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Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.
dr_andus:
Some interesting analysis by Ana de Palacio, a former Spanish foreign minister, Senior Vice President of the World Bank etc.
...the Snowden affair reinforces the perception that the US is losing its sway in South America. (...) The threat by US officials to cut off aid to Ecuador, which would amount to a measly $12 million in 2014, further evinces a clumsy approach. America's traditional sources of influence - its soft power, regional alliances, and financial leverage - appear to be running dry. The message to the world is clear: the US is not the regional power that it should be.
Obama's flippant attitude concerning alleged US surveillance of the European Union and its member states shows that American exceptionalism is alive and well. Instead of acknowledging the legitimacy of European concerns, he shrugged them off as a frivolity: "guarantee you that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be should I end up meeting with their leaders."
The US certainly has an interest in gaining deeper analytical insight into its European allies' decision-making than can be gained by simply calling, say, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Accepting that spying is realistically part of the US toolkit, we Europeans expect it to be conducted responsibly. By dismissing European concerns about how such surveillance is carried out, Obama has demonstrated one of America's worst habits - that of patronizing Europe.
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P.S. I guess the point is that the Obama administration has been incredibly clumsy so far in its pursuit to catch this guy. It's stirring up all kinds of ill feelings with traditional allies and giving plenty of ammunition to its traditional critics, which probably could have been avoided. Perhaps this attests to the skills of Snowden or the Wikileaks people, or it's just simply an unfortunate occasion that exposed these inadequacies in the current US administration (though I'm not saying Bush would have handled it better...).
TaoPhoenix:
There's still something wrong with this whole story. All of it. It's something to do with "too much noise". Why don't they follow the plot of a third rate tv movie and give a hundred grand to a sniper team and pick him off? Who cares if he's in another country? A lot of us are cynical - these guys perjure to Congress, but now they're acting like the rules matter?!
dr_andus:
There's still something wrong with this whole story. All of it. It's something to do with "too much noise".
-TaoPhoenix (July 06, 2013, 11:03 AM)
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My guess is that this is uncharted territory because the world of spying and the world of media have changed beyond recognition (due to the capabilities of the technology involved), so no one knows how to deal with this. Orwell's 1984 has become possible, but with a twist - that the oppressed also have access to the "wire" and can channel their own messages, affecting public opinion and international relations.
While the US administration needs to punish Snowden to show what happens to spies that leak, at the same time if they overdo it, there is nothing they can do from preventing a 100 new Snowdens leaking even more information, especially if they turn him into a martyr (Spartacus and Jesus come to mind...). It could equally inspire left-wing liberals and far right people against an overbearing Federal government. US democracy and the world order are being tested at the moment...
Everyone just seems to be improvising...
40hz:
There's still something wrong with this whole story. All of it...
-TaoPhoenix (July 06, 2013, 11:03 AM)
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There is.
Despite all the international "outrage," it seems the game plan that gets everyone off the hook is to make it impossible for him to be granted asylum anywhere.
Ca'n't stay here! Ca'n't stay here!
This way you don't have any country helping or (technically) hindering him. Now everyone can continue to pretend outrage, claim to abide by international law and treaty - and most importantly, not force a showdown with the Obama administration or the United States government. (Note: I consider these to be two separate governments at this point.)
The end result will be Snowden will eventually return (or be returned) to the United States hoping to tell his full story in an open court.
That will never be allowed to happen.
At best, he'll wind up in front of some "special court" that deals with national security issues in a closed session, from which will emerge a heavily redacted and thoroughly 'slanted' series of "news" releases that will serve to convey the message that:
* Snowden is either a traitor - or a delusional megalomaniac at best
* whisleblowers, as a class, are not to be trusted
* the concerns about any real and/or potential abuses of government surveillance systems are greatly exaggerated
* this is all for your protection
* we really need to have more trust our "elected government"
* and just to allay any other concerns, some toothless additional safeguards and purely token review processes will be implemented going forward
Next, the mainstream media will do it's part to show Snowden to be a genuine threat to national security (Fox/CBS) - or - a misguided fool who caused irreparable harm to the US irrespective of his alleged good intentions (CNN/NBC). Possibly public television will also do one of it's usual "say nothing controversial or critical of the government" special reports where two dozen experts all weigh in and cancel each other's opinion out.
After which Mr. Snowden will disappear into some remote US federal "supermax" isolation unit such as ADX Florence for the rest of his life and mostly be forgotten. Not that it will matter much since the deprivation regimen a prisoner endures while being held in such a facility pretty much guarantees the average detainee's mind and spirit will be completely broken (by design) in less than 5 years.
Amazing how advances in the study of human psychology have brought about such a humane and effective penal system in the United States beginning around 1980. More on that here.
wraith808:
Why don't they follow the plot of a third rate tv movie and give a hundred grand to a sniper team and pick him off?
-TaoPhoenix (July 06, 2013, 11:03 AM)
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There's a reason why those are third rate tv movies.
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