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| "I have made a terrible mistake." |
Russian attorney Anatoly Kucherena — who also happens to be the head of public council for the Federal Security Service (FSB) — has announced that Edward Snowden may leave the Moscow airport on Wednesday.
His next destination: Russia.
That's right, he's likely not going too far.
We also know that Snowden supposedly said he has no plans to travel to Latin America because at this time, he thought it too dangerous to travel.
How do we know that? Well, Kucherena said Snowden said it, of course.
Not only does Kucherena run the FSB's public council, but it seems he runs Snowdens public relations as well — he "helped" Snowden apply for temporary asylum, he relayed Snowden's "promise" not to hurt the U.S. anymore, and he announced Snowden's (very own) idea about possibly applying for Russian citizenship with the intent to stay for a while and "learn Russian culture."
Okay so Snowden's Svengali, Glenn Greenwald, has insisted that the NSA blueprint and other sensitive material in Snowden's possession have NOT fallen into the Chinese or Russian hands, are we now to believe that Putin, the ex-KGB spy, is NOT going to make Snowden's request for asylum contingent on gaining access to that information?
No, not even Snowden's most ardent admirers can possibly believe that Putin has not either already surfed through the documentation in Snowden's possession, or soon will.
You know I have struggled with my interpretation of Snowden, as either a good guy, a bad guy, or a fucking moron. But I really think his decision to go to Russia, and to trust Putin, clears that right up.
I still would like to kick his ass. He is such a punk. His parents must be so proud. Sarah supports and should join him.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteSnowden's Moscow Lawyer: NSA Leaker Is Planning To Live In Russia And Get A Job
The Moscow lawyer of NSA whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden tells Russia Today that the 30-year-old is planning to spend the foreseeable future in Russia.
“He’s planning to arrange his life here. He plans to get a job," Anatoly Kucherena, a Russian lawyer with links to the country's intelligence service (i.e. FSB), told RT. "And, I think, that all his further decisions will be made considering the situation he found himself in.”
The situation he found himself in was being stuck in Russia after the U.S. voided his passport while he was in Hong Kong and Snowden flew to Moscow on a travel document from Ecuador's consul in London.
Kucherena, who sits on the public council of the FSB, has been speaking for Snowden since July 12 — the day Snowden accepted all offers of support and asylum.
“We must understand that security is the number one issue in his case," Kucherena told RT. "I think the process of adaptation will take some time. It’s an understandable process as he doesn’t know the Russian language, our customs, and our laws.”
http://www.businessinsider.com/snowdens-moscow-lawyer-nsa-leaker-is-planning-to-live-in-russia-and-get-a-job-2013-7
And all that bullshit about him not wanting to live in a country that spies on it's citizens??? WTF, Snowden, indeed.
One vote for "Fucking Moron"!
ReplyDeleteMake that two!
DeleteHe gets my vote as well. He can share the ticket with Sarah Palin. Of course, she's on top, you know, with all her experience and whatnot.
DeleteThat's my vote as well. I'm still not sure that he has what he says he does.
DeleteThis just has never smelled right to me. How a contractor who's only been on the job for 3 months can capture such sensitive information doesn't seem possible.
But who is paying his bills?
I would add "Overblown Ego wishing for the proverbial Fifteen Minutes of Fame" to the Fucking Moron appellation. Actions have consequences and all of that. He will have plenty of time to ponder upon it, I suppose.
DeleteI think Snowden should have stayed and stood on his whistleblower status. I still think he's an idiot though. I also think he got screwed by Assange (thinking he's a small god in London), used by Greenwald who is a Koch sucking asshole who pretends to be a journalist, sometimes, when he's not being a libertarian shill and ultimately punked by Putin.
ReplyDeleteThey say there are some very beautiful spots in Russia.
Siberia is wonderful in the winter.
DeleteWhen you're bleak, you're bleak!
DeleteHt George Costanza
This entire fiasco is a charade. There was something off about Snowden from the get go. I work with with troubled adolescents, and I've gotten pretty good at seeing through their bullshit. Snowden acted like many grandiose teenagers living in a fantasy. It was all a game for him.
ReplyDeleteExcept it was a big boy's game and he's just a snotty little punk.
DeleteHe's in way over his head and has been manipulated by people who took advantage of his arrogance for their own purposes.
Reality is going to be quite a big blow for him.
agree
DeleteI read an interesting article on other ex patriots who were exiled in Russia.
DeleteThey literally can not handle the culture and suicide is the usual end game.
A commenter said that it was like locking yourself outside your home.- never to return again. All your friends, family. ..
FREEDOM!!!!!!!!
We do often forget how amazing and lucky we are to live in this amazing nation.
And this guy just pissed all. Over. It.
I'm not sure what the struggle is on Snowden. He's not Daniel Ellsberg - who approached Senator's first before going to the press, who released information about a war, not hte nuts and bolts of spying, and who surrendered to authorities rather than run to countries we REALLY DID NOT WANT to have the data.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not at all sure Snowden did this on principle, no matter what he said. I suspect he was groomed by a foreign country.
What It's Like To Go To McDonald's In Russia
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-in-russia-2013-7?op=1
He was always a spy. He's simply decided who he's going to sell out to.
ReplyDeleteWhen Snowden arrived in Moscow on June 23, a radio host in Moscow "saw about 20 Russian officials, supposedly FSB agents, in suits, crowding around somebody in a restricted area of the airport," according to Anna Nemtsova of Foreign Policy.
ReplyDelete"Snowden will fly out of Russia when the Kremlin decides he can go," Moscow political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin told Foreign Policy after Snowden arrived. "He might not even be in the airport. The safest place would be a GRU [Russian military intelligence] apartment."
John Schindler, Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, subsequently tweeted that during the Cold War, the KGB's covert term for the NSA was "OMEGA," the highest Soviet intelligence priority — "in case you wondered how glad FSB is to see Snowden."
On July 12 former senior U.S. intelligence analyst Joshua Foust wrote that the "involvement of known FSB operatives at [Snowden's] asylum acceptance ... suggests this was a textbook [Russian] intelligence operation, and not a brave plea for asylum from political persecution."
http://www.businessinsider.com/snowdens-moscow-lawyer-nsa-leaker-is-planning-to-live-in-russia-and-get-a-job-2013-7
Weiner Says He Is Not Quitting Mayor’s Race After New Allegations Emerge
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/nyregion/allegations-surface-of-explicit-exchanges-by-weiner-after-his-resignation.html?emc=edit_na_20130723&_r=0
http://thedirty.com/
DeleteInstead of yet ANOTHER rant about Snowden's moral character, it'd be SO much wiser and beneficial if you focused on the terrifying ramifications of what he's revealed.
ReplyDeleteFor example, though ALL our phone calls aren't actually being listened to by people at the the NSA, they ARE being recorded and STORED.
IOW, our government is collecting evidence for crimes its citizens haven't committed yet -- and may never commit but DID once talk about in a phone call in which, say, Citizen X can clearly be heard discussing the United States in seditious and treasonous terms ... because Citizen X said, "We need to get rid of all the crooks in Washington !"
Oh honey, you've been watching too many Tom Cruise spy movies.
DeleteSnowden is an asshole for blasting information that belongs to this country, not the world, and now he's settling down in one of the most draconian states for surveillance and punishment of their citizens? Hypocrisy much?
If you use a cell phone, you are tracked by your provider. That in and of itself is what you can be complaining about, but no, it's just the big, bad government crap that I'm sick to death of hearing about.
Facebook, Twitter, phone companies, banks, credit agencies, insurance companies, cable tv companies...they all have your information, and in alot more detail than the NSA would ever even care about.
Take off your tinfoil hat, honey, nobody is out to get insignificant little you.
Uh no . . . .
Deletea1,
DeleteWe've know that the metadata has been stored, at least since 2005. Frankly, I'm relieved to hear that has not accelerated to include the data mining done by marketers on social media. That creeps me out so much, that I refuse to participate other than using anonymizers and disposable email accounts.
But even before the Patriot Act, billing systems for LD companies and local (previously Baby Bells) have run all billing through a "black box company" located in one of our major allies in the ME (u get one guess), where algorithms have been developed to track and trace suspected terrorists. Seems like over-kill, huh? But at one time, it was state of the art, now a defunct technology unless it morphs and synthesizes along with the tech advancement. Not to worry, it has. SatCom has become the choice of those avoiding triangulation by GPS, but as long as we have the blueprint for satt-phone tech, we 'll be in the cat-bird seat. The paranoia about being spied upon is ludicrous unless you're cooking meth, running or storing hege caches of guns or explosives, or pirating cable. Otherwise, chill. There's 7Billion people in this world. We only have enough resources to capture or neutralize a finite number of bad guys, but I trust that this is done domestically as we'll as internationally in coordination with Interpol and other domestic spy agencies in other friendly or neutral country govts. Snowden is to Intel as Palin is to Politics, both rabble rousers who know much less than they've convinced only the most naive.
If we're so good at tracking suspected terrorists then how does a Boston Bombing happen? Explain that one to me, please, and thanks in advance.
DeleteRead your question back to yourself --- slowly. There is no way to protect any society from lone- wolf actors or sibling-only conspiracies without allowing the thought police to put away those who might be more likely to consider such a deviant behavior.
DeleteSociety cannot protect against Columbines or theatre shootings or other mass-kills perpetrated against a population who communicate only verbally. But if you'd rather take your chances with military grade chemical warfare and/or nukes in the hands of rabid religious extremists, feel free to support your argument here. I'll read it and respond promptly, I assure you. But only if you think this thing through in a thorough, logical manner. Neither of us wants 100% fail-safe security because of the loss of every semblence of privacy that either you or I have ever imagined we have. But I'll reserve judgement until you've had your shot at changing where I am today with my thoughts of a need on some level of national security outside the awareness of every anarchist and Internet-recipe bomber. Remember, we do this not only to protect lives (and a std of living) here domestically, but also for our allies, not all of whom have 100% overlap in interests across the board. But I'll read your response with an open mind. That's how I arrived at my current positions. Thanks.
Edward Snowden has made this a story about Edward Snowden. He should have stayed here and lawyered up and blew all his whistles. He really fucked up and has lost the support of a lot of Americans and his message has been buried by his foolishness in allowing US secrets so close to the hands of other nations (yes, yes, I know he's impervious to torture or some such bullshit).
DeleteAnonymous @ 4:45
Delete"Hypocrisy much ?"
On THAT topic, "honey,' you're obviously an expert.
For someone SO unconcerned about NSA surveillance, you express your apathy with a LOT of effort -- not to mention ignorance, illogic and incivility.
I'm still chuckling at your reason for sitting around picking your navel and pwaying wif teh internets while your government is busy recording and storing virtually ALL your personal communication:
"Facebook, Twitter, phone companies, banks, credit agencies, insurance companies, cable tv companies...they all have your information, and in alot more detail than the NSA would ever even care about."
Guess what ? Facebook can't ARREST you, phone companies can't stop you from leaving the country and cable companies can't put your name on a secret list of possible terrorists. But the NSA can do all that, and HAS.
And since it can also get ANY info it wants from ALL the sources you list (without any oversight, court order, or your knowledge), your notion that fuckin' TWITTER knows more about American citizens "than the NSA would ever even care about" is SUCH bullshit, it sounds almost like a prepared talking point ... hmmmm ... kinda like the rest of your post ... ?
Anonymous @ 5:53
(sigh) Et tu, Blowhard ?
"We've know [sic] that the metadata has been stored, at least since 2005 ..."
And THAT's a reason that now, 8 years later, any concerns about surveillance overreach are still "ludicrous" and "paranoia" ? Even though Snowden's exposed the fact that NSA data mining goes WAY beyond mere metadata ?
Coming from a family of electrical engineers, slogging through your hilariously unintelligible techno-babble brought back fond memories. A meaningless conclusion like yours -- "as long as we have the blueprint for satt-phone tech, we 'll be in the cat-bird seat" -- would have met with a chorus of voices crying in perfect unison: "Nobody knows what you're talking about and nobody cares !"
Oh, what a major time-saver it would have been if you'd only put your final point first !
"Snowden is to Intel as Palin is to Politics ..." is a statement of such staggering inaccuracy that NOTHING else you say could POSSIBLY be true so I would have stopped reading right there.
People who are shocked by Snowden's revelations must not have been paying attention when Congress passed the Patriot Act. That pretty much gave carte blanche to the government to collect any and all data they wanted to, subject only to the secret FISA court.
ReplyDeleteEdward Snowden is a narcissistic asshole and I hope his life in Russia is as dreary and horrible as possible, that f'ing traitor.
If he is useful, he will live well. If not, he is doomed to dreary.
DeleteДо свидания, Эдвард.
ReplyDeleteWe hardly knew ya.
Dude, your keyboard has some shit on it that mine doesn't!
DeleteHTF do you make that "R" backwards? Do you have to be dyslexic, also, too, or just your laptop?
Actually, Anonymous 6:26 p.m., the letters are in the Cyrillic alphabet used for Russian. I'll try a transcription: Dos svedanya, Edvard. Translation: Good bye, Edward. I studied Russian in high school and college many, many years ago.
DeleteThanks, Joan. I think I've actually heard your translation of the "good bye" part in a Bond film or something similar along the way. Snowden might find it a little tougher than Spanish 101 which was enough to give me fits with verb tenses and whatnot.
DeleteI hear that translators in Arabic, Chinese and Russian are pretty hot commodities these days in foreign services at State Dept.
Gryphen attracts a sometimes profane but usually eclectic and a very intelligent readership here. Thanks again.
I hear Siberia is really nice this time of year, oh, except for the mosquitos. Bring plenty of DEET Snowden, you're going to need it!
ReplyDeleteSo glad that Snowden is settling down in a country that doesn't monitor it's citizens.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait...
Can anyone translate "I think I screwed the pooch this time" for Mr Snowden?" On the other hand, literal translation might not help Snpwfen with his new Russian friends. They might think he'd a TeaTard with a pervy beastial habit or something.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, I've been following your blog for the past five years. I don't check back as regularly as I use to as I think you're becoming increasingly conservative. Seems to be more angry, hateful comments on here than before?
ReplyDeleteI agree about the angry, hateful comments. I check less often too.
DeleteAmericans Have Completely Flipped On Edward Snowden In The Past Month
ReplyDeleteThe American public's views of National Security Agency leak source Edward Snowden have flipped in the past month, according to one poll — and now most support him being charged with a crime.
According to the ABC-Washington Post poll, 53% say that Snowden should be charged with a crime after exposing a trove of NSA secrets, compared with 36% who disagree. That's a sharp turn from the point immediately after his revelations in June, when Americans opposed him being charged by a 48-43 margin.
Snowden is currently in Russia, where he is reportedly being allowed to leave the Moscow airport transit zone in which he has been stationed for the past month. His lawyer said he plans to stay in Russia and attempt to start a life there — meaning the public's views of him probably won't improve.
According to the ABC-WaPo poll, 57% of Americans believe that it is more important for the NSA to "investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy" — the Obama administration's justification for the programs. Only 39% think it's more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, "even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats."
http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-poll-traitor-hero-russia-asylum-2013-7
Former NSA whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden has been granted documents that will allow him to leave a Moscow airport where he has been for the last month, Reuters and Russian media report.
ReplyDeleteBBC notes that Russia's Federal Migration Service will soon issue a document granting him rights as a Russian citizen.
But Snowden's lawyer says Snowden won't leave airport today and will remain in tranzit zone until paperwork finalized.
On Tuesday his Moscow lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said that if Snowden is granted a one-year temporary asylum, the term "can be prolonged for another year and this can be repeated an indefinite number of times afterwards."
http://www.businessinsider.com/report-edward-snowden-is-now-free-to-leave-the-airport-and-enter-russia-2013-7
Snowden deserves nothing - BUT to be beaten to his near death only to be saved in time to spend the rest of his miserable natural life in a 6X6 jail.
ReplyDeleteNSA Says It Can't Search Its Own Emails
ReplyDeleteThe NSA is a "supercomputing powerhouse" with machines so powerful their speed is measured in thousands of trillions of operations per second. The agency turns its giant machine brains to the task of sifting through unimaginably large troves of data its surveillance programs capture.
But ask the NSA, as part of a freedom of information request, to do a seemingly simple search of its own employees' email? The agency says it doesn't have the technology.
"There's no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately," NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week.
The system is "a little antiquated and archaic," she added.
(snip)
"It's just baffling," says Mark Caramanica of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "This is an agency that's charged with monitoring millions of communications globally and they can't even track their own internal communications in response to a FOIA request."
Federal agencies' public records offices are often underfunded, according to Lucy Dalglish, dean of the journalism school at University of Maryland and a longtime observer of FOIA issues.
But, Daglish says, "If anybody is going to have the money to engage in evaluation of digital information, it's the NSA for heaven's sake."
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/nsa-search-emails