two can play at dead man's switch. Let's say Greenwald doesn't really have these documents as he claims, which seems odd for a journalist claiming to have worked on this story in good faith as an investigative project all along -- although more and more it seems like he is the agent of influence for an active measure scripted by the Kremlin. Let's say that Greenwald ceded this "big story" to Laura Poitras and Jacob Appelbaum and hence Assange, who are backed by the Kremlin. That would mean that Glenn is less of a big man than he claims -- but he may be willing to claim that just so that he is not raided by the police

http://3dblogger.typepad.com/wired_state/2013/07/snowden-asks-for-asylum-in-russia-that-place-you-cant-come-back.html

--
Catherine Fitzpatrick
Russian translator, blogger, news writer, human rights activist, and long-time student of international affairs.

[flamingdem]

1. Fitzpatrick: Snowed on Snowden

http://3dblogger.typepad.com/wired_state/2013/07/snowed-on-snowden.html

snip.... As I've pointed out from the beginning, the end of the road for Edward Snowden, given his politics and his online buddies, was always Moscow.

The method isn't really about reform; it's about making the US retaliate, and then pointing to the harsher policies and claiming the US is no longer its liberal self, true to its ideas, and then working to discredit and undermine both America and its liberal ideas as false. It is not about wishing the best for the US, as much as Snowden thinks he can mouth this platitude and have us believe it.

It's like the hackers who hack and disable and damage a website and then claim that all along they were really just "helping" a company to beef up its security. Baloney. If they really cared, they would quietly speak to their own IT colleagues and help them. If they really cared, they wouldn't need to bully and shame a corporation and portray it in an ill light -- and harm its customers. What happened with Snowden's hack of USA, Inc. is no different than Swartz taking down Jstor and MIT defiantly in the copyleftist cause, or Weev assaulting AT&T and running off with its customer lists in a supposed, um, helpful probe dedicated to a Better World. Poppycock. All of this is about radical nihilism and anarchism and most of all, taking power. After all, when anarchists thwart and disable and defeat power, where does it go? To them. WikiLeaks is about a war for power, not a campaign for freedom or rights.

There are too many liberals who think that there's some national conversation to be had here that is "better" than Snowden's coerced version -- they're willing to say they've been "lost" on the cause because he leaked to the Chinese but still think he "did some good".

[randome]

2. If there is a noose tightening, it's tightening around Greenwald's neck.

And for such a pathetic exercise in libertarianism, too. If this is what libertarianism is like, the rest of the world has nothing to worry about.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[flamingdem]

3. Maybe the rest of the Libertarians would do us a favor

and join him in Brazil where they can rally for an end to the US system.

It's interesting to see the alliance between Assange and Greenwald on the ideological level. There is an alliance via the Press Freedom Foundation that connects Wikileaks to Ellsberg, Barlow, and Greenwaldk, all on the board.

[randome]

4. Good news!

My background check ran into some problems and I won't start work until tomorrow!

Must have been that time I spent with Al Qaeda last year. C'est la vie.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]There is nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.
Nothing.[/center][/font][hr]

[flamingdem]

5. Meanwhile check out twitter where

Press Freedom peops discuss fundraising for Eddie's next big adventure


John Perry Barlow ?@JPBarlow 6h
@jason_pontin He can. It's a matter of money. Which is being assembled.
from Daphne, AL
Jason Pontin ?@jason_pontin 6h
@JPBarlow Good! I think it's his only practical exit at this point.

--
John Perry Barlow ?@JPBarlow 3h
@jason_pontin I don't think it has to be private at all. Though it will need some cover.

* who knows what this means but I'm envisioning Snowden in a burqa
* congrats on a day off to spend scrubbing your online footprint