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Knight to queen's bishop 3 - Snowden charged with espionage.

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Renegade:
^ I love Lewis! Both Lewis Carroll and C. S. Lewis. It's a tough call to decide between the two, but I think C. S. wins out.  :Thmbsup:

IainB:
I don't recall having seen that quote of his until yesterday. The full context is:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
    C. S. Lewis
    English essayist & juvenile novelist (1898 - 1963)
From: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/33029.html

--- End quote ---
Snowdengate has shown this tyranny to be prevalent unequivocally in the US presidents and their administrations (e.g., including Bush, Obama), and now unequivocally in the UK (e.g., including Cameron). In the UK, they have also taken censorship a stage further by having the Privy Council (a law court run by government officials) giving the green light to a bill/tool for gagging the press - laughably called a Royal Charter. They've not quite done that sort of thing yet in the US, I gather.
When flying to either country, one could be forgiven for singing:
Back in the US,
Back in the US,
Back in the USSR!

--- End quote ---

tomos:
There's been a lot of talk about Snowden in the German news reports today and yesterday - in particular about the possibility of giving him asylum here. It was suggested by a 'Green' politician - the middle and right are reacting cautiously, along the lines of: maybe/wont rule it out.


EDIT// there is the possibility that this is being taken seriously simply because all parties are currently negotiating to try and form a new coalition government - the 'right' (CDU/CSU) almost, but not quite, having the complete majority.

IainB:
@tomos: ^^ Interesting.
Colour me skeptical. I wonder whether the German government would offer Snowden asylum, after talking it over when they sobered up in the morning.
Certainly, Snowden could arguably be said to have provided a service to Germany and other EU countries, and though by giving him asylum, the Germans might be hoping to take the opportunity to impotently thumb their noses at the US for spying on their government ministers, the satisfaction could be short-lived when they start to appreciate the awful reality of US pressures that could be brought to bear. Snowden might end up being extradited to the US within a couple of months, regardless of what the German government might have promised him. It might already be a ruse to entice Snowden into a country from which he could be more readily extradited to the US. There's no honour amongst thieves.

In any event, if even the Russians were apparently too frightened to commit to full asylum for Snowden in the face of potential/threatened US pressures, one doubts whether a gnat like Germany would be able to prevail where the Russians would not even try.

tomos:
Snowden might end up being extradited to the US within a couple of months, regardless of what the German government might have promised him.-IainB (November 04, 2013, 04:52 PM)
--- End quote ---
yes,
politicians are fickle too, i.e. that could become a possibility for many reasons. I guess it's also a possibility for Snowden wherever he goes... but the noises from here would probably want to be a lot more convincing before he'd consider it.

It might already be a ruse to entice Snowden into a country from which he could be more readily extradited to the US. There's no honour amongst thieves.
-IainB (November 04, 2013, 04:52 PM)
--- End quote ---
-
not at the moment anyway: it's a followup to the outrage at Merkel's mobile phone being 'tapped'.

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