
Snowden video from Moscow airport - captiva12
http://lifenews.ru/news/116311
======
GoldfishCRM
Listen to what he is saying. "Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one
month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I
also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read
your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to
change people’s fates. It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and
5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such
systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks
these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings,
which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair.
These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must
be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret
law.

I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: “Individuals have
international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience.
Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to
prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.”

~~~
PavlovsCat
source of the above, in case anyone is confused:
[http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-
to.html](http://wikileaks.org/Statement-by-Edward-Snowden-to.html)

~~~
GoldfishCRM
thx

------
tinco
He seems at ease, laughing at things happening to him, he also seems well
rested and composed. I hope people won't read this as a sign he is doing fine
and that he feels light about this situation.

There's a very good chance one of his endeavours in the coming weeks goes
absolutely wrong, and he ends up in some u.s. prison, and this video of his
heavy speech in which tension is relieved by cheery laughter over the
absurdness of being at this airport for so long could be the last thing we
ever saw of him as a person.

~~~
logn
I read this as a sign he's not being tortured or mistreated. He seems in good
spirits and overall a nice person who has a sense of humor. Although Putin
wants him out of the country unless he stops the leaks, at least he's getting
along ok at the airport. Not that Putin should be congratulated for this as
it's all politics, but compare this to our treatment of Bradley Manning. Had
Manning been released on bail for the time before his trial and allowed to
speak publicly, we might have come to know and like him in the same way as
Snowden.

------
ChrisAntaki
He seems pretty relaxed. He & the young woman alongside him share laughs, when
the airport's intercom plays during his meeting.

It's likely that if he's granted stay in Russia, his life will be pretty
pleasant. As much as he (and we) love America, he had the strength to _stand
up_ to some shady characters hiding behind our flag.

People around the world respect him for this. The Russian people especially.
Also, if you want my personal opinion, Russian women are some of the most
beautiful in the world.

------
kombine
I hope he stays here in Russia. Yes, we as a country are far from the ideals
he strives to protect, but it will be difficult to find such country elsewhere
in the world. But I'm sure he will find Moscow a cool place to live at least
for some period of time.

~~~
rorrr2
What do you mean by "such country"?

Russia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Rich and powerful
can steal, murder, imprison opposition, rape with no repercussions.

Its science is in the toilet and is getting invaded by the orthodox church.

Its industry is in ruins.

It's basically running on natural resources now.

~~~
bobwaycott
I think, in context, he meant it would be difficult to find a country whose
practices line up with Snowden's ideals.

------
mmariani
Apparently [1:36] Snowden really is at the Russian airport, unlike some have
been speculating [0].

[0] [http://world.time.com/2013/07/10/snowden-in-moscow-what-
are-...](http://world.time.com/2013/07/10/snowden-in-moscow-what-are-russian-
authorities-doing-with-the-nsa-whistleblower/)

~~~
VexXtreme
Where is he living and sleeping though? On the chairs in the transit area? How
does he handle basic logistics such as laundry, personal hygiene etc? I'm
imagining that he is staying inside a hotel in the transit area (many airports
have those), but if not, my heart really goes out to him.

~~~
znowi
He's staying rather comfortably at the "V-express" hotel in the transit zone
of Sheremetyevo airport.

[http://www.eng.v-exp.ru/](http://www.eng.v-exp.ru/)

~~~
khuey
I'm curious how he's paying for it. Surely the US froze his credit cards/etc
by now.

~~~
eloisius
That's the first thing I wondered about when he left Hong Kong. Did he just
pull out a bunch of cash at an ATM first?

------
TerraHertz
As serious as all this is (very), and how much of a hero he is (great), I do
still wish someone would buy him a horizontal striped red and white t-shirt
and cap. He even _looks_ like Waldo.

------
kristofferR
Cool I guess, but why is the video so horribly filmed? Was filming not
actually allowed or was the photographer just extremely lazy?

And a second, slightly off-topic question. The footage of Snowden is obviously
news worthy and it would be fair use for channels like CNN to air it without
asking lifenews.ru for permission. The semi-transparent watermarks are easy to
remove with the right software. Would they be breaking any laws if they did
that while still showing the red logo on the top of the screen?

~~~
k-mcgrady
Why would they remove the watermarks? I often see on the news footage that
comes from other news companies with the watermark still on. e.g. during a big
event in the US that happens without warning the initial footage on UK
channels will often contain ABC/NBC watermarks.

~~~
kristofferR
Personally I think the watermarking on this video is a little obsessive, but
my opinion doesn't matter. I'm asking a hypothetical question, what I think or
what the news channels actually ends up doing isn't important.

If they actually had removed it (for whatever reason, justified or not), would
that be legal?

~~~
k-mcgrady
I think so. If I remember correctly I saw this footage on another site
yesterday without watermarks. I think it was taken by one of the human rights
workers and then was used by several news agencies who put their won
watermarks on it.

Edit: I was wrong, the BBC used it here and covered one of the watermarks with
their own. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-
europe-23293756](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23293756) (about 50
secs into the video).

------
ash
Full audio recording of the meeting:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNQSVurlAak](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNQSVurlAak)

------
phCgherb
Freedom isn't Free. I think we need to get guidance to what is the next step
to protect our 4th amendment rights

~~~
rhizome
An easy first step: vote against everybody currently in office whenever they
come up for re-election. Throw the bums out.

------
kook_spook
I'm torn on the national security implications of Snowden's disclosures and
the creep factor, but what he did certainly have prompted an important
conversation and it seems like he's been reasonably responsible with what he
discloses. What a contrast with the Wikileaks diplomatic cable disclosures-
blanket, sloppy, and in the end not that important (though it did make life
harder for a lot of career diplomats.)

Again, I'm really torn on what Snowden did, and maybe I'm just one of the
"naive sheep" cowering in fear from Them blahblahblah, but I really, really
don't want any explosions slipping through as a result of it.

------
GoldfishCRM
The main feeling I get from european entrepreneurs is that Snowden is a hero
but here on hacker news if you read the comment it feels like the opposite. Is
it that americans in support for Snowden is afraid to voice there opinion
agains the government of fear of having there private life followed and
investigated by NSA or have I missed something?

~~~
fragsworth
You are definitely missing something, because I have seen nothing but "Snowden
is a hero" stuff in comments here on Hacker News.

