

Snowden in Moscow: An Unexpected Windfall for Russian Spies - techinsidr
http://www.securityweek.com/snowden-moscow-unexpected-windfall-russian-spies

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jessaustin
I'm not sure the stopover in Russia was very wise for Mr. Snowden. They're
unlikely to extradite him to the USA, but it isn't hard to imagine them
detaining him for a long time. Whatever crypto he's been using, he might grow
quite familiar with the famous "rubber-hose attack". Presumably they have some
sort of deal in place with China, so once he surfaced in HK his options may
have been limited. However, his previously-stated intentions to reveal only
"safe" info, in a "responsible" manner directly to the public, are probably
being challenged as I write this.

If this situation is a miscalculation on Snowden's part, then it's also a
miscalculation of the USA national security apparatus. By locking down all
allies and neutrals with arm-twisting treaties and extradition agreements, the
USA has guaranteed that national security whistleblowers will only ever seek
asylum with the committed enemies of the USA. These nations are far more
likely to do something nasty with the information such a whistleblower
represents than e.g. New Zealand or Finland would be.

~~~
mtgx
"The location of the US fugitive is now a mystery"

Do we have solid confirmation that he was in Russia? He could've seeded
different locations to different newspapers, and could've even bought
different plane tickets, and under different names, to misdirect the US
government. He's probably smart enough to do all that.

Either way, I fear that the outcome of the massive spying apparatus of US will
be for every country to isolate "its own Internet" as much as possible from
the "global Internet". They could all claim "national security", because US
has proven that it's very easy to spy on and hack any country. That would be
especially damaging to US' own economy, so maybe they will see reason before
that happens.

A preferable outcome would be the rise of a much more secure fully
decentralized and encrypted Internet where wiretapping is almost impossible,
which means every country is a lot more "secure" from every enemy or even
"ally".

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mpyne
Out of the frying pan?

On the other hand Assange seems to think Snowden is in good hands.

