On a side note: Your level of detailed insight on this stuff is truly frightening at time.

Think of me as Shepherd Book character in Firefly...

***

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: It's of interest to me how much you seem to know about that world.

Shepherd Book: I wasn't born a shepherd, Mal.

Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: You have to tell me about that sometime.

Shepherd Book: [pause] No, I don't.

Quote from: 40hz on June 25, 2013, 09:16 PM

Ok...it's 17:15 EDT on 25-Jun-2013.

Mssr. Putin has just confirmed Mr. Snowden is currently standing in the 'international area' in Moscow's airport.

The US is insisting Russia has the legal authority to expel him immediately, and is insisting they do so.

Tom Hanks lived in an airport for ages and he's done alright for himself.

...And I was trying so incredibly hard not to go there.

So... The US is expecting to get favors from people...(directly)...after getting caught red-handed shitting in their hats.

Dear god, how stupid are these people?!?

And that was based on the true story of an Iranian man that lived in the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, for 17 years.

Yeah... I figured the movie had a wider reach than the story.  And had more humor value.  You have to admit, saying that Nasseri lived in an airport for ages wouldn't have had the same impact...

So... The US is expecting to get favors from people...(directly)...after getting caught red-handed shitting in their hats.

Dear god, how stupid are these people?!?

And why are they running this into the ground?  He was an IT guy, not a field agent.  Their security was stupid, and he took advantage of this to get incriminating papers.  He's distributed those.

He doesn't have operational knowledge.  So ... what's with this Scorched Earth approach to getting him back?  And by our lead diplomat, also?

So ... what's with this Scorched Earth approach to getting him back?

Hell hath no fury to rival that of a government bureaucracy scorned.

Because his very existence tasks them. He's an ongoing embarassment, the Streisand Effect is in full swing, and there are those who think they can ultimately either finesse this - or be so outrageously capricious and above the law with what they do to him that he'll emerge as:

The Terrible Example of What Could Happen to You 'Dear Child' If You So Much As Think of Crossing Us.

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I'm ashamed to say that Menendez, the guy trying to blackmail Ecuador, is my ass of a senator.

For the American people, this is also adding insult to injury. This punishment doesn't only hit the Ecuadorian people, it also hits Americans. Not only are we being spied on, but in the government's fight for its authority to spy, it's also now forbidding Americans from purchasing products that they want (or forcing us to pay higher prices).

Menendez either (a) doesn't understand economics well enough to understand that in trade both sides profit; or (b) really does view this as a war of the US government against the American people. Personally, I think it's likely that both are true.

I'll be writing him another letter, this time saying not only that isn't PRISM and other domestic spying unacceptable, but that the necessary remedy is, at a minimum, the repeal of USA PATRIOT and of the AUMF.

  Funny how the U.S. used to harass Russia for spying on it's citizens and China for human rights issues.  Now it's the U.S. that's doing all of this.  What's the word for this?  Oh yeah, hypocrits....

Strange he's staying so long in that airport... (that is if he is still there)

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.

Quote from: tomos on June 28, 2013, 07:43 AM

Strange he's staying so long in that airport... (that is if he is still there)

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.

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.

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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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But my guess is so many of those countries are so poor that one good knock on the door will make them buckle over something like this!

Especially when that knock comes from the only country ever known to use nuclear weapons against an enemy.

Quote from: TaoPhoenix on June 28, 2013, 05:52 PM

But my guess is so many of those countries are so poor that one good knock on the door will make them buckle over something like this!

Especially when that knock comes from the only country ever known to use nuclear weapons against an enemy.

Yup. I think this should be affixed to the cornerstone of  the White House the way things are playing out theses days:

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