Russia won’t extradite Snowden to US – Kremlin
rt.com
rt.com
Is the prism slides really one of the biggest security leaks in the American history, comparable to the Pentagon Papers, the war logs or the diplomatic cables? The prism power point leak looks a bit tiny in comparison.
It seems to me as the reason prism get so much media attention, is that it confirmed something everyone already knew but refused to accept. That shock hit at peoples heart, and felt more than 250,000 United States diplomatic cables or 500,000 army reports. Knowing, rather than just suspecting that Google, FB or microsoft channels data over to the NSA feels worse than hearing about kids being shot at by an attack helicopter using 30 mm fire.
Still, using the description of biggest security leaks in the American history might be a bit much?
"In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago"
While part of me feels that this is good news, the other part - cynical from all the word games I've heard from my own government recently - suspects they could definitely send him back without calling it "extradition." Still, I am cautiously optimistic.
I am not saying that Russia should betray Snowden's trust and hand him over. Just that the two countries should have the appropriate communication channels to sort this out, and not air to the media in PR stunts. Public diplomacy often leads to oneupmanship, and makes concessions expensive.
Snowden and Wikileaks moved it into the public for a reason. Russia/US can't change that right now, so they have to play along, which seems like a good thing for Snowden/Wikileaks.
They also don't take well to fundamentalists wanting to turn Syria into Afghanistan masquarading as "freedom fighters".
In this sense, the US-French-British axis gambling with Lybia and Syria was incredibly risky, and could end up creating more problems than Qadafi and Bashar ever did... But that's the nature of our elites, forever playing their little Great Games with no regard for everyday people.
If a military junta in Egypt suits the West as you suggest then so would Assad in Syria.
I think the west's motivations are complicated but certainly do contain an element of desire to help ordinary Syrians and also a fear the consequences of both acting and failing to act.
If we could get a full-blown democracy, and freedom for the Syrian people, that would of course be even better. But I fear someone else is exploiting their hopes and dreams for a better future to serve their own interests, and any intervention by the west would only fuel that exploitation. But then again seeing civilians getting caught in the crossfire is very painful. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Call me cynic, but I believe "ordinary Syrians" are the last of "our" problems. Syrian middle-classes, like their Libyan and Egyptian counterparts, are largely compromised with the regime, and would have certainly favoured a peaceful (if lengthy) transition rather than a civil war where they stand to lose everything. Assad was not more brutal than, say, the King of Morocco, who does pretty much the same sort of thing but is in the Western orbit (and in a less strategic area).
Oh wait, they don't have to flea, no-one is pursuing them and they are gearing up for the next round of destruction since no laws were passed to restrict their behavior. We have great priorities and perspective.
Probably because there are already a ton of regulations- the problem is they weren't being enforced. They probably still aren't being enforced.
Actually, I'd be in favor of having a lot fewer regulations, and enforcing those few very strictly.
> I want some answers that Ja Rule might not have right now.
What's Snowden's girlfriend going to tell me that's going to help me make sense of all this?
Let's not forget that it's Russia.
Still, Snowden can't afford to trust the US, so that leaves Russia as an alternative. But that's just a special case for this particular situation.
So? Russia has been a much more malevolent world player than the US.
Although I am not much for left-wing politics, I really wish that Russia had more influence here than the US.
And I still keep meeting people that are still looking for people that got "disappeared" by CIA.
> Let's not forget that it's Russia.
USA has death penalty, Russia hasn't had it for about two decades.
If you're an American, this might be a bit hard to understand. But for those who don't hail from any of the above-mentioned countries, it's easier to take a more balanced perspective of each.
I don't think we can really look at any country in specific good/bad terms. I personally applaud Russia's actions on this matter.
Hm. Interesting switch. I wonder why.
In other words, I'm shocked Putin had someone else say this instead of having cameras on him while he was shirtless and wrestling a bear for control of the life of a tiger cub.