I don't think anybody has had the international hue and cry raised to such a height to 'track him' down - up to and including the late Obama Bin Laden. While I'm pretty sure airports everywhere were being watched for some hairy fella on a burnoose and turban, especially one with a 'police model kalashnikov' in his luggage, I don't recall the US issuing threats to sever relations, or even registering severe disappointment about not having him turned over to them, let's face it, they were going to 'do' Afghanistan and Iraq anyway. They didn't demand his arrest from Sudan, or even bother any of his siblings who were literally living in the USA when 'he attacked' the WTC.
Now, mind you, most of the other whistleblowers remained resident in America - but then, too, many of them were fairly prominent. Snowden was, we are told, a nonentity, a nonentity given access to the deepest darkest secrets of state by some contracted software corporation. A nonentity who could be disappeared without too much ado. He was wise to go overseas. If the Guardian hadn't broken his story, it wouldn't have been broken in the US press and Snowden might now be an ignored footnote to history. As is stands now, he needs to be made a 'good example' to everybody else who signs and ironclad 'security statement' to get a job. If Adolf and the SS could have had 'security statements' signed and used as a legal excuse for not knowing nothing', there might be European train stations and airports named after them to-day.
But Snowden is the 'boyo' on the point and everything he's done so far to "cause great harm to America" is deemed a character flaw. 'Running away' to Hong Kong from his operating base in Hawaii is an act of pusillanimous cowardice - or, looking at a map, one of the few 'safe' places he could go without a visa. Virtually anywhere else on the pacific rim is friendly territory for the US government, or a place somebody's going to know you're going. Hong Kong was a no-brainer unless he wanted to wind-up permanently tranquilized. His first releases about the scope of government eavesdropping caused a ho-hum reaction at home. It was only when he divulged that the US government was busy 'spying' on just about everybody - friends and enemies alike - that somebody noticed the potential damage and tried to shut him up, or at least 'bring him to justis'. Just like the Wikileaks thing, graphic evidence of a war crime was ho-hummed until the leak of some ambassador's speculation about the state of a national leader's wife's knickers gave some credibility that such statesmen have little to do and less ability to do it well. Assange became a pariah - a diddler of sleeping girls and a fugitive from 'justis'. He's still holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
I'd imagine if the embassy staff aren't thoroughly fed-up with Assange, they will be getting that way soon. For, don't you know, it was released to the press that Assange has been engineering the whole thing. Through the ambassador in London, Julian offered sanctuary to Snowden on behalf of the Ecuadorean people, don'tcha no! That, reportedly, led to some debate in Ecuador which now, we are told, is 'backing off' on it's offer of protection. They were probably contemplating what they were going to do with all the cut flowers America wouldn't be buying from their off-shore Ecuadoran florist industry. So If Snowden does show up in Ecuador, Venezuela or anywhere else for that matter, it's just an indication of the sort of tyranny we can expect if Julian Assange ever takes over the world.
Glenn Greenwald, the lawyer, who writes for the Guardian, is also taking a 'reputation-bashing' from the 'feebs' who are tasked with finding the muck to sling. Just as the 'feebs' told us that Snowden who'd never made it out of high school, let alone college, was hired by the Sniff-Pantays, or Booz Allen Corporation as a 'data analyst' and rapidly advanced to the "six figure" salary range. He didn't like small children, kitty-cats or have a particular affinity for the Lord Jesus as His personal Lord and Saviour. The reporter who printed his tales was no less a miscreant. Greenwald had "appeared in court" and "been involved in lawsuits" in the past. Duh! Lawyer right? The latest punditry is that Greenwald "put Snowden up to it to get the story". Got him a job and promotion and access to state secrets and everything. Somehow he must have gotten his competition at WaPo to sit on the story so he could go first, too. That's totally credible! They printed much less of it than he did, but that just goes to show the power he wields, eh? I'm surprised he's not being described as an Israel-hating Hebrew. Crikey! Maybe he is!
But never mind the malefactors. Look at the good guys. All hurt feelings and not quite understanding why this bad stuff keeps happening to them. Trying hard, awful hard, to get things done right and being screwed by people who won't listen or don't care about peace and freedom and little girls anywhere. The good guys won't be calling out the army or the navy, or even the cops. They won't be 'wheeling and dealing on a lot of other issues to get one guy extradited'. Hell they won't even stop buying their flowers from FTD Ecuador division.
But Snowden will be brought to 'justis', someday. Like Brad Manning, there's a special traitor's tribunal with his name on it. In the meantime there are others to find, and name and blame.
What about Manning? will any of this stick to him?
If not, there's always Assange - and he's a foreigner.
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