

Obama refuses to barter over Snowden - monorail
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/06/201362713534987861.html

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smoyer
Interesting comments so far ... I'm more incensed that Obama called him a
hacker. There was absolutely no hacking as he had a security clearance to work
with (and apparently copy) the data he was responsible for.

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slg
While he might not be a hacker in our minds, whether he was permitted to
access the documents he did is still up for debate. If he accessed them
without permission, that would be enough to qualify him as a hacker under some
definitions.

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potatolicious
It's still a pretty wild stretch of the term. By that notion, trespassing
through an unlocked door would make me a locksmith.

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beat
If he's really refusing to barter, he must not want Snowden back that much.

More likely, this is Obama's equivalent of Reagan's "We do not negotiate with
terrorists"... just a lie for the cameras.

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ajross
The corrolary to your argument would seem to be that Obama _is_ negotiating
with Russia for Snowden's release. It strikes me as more likely that he is
not. The whole issue is a domestic nightmare, having turned Obama from "good
guy" to "bad guy" in the eyes of many (notably the primary demographic of this
site).

He doesn't want a trial for this guy. He just wants the issue to go away. The
security damage has already been done, if you believe the bit about Snowden
having distribute d encrypted copies of the documents, etc...

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cube13
And the fact that Snowden brought everything he had into Russia, and you have
to be a complete idiot to believe Putin's line that nobody from the Russian
government or intelligence has talked to Snowden about it, or gotten a copy
yet.

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buddylw
I suspect Snowden has the data encrypted meaning that copies are not of much
use anyone without the key. If you are suggesting that Snowden gave up the
encryption keys to Russia or China, that is a very serious accusation without
any proof behind it.

It would also undermine everything Snowden has done so far, so unless they
tortured him or he is completely insane I seriously doubt he did that.

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gojomo
How long has it been since Snowden has been seen?

If Snowden is in Russia, and he has encrypted data, and he himself knows the
decryption key... then I wouldn't have boundless confidence in a 29-year-old's
ability to resist the persuasive power of the Russian 'deep security state' to
obtain his keys.

Given amnesia- and compliance-inducing drugs, Snowden might not even be sure
he's given up the goods... just wake up one morning a bit more groggy and
'jetlagged' than usual.

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bluepen44
Why 29? Is it easier to resist persuasive measures when you are older or
younger than 29? Seems pretty irrelevant to me.

I think it's fairly obvious Obama used "29 year old" to imply immaturity and
chip away at his credibility thereby. (esp since he is 30 now, surprising how
different "30 year old hacker" sounds than "29 year old hacker"..)

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gojomo
Snowden surely knows more about various aspects of spycraft and national-
security-coercive-techniques than I and many other older people.... both from
his Army training and later jobs. But still, extra awareness and wariness
comes with age.

Holding other things constant, an older Snowden would be relatively more
likely to have...

• ...known what kinds of tricks and pressures (including non-consensual
drugged interrogation) he might be subjected to

• ...received official training, initial or refresher, in resistance

• ...planned well for worst-case outcomes, like not being able to stay above-
ground in law-and-order Hong Kong, but rather winding up at the mercy of
Russia

I don't know for sure whether in general, older or younger people are better
at resisting interrogation. I suspect the 'dark arts' for coercing compliance
have evolved over a longer term than any person's lifetime, and prey on any
one person's limited experience, so I tend to think they'll work better with
the younger... but it's an interesting question.

I do suspect an older person would be more likely to protect himself
beforehand, for example by not traveling with the most truly US-interest-
damaging data, or encrypting data with a better cipher, or even encrypting
data in a way he couldn't, alone under coercion, decrypt.

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dmix
Keeping the NSA's program(s) running would be easier if they keep Snowden out
of the news.

Fighting with Russia for him would just draw more attention to it.

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lukashed
"What's more, Ecuador offers the United States economic aid of $23 million
annually, similar to what we received with the trade benefits, with the
intention of providing education about human rights" well played, Ecuador.

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vog
I wish some European states would have that much courage.

However, at least here in Germany this is unthinkable, given the number of
human rights violations we _still have to fix_ here in our own country.

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deletes
>>it took two months for the country to make a decision in the case of Julian
Assange, the founder of whistleblowing website Wikileaks, and that Snowden's
case would take at least as long from the time the request was filed.<<

Snowden might be in Russia for some time.

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gasull
The headline should be "Obama _says_ he refuses to barter over Snowden". And
every time a politician says something, that's just PR. What matters is what
politicians _do_.

