Is Snowden Coming Home?

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Clarissa

March 4, 2015

Nearly two years after American intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow, his international legal team is hard at work trying to secure his return to the U.S., his main Russian lawyer said Tuesday. . . Kucherena also complained that he and Snowden have grown accustomed to being tailed at all times by unknown pursuers, RIA Novosti reported. He claimed that at one point he was forced to jump into a different car while commuting through the city in order to confuse five different vehicles that were following him at once.

I’m glad to know he’s not as irredeemable as I thought he was. Few things are as shameful as being on Russia’s side at this moment. Whatever you might think of the United Sates, all of the existing alternatives are vastly worse.

P.S. And now consider the following: if this silly little lawyer was constantly tailed by several cars, what is the likelihood that Boris Nemtsov, one of the most famous dissidents in Russia, was not tailed on the night of his murder, which was, incidentally, two days before he was going to make public a huge report on Russian troops in Ukraine?

P.P.S. Completely unrelated: why are people on Twitter so much more optimistic than people on any other social medium? All day long, Twitter followers are trying to make me feel better about stuff. I’m grateful, but isn’t that my usually role?

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6 responses to “Is Snowden Coming Home?”

cliff arroyo

March 4, 2015

Overall I’m more inclined to give Snowden the benefit of a doubt than you are (though I’ve occasionally suspected he’s deep cover NSA still).

But a lot of people miss what I think is really important about the things he disclosed.

Of course a government that can will spy on their allies. Anyone who doesn’t realize that has no idea how the world works. It’s not shocking that the US monitored Merkel more closely than she would like.

What’s shocking in his disclosures is that a lot of this kind of surveillance has been outsourced to private entities with no real government monitoring which is essentially the end of the rule of law.

I’m fairly sure now that the rule of law (like taxpayer funded mass higher education) is one of the first casualties of the post nation state and the examples are everywhere for those who take the time to see. Relations between international actors are quickly devolving into something like renaissance Italy – an important place and time, but not much fun to live in.

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David P. Bellamy

March 4, 2015

(though I’ve occasionally suspected he’s deep cover NSA still).

I have also often suspected this. He is a highly trained operative, and he seems to have made absolutely sure that Putin has no access to the files he released to the press.

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1. David P. Bellamy
  
  March 4, 2015
  
  The point of my previous post is that Snowden is likely as skilled at espionage and counterespionage as Putin is.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    March 4, 2015
    
    “The point of my previous post is that Snowden is likely as skilled at espionage and counterespionage as Putin is.”
    
    At this point, I hear crowds of people in the West repeat Putin’s propaganda and not a single person in Russia repeating any American propaganda. So I doubt there is anybody as skilled at this as the Russians right now.
    
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2. Clarissa
  
  March 4, 2015
  “He is a highly trained operative, and he seems to have made absolutely sure that Putin has no access to the files he released to the press.”
  
  If he released them to the press, I’m sure Putin has no trouble finding them.
  
  The question has always been whether he is a spy for Putin, not for the NSA. And I still don’t know the answer.
  
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  1. David P. Bellamy
    
    March 4, 2015
    
    “If he released them to the press, I’m sure Putin has no trouble finding them.”
    
    Putin will not get them unless the reporter to whom he gave them releases them.
    
    However, it is entirely possible that there is important disinformation included in the files he took that will be misleading to Putin or others in important ways. This is the most likely scenario, in my opinion.
    
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