On The Move
Mr Snowden is heading for a different venue. He had a tourist visa for Hong Kong, so he couldn’t stay there for long. As expected the Hong Kong legal system didn’t accept the larceny charge as valid, and let him leave.
In as much as many governments, like the UK had already told their airlines not to give Mr Snowden a seat, even before he had been charged with anything, his choice was severely limited. He apparently took a flight to Moscow, which certainly did not have US Air Marshals on board.
He wasn’t in Hong Kong long enough to arrange a visa for Russia, so he will be staying in the airport awaiting another flight to his destination, possibly Ecuador.
There have been suggestions that his moves are making it seem like he is attempting to escape justice. People who think that should ask themselves where they think he would find justice? When it comes to terrorism or ‘espionage’ charges, the US no longer offers due process or a speedy trial. Look at what happened to Jose Padilla or Bradley Manning and then tell me that you believe that Edward Snowden can receive a fair trial in the United States.
4 comments
I don’t have to look at Jose Padilla or Bradley Manning, all I have to do is read the frothing blovinations of the O-bots on Twitter to know that they’re out for blood because Snowden makes their Messiah look like a common sneak. Problem is that I haven’t the slightest idea what Snowden’s endgame is. Ecuador might grant him asylum like they did Assange, but they’re a small poor country and it’s not clear how he’ll make a living there or that he’ll be safe from CIA snatch teams.
That’s the problem with being young and idealistic… young sprouts don’t think about the long term. Which is good, sometimes…
I’m seeing calls to go after Snowden on the grounds that he’s a dirty oathbreaker, as if we lived in a country where oaths mean something. I’ll be ready to support prosecuting young idealists who break the rules just as soon as the Bush/Cheney gang are brought to trial (yes, Colin Powell too!). Obama might get by with mere impeachment for refusing to prosecute his predecessors and of course it’s too late to get Nixon or Reagan, but Bush Sr. is still around and the October Surprise has finally gone full frontal. Fish rots from the head down is all I’m saying.
In other news, the US is appalled (!) that Snowden would use Cuban soil to avoid US courts. Where could he have ever gotten such an idea?
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
The hypocrisy bot is going to melt down if they keep pushing it this hard. Russia has already said that he is ‘in transit’ and not in Russia, and there are international agreements to prevent them from doing anything, agreements that the US has violated at will, as has Russia, but only for Russian concerns.
Maybe the US should ask for UN sanctions against Russia and China … oh, wait, they sit on the Security Council.
After all of the crap the Hedgemony has pulled in their GWOT™, the US can forget getting any help from anyone who isn’t a treaty-bound ally. Even that might not work after the latest revelations about TEMPORA and the GCHQ. Cameron may be in even deeper yogurt than Obama, because Parliament isn’t going to be happy about that.
Snowden may have knocked over the first domino, but it looks like other people are just as PO’ed.