Report: Snowden Stayed At Russian Consulate While In Hong Kong 107
cold fjord writes "The Washington Post reports, 'Before American fugitive Edward Snowden arrived in Moscow in June — an arrival that Russian officials have said caught them by surprise — he spent several days living at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong, a Moscow newspaper reported Monday. The article in Kommersant, based on accounts from several unnamed sources, did not state clearly when Snowden decided to seek Russian help in leaving Hong Kong, where he was in hiding in order to evade arrest by U.S. authorities on charges that he leaked top-secret documents about U.S. surveillance programs. ... he celebrated his 30th birthday at the Russian Consulate in Hong Kong, the paper said — though several days earlier he had had an anticipatory birthday pizza with his lawyers at a private house. ... The article implies that Snowden's decision to seek Russian help came after he was joined in Hong Kong by Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks staffer who became his adviser and later flew to Moscow with him. Harrison, the article suggests, had a role in the making the plans. ' More at the South China Morning Post."
Good. (Score:2, Insightful)
I want Russia to remain strong, and if this includes Russia befriending those who whistleblow the US for their advantage, so be it.
While I had little love for either the USSR or the Cold War USA, a world with only one military superpower is turning out to be worse - and all the proxy hot wars in developing nations are carrying on anyway.
The NSA is violating the Constitution (Score:5, Insightful)
It's interesting to learn about Snowden's eating pizza. It's exciting to know he's successfully evading getting caught.
But the NSA is violating the Constitution, the executive branch is stepping on the gas to increase it, the legislative branch is asleep at the wheel, the judicial branch is represented by a few rubber stampers appointed by a Chief Justice who I don't think has the public's interests at heart, the fourth estate is facing persecution like never before, and the citizens are so materially comfortable they don't do anything.
I feel like there's more of a story here than Snowden's pizza that might at least get the citizens a little less comfortable and a little more active.
Re:in soviet russia pizza Delivery man eats part o (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The NSA is violating the Constitution (Score:5, Insightful)
The Snowden story is the tip of the iceberg. Whatever happens to him, whether he escapes the wrath of the US authorities or he gets caught and "rendered", will serve as a reminder to the world of what the US is turning (or has turned) into. His pizza, and whatever else he does, is very useful to know about in that respect: it keeps him in the limelight, and continues to discredit the administration.
Incidentally, none of the US powers that be is "asleep at the wheel": they're all very actively working against their constituents and against the population to keep themselves and their rich friends rich and in power.
Re:The NSA is violating the Constitution (Score:5, Insightful)
What can you expect when we've heard more of Snowden than the wrongs that he uncovered? The media did a great job at redirecting the interest in this story from the crime to the one who exposed it. The media is just as much a part of this machine against the man on the streets as is Obama or Bush.
Not unlike their focus on Miley Cyrus while America is about to take yet another step into the realm of perpetual war.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is bullshit Delivery, Propaganda style (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll be clear, that article was a bunch of bullshit. Unnamed sources, conflicting stories, over the top innuendos that come together to to a good job of discrediting the man, thus his motive and his data. The story is a hack job of low hanging dfruit to get other media outlets an opportunity to shape or spin the idea that Mr. Snowden was not acting in the greater interests of the People, but was really "working for the Russians".
" because Havana, under pressure from Washington, said it would not allow the plane to land."
Are you serious. Cube caving to pressure from the United States? That is laughable. Russia maybe, the US...right
"All I can say is that I have absolutely no idea about this," Ho said. "I was only his legal adviser and was not fully involved in his dealings." This from the local legal representative in Hong Kong. A person whom I would think likes to keep tabs on his very high profile client. Then this completely worthless statement
"A spokeswoman for the consulate in Hong Kong would neither confirm nor comment on the report.". So that lends what to the the legitimacy of the story? Nothing, but it does what it always intends, casts doubt. "What are they hiding, he really must have been there otherwise they'd say he was not".
The marketing department for the NSA and the US government is really starting to ramp up the spin. "Mr. Snowden must be a spy, he ran right to the communists.". "Mr. Snowden is a traitor for releasing secrets to our Russian enemies". Mr. Snowden is a terrorist because he helped them communicate better in secret" and the sad thing is the majority of the US (And world) population will buy the story hook line and sinker.
Then on the other side, even my supposed thoughtful reporting NPR station put out anotehr fluff piece, this time about the NSA LOVEINT activities. The two reporters made it seem like a joke, a trivial action taken by so "oh so naughty" analysts instead of what it was, a sever breach of privacy; an act that would put an average citizen in jail under arrest. The NSA violated the privacy rights of American citizens and it is reported as "shame on you, don't do that again"...sigh.
As a final point to the spin, Congress, coming back from break will not be able to investigate any violations to the Constitution by the NSA for the American public was just made aware the the Government "miscalculated" when we need to raise the debt ceiling and it needs to happen soon...let the hilarity begin. If that is not enough the President wants to shoot exploding objects into Syria which certainly means the media will be quite focused on anything but the NSA travails.
Right now, everything said about Syria is close to a dup for Iraq before the war. Obama, the man who voted against action in Iraq now ponders whether to attack Syria. If Assad bombed his own people with gas then he is despicable, disgusting, and immoral and worthy to be brought to justice for war crimes and crime against humanity. Syria, like this article is just a tool to divert attention away from the systematic destruction of privacy in this country. Sad times. Sad times.
Because. News Media (Score:5, Insightful)
It's interesting that the best slur campaign the US can come up with involves Snowden eating pizza while trying to figure out where to run and hide. I don't give a flying f#ck if he lied, cheated and stole everything he turned over. The root of the matter is the NSA, and US government got caught with their hands full of illegal sh#t and many people in high place need to be held accountable. And that's not happening. In the meantime, the media is either trying to figure out how to spin this into reality tv for ratings. I can remember a day when the network news would have had a field day ripping apart all three branches of government over something like this. Instead, they carry on like a bunch of drama starved crack whores.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Since you were alive to see the Cold War you must have been alive in 1983 when the world came the closest to unrestricted nuclear war in it's history. The Russians interpreted a US-NATO Nuclear War Game as being a cover for a real attack. They misinterpreted some sketchy radar returns that could have indicated real launches and they started arming there missiles for launch. While the Russians have always had a lot of intelligence operatives their main weakness back then was integrating and analyzing all the different pieces of information gathered by their agents to really see the big picture. In this case a Russian spy working as a NATO military staffer told his Russian superiors that the war game was not real and used the fact that Reagan was on a foreign visit and had the war game been real he doubted the US President would be anywhere other than a deep bunker somewhere in the US. The real scary thing was a Russian military officer who was part of the process of arming and releasing their nuclear weapons refused to authorize the release. This officer was later arrested and charged with crimes against the Russian state but he had his sentence silently commuted several years after the incident. So saying no one would launch nuclear weapons is a weak foundation for your argument.