
Snowden Does Not Deserve the Threat He Faces - danielsiders
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/opinion/snowden-does-not-deserve-the-threat-he-faces.html
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dirkg
Its sad, and telling, that the majority of people in this country still
believe that he's a traitor, should be punished, and that the govt is right
and should be allowed to abuse power.

People actually believe that someone revealing information about crimes is
more guilty than the criminals. Hypocricy at its finest.

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dandare
I am wondering if people today are somehow more irrational than they used to
be or if it just me noticing it more.

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cm2187
A Snowden delivered in handcuffs would be a nice gift from Putin to Trump.

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JustSomeNobody
Why? Because he exposed the fact that my Bill of Rights is being eroded away
to nothing?

There's not an asterisk at the bottom that says the above is null and void in
the internet age.

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rootusrootus
If that was all he had done, it would be easier to support him. Unfortunately
he went a little further than that, into territory that arguably _is_ a
national security issue.

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baddox
Arguably, yes. I'd like to hear a real argument, other than "leaking stuff
might make us less safe." The leaks are public, so it shouldn't be too hard to
find specific instances where people were harmed.

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mc32
Not necessarily. Human assets can be lost or they can be compromised, methods
can be compromised, humint and other intelligence can be set back years so
that what goes on in adversarial and even friendly governments is a black box
to us (which is not good, given our heft.) so, unless other governments
thinking and methods become transparent, this exposure is a real risk.

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csours
OT - It would be nice to add what section of the paper this comes from to the
HN title, in this case Opinion. People see the headline and the website and
may assume that this is a New York Times article approved by the NYT Editors.

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ed
It's an op-ed from an editor at the paper responsible for breaking Snowden's
story (The Guardian), and it's sitting on the front page of NYT as we speak –
what more do you want?

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csours
All of that is learned after clicking through to the article - I'm talking
about how it is presented on HN only.

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jmcdiesel
It doesn't matter.

He's either "protected" in Russia or dead. I seriously doubt he could return
to the US without suffering some horrible traumatic body-and-evidence-
destroying "accident" ...

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edc117
Honest question - do you truly think that could happen? I've no doubt certain
individuals would like it to, but would the people in power allow it?

I personally suspect at this stage, his death would turn him into a martyr and
the last thing the individuals operating these illegal surveillance programs
want is more attention back on what they are doing.

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devoply
I don't know how he could really do much more damage at this point. What would
killing him achieve. And also can't they get him in Russia too? I mean in a
country like that with all the mafia, etc. A few million would go a long way.
I wonder how much Russia is protecting him from a CIA hit. In Russia he's much
more of a threat as Putin's useful idiot than he would be on American soil. I
am not saying he's a useful idiot, I am saying he's a useful idiot to Putin
and that's why Putin has given him protection. Also I don't think that you
hand over a chip like Snowden without serious concessions from the US. But
could happen under Trump.

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Normal_gaussian
Killing somebody on foreign soil opens you up to a whole can of worms that
killing on your own soil doesn't, so regardless of whether or not he is being
actively protected there is significant passive protection just by being
there.

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atmosx
So are we to assume that the CIA wants Snowden dead, but they can't get a
chance to kill him in Russia? I found that hard to believe. Maybe, there is
some kind of commitment to the FSB (don't kill in the US, we won't go on a
killing spree in Russian soil kind of deal), but even that I find it hard to
believe. I also find very hard to believe the claim the the FSB somehow
_protects_ him.

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drspacemonkey
>So are we to assume that the CIA wants Snowden dead, but they can't get a
chance to kill him in Russia?

Not so much can't get a chance as the price would be too high. He's under
Russian protection. That protection is political far more than tactical. The
CIA could probably pick him up in less than an hour if they knew they could do
it without pissing off the Russians. It's the "pissing off the Russians" part
that's stopping them, not the logistics.

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Normal_gaussian
It isn't just pissing off the Russians, its pissing off everybody. When you
perform an act on foreign soil you open yourself up to scrutiny from everyone.
The USA is already largely considered a warmonger state

As for whether the CIA would want Snowden dead - I presume it would only have
been useful to them pre-leak, and I doubt murder would have been on the cards
then anyway. I don't see retribution as being particularly high on the CIA's
list of priorities, and the political entities in the US that are keeping
Snowden relevant wouldn't appear to gain anything from his death.

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Grue3
Oh, please. Hard to feel pity for him, when whistleblowers face threat of
being murdered here in Russia. And Snowden has the "threat" of due process.
How awful.

