

Snowden: Feds can't cover up leaks by 'murdering me' - Libertatea
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57589617-38/snowden-feds-cant-cover-up-leaks-by-murdering-me/

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habitue
This actually makes Snowden seem more intelligent. A lot of the speculation
has been he's naive and didn't know what he was doing going to Hong Kong.

In contrast, Bradley Manning: 1\. Released a bunch of stuff that was mostly
embarassing to US diplomats, but not really evidence of criminal actions 2\.
Didn't really have much of a plan 3\. Didn't get a chance to demonstrate
clearly that he wasn't just "acting out", releasing everything he had
clearance to access.

Snowden comes across here as being principled, deliberate, and smart about
what he released, who he released it to, and what his personal plans were not
to get black-bagged.

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ceejayoz
Surely everyone had assumed this already? We know Glenn Greenwald has a large
number of unreleased tidbits, and I'd guess he's quietly shared those around
to trusted people to ensure the information would not be squashable.

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seren
By reasserting it, Snowden is also signalling that it is useless to go after
him directly. Be it true or false, this is the only logical thing to say in
his situation.

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bedhead
Every day this drags on, this guy seems more and more like the most self-
righteous and self-aggrandizing douche on the planet.

And yes, much like when Aaron Schwatrz stories completely hijacked HN, I'm
really looking forward to this story - which seems like it's increasingly
becoming a non-story (or certainly blown waaaay out of proportion) as more
facts come out - stops dominating HN.

I realize both of those terse statements probably aren't going to make me very
popular around here.

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jlgreco
Lets see:

1) Whistle blower calls attention to actions of their government.

2) Media instead focuses on the personal details of the whistle blower.

3) Whistle blower defends himself and tries to divert attention back on the
actual material.

4) Whistle blower is considered "self-righteous and self aggrandizing" for
defending himself from attacks that should have never been made in the first
place.

Wonderful.

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lmg643
I think this NSA case is getting way too air time on HackerNews. We're turning
HN into the drudge report.

Snowden may well be a spy and we've made him into some kind of martyr/hero.
His actions came out right around a major summit with China and he defected
within their sphere of protection. Allows the chinese to paint us as the bad
guy while appearing as a protector of free speech. Brilliant.

 _No one_ is talking about chinese industrial espionage now, which is arguably
much more damaging to the US than reading people's yahoo email, particularly
that of suspected terrorists. And this was most likely the point of the whole
exercise.

The story needs to play out - let the facts unfold.

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SeanDav
Not sure what you are trying to suggest here:

\- We don't talk about this because it is not relevant?

\- We don't talk about it because it takes focus away from the Chinese, who
are the real villains here?

What exactly is your point?

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jlgreco
His point is that he doesn't like Snowden because of the Chinese angle so he
doesn't want us to talk about it, but because that is a pretty stupid reason
not to talk about something he is going to tell us that we should not talk
about it because it is not relevant to HN.

Notice that almost all of the people who think that this issue is getting to
much HN attention _coincidentally_ also disagree with what he has done...

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blackaspen
Want to bet? Clearly the Feds can do whatever they please.

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Kylekramer
I'd like to see more of this coming truth and less of this melodrama.

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intrazoo
I kinda like the melodrama as much as or more than the story (the us/nsa being
evil is no surprise), because this is one of the most cyberpunk things to
happen in the last few years (TPB and stuxnet being others). I mean, their
last name is Snowden! I could not think of a better one if I tried.

not that your point of getting down to brass facts is unreasonable, but the
hype is part of the story, and getting more people interested is maybe
important in getting lawmakers to maybe pay attention)

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brown9-2
Is it just me, or does repeating this sort of assassination thing make anyone
else more skeptical of Snowden?

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ceejayoz
Bradley Manning - already fragile psychologically - was thrown in solitary for
years pending trial and subjected to treatment the UN Special Rapporteur on
Torture deemed cruel and inhuman.

This for someone without a Top Secret clearance... I'd be nervous too.

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BruceIV
I think it's a little rich that Snowden is complaining about being labelled a
traitor - morality aside, what he did seems like a pretty clear-cut case of
treason from a legal standpoint (IANAL).

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jwoah12
Where is he complaining about it? I see this:

"Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an
American"

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BruceIV
There was something about not being able to get a fair trial stateside.

Although, I don't know what the laws are like in the States, but in Canada you
can go to jail if you have security clearance and reveal information that _if
true_ would be classified. If the legal situation is similar in the US, he's
pretty clearly guilty.

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PavlovsCat
You're saying he shouldn't get a fair trial because it's a "clear-cut case" of
him being a traitor. That is kind of the point, without a fair trial there is
NO "case"; there is just power, blackmail and a whole lot of bootlicking.

