And grow up with the country.-- Horace Greeley
From the Daily Beast:
Snowden Flees to MoscowJust two days after U.S. officials filed a sealed criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old NSA leaker reportedly left Hong Kong on a flight bound for Moscow. Russia's national airline Aeroflot confirmed that he was on a one-way flight bound for Moscow, but said his final destination could not be confirmed. The move was discouraging for Washington, who had issued a legal request on the "provisional warrant of arrest" for Hong Kong to return him. In the end, the Hong Kong concluded that the request "did not fully comply with the legal requirements" under their own law.
I guess China wasn't freedomy enough.
4 comments:
I don't get the sense that he's planning on staying in Moscow, seems like just a layover. Probably Denver wouldn't have been a good choice.
Ecuador seems to be the destination. Since they're already giving sanctuary to Assange, it makes sense.
No, China isn't freedomy. Neither is, uh, the United States of America.
It always amazes me when people who're never likely to put themselves in Snowden's place, to antagonize a powerful government with an established record of completely over-the-top (dare I say, "Nixonian"?) vindictiveness toward leakers, still feel themselves qualified to write the Book of Proper Etiquette for the Whistleblower.
It was revolting enough to see Bob Schieffer -- a long-time loyal member of the Establishment media who, if truth in advertising were seriously enforced, would have "Don't Make Waves" tattooed on his forehead in fluorescent ink -- invoke MLK as a model for how leakers should behave. But this is truly vomit-inducing.
Wherever Snowden goes to try to avoid spending a goodly chunk of his life in prison for the heinous crime of embarrassing assholes in power, that has absolutely nothing to do with the quality or usefulness of the information he leaked. This is purest ad hominem -- which seems to be the weapon of choice around here, these days -- plus a truly bizarre attempt at smear-by-association.
It might be instructive to remember that the Establishment press and the administration made all sorts of wild statements about Manning and Assange having endangered American lives, and then later the Pentagon was forced to admit they had no proof that this had happened.
Remember John Kiriaku, who's currently serving 30 months in prison for the unspeakable act of revealing that torture was government policy? (While the torturers and their enablers went scot-free?) According to Kiriaku's recent letter from prison, the authorities tried to set him and another prisoner at each other's throats by separately lying to each of them that the other was out to get him.
And this is the government to whose tender mercies Snowden's supposed to surrender himself? Is that "freedom-y" enough for you, driftglass?
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