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Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.
TaoPhoenix:
Strange he's staying so long in that airport... (that is if he is still there)
-tomos (June 28, 2013, 02:43 AM)
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He has to be very careful where he goes. Iceland got grumpy last month, Ecuador was on lead but they just got grumpy too this week. He needs to go somewhere where the US can't go all 800lb gorilla on them. This guy basically is up in the top 10 most wanted.
But notice how much trouble they're having? Whereas they got a bunch of the lulzsec type guys kinda quick? He's getting some high grade help in a few places.
wraith808:
Strange he's staying so long in that airport... (that is if he is still there)
-tomos (June 28, 2013, 02:43 AM)
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The next move is very important. He's right now in a limbo sort of state as Russia won't go after him. The next place might not be so forgiving. This isn't the first time this has happened, i.e. political refugee stuck in an airport.
40hz:
Strange he's staying so long in that airport... (that is if he is still there)
-tomos (June 28, 2013, 02:43 AM)
--- End quote ---
The next move is very important. He's right now in a limbo sort of state as Russia won't go after him. The next place might not be so forgiving. This isn't the first time this has happened, i.e. political refugee stuck in an airport.
-wraith808 (June 28, 2013, 07:17 AM)
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Snowden did a classic castling move when he left the US.
However, the longer he is 'stuck' in a diplomatic impasse, while still remaining in full public view, the safer he is.
He was also allegedly smart enough to set himself up with some "insurance" according to this article:
...Edward Snowden suggested Monday that he believes the federal government wants to either jail or murder him.
"How many sets of the documents you disclosed did you make, and how many different people have them? If anything happens to you, do they still exist?" a questioner asked Greenwald in a livechat on the website of The Guardian, to whom Snowden has provided some of the documents.
Here is his answer:
"All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped."
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The lack of shadows and fog severely limits what the US can do right now. It pretty much forces the US to keep all its actions mostly legal and above board. That's a brightly lit environment not conducive for the shenanigans of most covert and intelligence agencies.
There's already evidence of some advanced damage control when the president recently downplayed the significance of the entire affair by clearly indicating he felt it a purely criminal justice issue. And one not worthy of "escalation," or having chiefs of state "wheeling and dealing" or making direct phone calls over. Which is a standard strategy to play ("Yeah. So it happened. It's really not that big deal. We'll deal with it.") when you're currently looking like a fool who got caught completely by surprise.
Washington's has the next move - right after this short break. 8)
wraith808:
^ Truthfully, that was what I expected from the beginning. But they didn't play the card early enough. You have limited time in order to spin and for it not to seem like a cover-up, and they missed that window with the shield and spear clattering. Without operational knowledge on the line, and the documents already in the wind, they should have immediately changed tacks.
Very bad craft at work there.
40hz:
There's also this little fly in the ointment concerning Ecuador as reported this morning over at TechDirt. (Link here.)
Ecuador Using Copyright To Try To Take Down Leaked Documents About Its Surveillance Practices
from the copyright-as-censorship dept
While Ecuador has received plenty of attention for granting asylum to Julian Assange and being one possible landing place for Ed Snowden, it's no secret that the country is not exactly known as a bastion of civil liberties protection. In fact, last year, just as it was granting Julian Assange asylum, there were reports coming out about highly questionable activities by the Ecuador government in extraditing someone who had exposed corruption. In that post, it was noted that Ecuardor scrapped its own rules requiring a warrant to investigate someone's IP address and has been known to seize the computers of critical journalists.
So, it should come as little surprise that while so much attention is on Ecuador, it was leaked to Buzzfeed that the country is in the middle of purchasing equipment for widespread surveillance, including a system called "GSM Interceptor" (subtle!) and some unmanned surveillance drones. Basically, the country does not have a great record on protecting civil liberties or freedom of the press.
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In the immortal words of Hagbard Celine: There are no honest men aboard for this trip. :'(
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