Indonesian Politicians Plan To Quiz Snowden Following Visit By Russians 121
cold fjord writes "Yahoo reports, 'Indonesian politicians plan to quiz former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in Russia about revelations Australia tapped the phone of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The move came as Indonesian protesters again laid siege to the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, burning images of Tony Abbott, throwing eggs and calling for a hard line against Australia. More than 1600 police were deployed to the Australian and US embassies and at several other potential targets in the capital after reports that hardline group the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) planned to hold the rallies ... Indonesian media reported MPs had 'permission' from Moscow to go to Russia to meet with Snowden ... The Jakarta Post said a delegation of Russian politicians was in Indonesia this week to discuss the Australian phone tapping revelations. Indonesia also launched an investigation into local telecommunications companies to see what role they may have played.'"
Wonder is well see (Score:2, Interesting)
the end of an Empire or a WW soon? Russia must be loving this as the US keep inching towards their own noose and their allies looking quite guitly.
Douches (Score:5, Interesting)
All these aggrieved politicians who wouldn't have anything to talk about were it not for Snowden, but not a single one of them is talking about offering him asylum.
Indonesia's got its problems (seems to be on the 2-steps forward, 1-step back path to social modernity) but it is hard to think of a better place to live your life in exile than Bali. Beats the hell out of those russian winters.
Re:Quiz? (Score:5, Interesting)
More than likely the case. He's probably more familiar with things he was actually involved with, but it's doubtful he's had time to educate himself on the details of every program and initiative for which he released data.
However.
Even if Snowden has no intimate details for Indonesian officials, they would likely, even knowing it was pointless intelligence-wise, make a big production as they've done out of "interviewing" Snowden simply for international and domestic-Indonesian propaganda and political PR purposes.
This whole dog-and-pony show gives Australia, and by extension the US government, a serious, and *deserved*, black eye internationally.
The US government has grown so powerful that it has become a threat to both the domestic and international population. They've got their "guns" pointed at everyone...citizens, foreigners, allies, enemies, journalists, and whistle-blowers all over the world.
So, why is shrinking the federal government and taking away some of the powers it has given itself a bad idea, again?
This isn't about political Party or ideology, simply basic human nature and the way groups of humans interact and behave. If you've got a large enough government apparatus to operate an entitlement society the size of the US, it's going to become corrupt and abuse that power, and it's not like corrupt power-abusers would care about abusing foreigners any more than citizens.
Once the apparatus of government grows large enough, no amount of oversight or checks-and-balances will be able to contain it's growth in scope, power, and level of corruption. There are now secret courts FFS! There's simply too much wealth being spent and too many people in too many agencies, bureaus, departments, offices, etc etc etc, to watch. At this point, any instrument of oversight will be "captured" and become a further enabler and provide "cover". Witness the "Deep Horizon" BP oil spill incident.
Strat
Re:Quiz? (Score:5, Interesting)
Snowden no longer can be given credit for anything; He released everything he stole months ago.
A finite, but as of now undetermined, amount of data was conveyed to journalists. I am keenly interested in seeing objective proof that the sum of those disclosures is equal to the sum of all information in his possession. If you're planning on using Snowden's public statements in support of your view that everything he has is already in someone else's hands, I suggest you consult the dictionary for the definition of "naive."
I served in the United States Navy as a submariner, and I've been rather intimately involved with communications networks since around the age of eleven. You might be surprised to learn that I applaud Snowden's revelations regarding pervasive NSA surveillance of American citizens at home, abroad, and in interaction with allied nations. I doubt you have the depth of experience or context to fully appreciate why I applaud it, though, given your choice of the word "stole" to describe the materials in question. I prefer the term "returned," or perhaps "disclosed," as in "disclosed to the American people what their government had been doing in violation of their own Constitution," a document I swore an oath to uphold and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Again, I doubt you truly understand what that means.
Re:Quiz? (Score:4, Interesting)
and in fact he didn't since he wasn't planning on his destination being Russia
Prove it. It's likely he had a number of eventual destinations in mind, unless he's a complete idiot, which he doesn't appear to be.
why hold on to something that gives the USA reason to assassinate you and Russia reason to torture it out of you
This demonstrates extremely thin understanding of the conditions under which it would be useful to torture someone, and of the actual information that could be gained as a result.
as well as a matter of ensuring that info would be able to get out
There are many ways of ensuring information gets out in the event of your demise. Reference "dead man's switch." Cheers.