

White House: Snowden's "true motive" is to "injure national security" - uvdiv
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/06/24/press-briefing#transcript

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uvdiv
_MR. CARNEY: Let me say this about that question, which is that Mr. Snowden’s
claim that he is focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press, and
protection of individual rights and democracy is belied by the protectors he
has potentially chosen -- China, Russia, Ecuador, as we’ve seen.

His failure to criticize these regimes_ suggest that his true motive
throughout has been to injure the national security of the United States --
not to advance Internet freedom and free speech.

 _I think that with regards to the first part of your question, I’ve made the
point that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information -- the kind
of information that has already been disclosed -- has an enormous negative
impact and there are ongoing damage assessments being done. But, certainly, it
would be our assumption that any information -- any further classified
information that he has that has not yet been divulged publicly would be
compromised, or has been compromised._

~~~
LoganCale
What idiotic logic. Because he is hiding in countries with imperfect track
records on the issues he is bringing up about the U.S., and has not openly
criticized the regimes of those countries, that somehow, by their logic,
renders moot any claims he has about opposing similar things in the U.S.

~~~
anigbrowl
It's not idiotic at all. There are many countries which don't have this sort
of issue, eg Iceland (where many were expecting him to go a week ago). Julian
Assange seemed quite happy with Sweden until he found himself at odds with the
laws on sexual conduct there (and recall that it is to Sweden, rather than the
US, that Britain wants to extradite him).

Russia doesn't have an 'imperfect track record' in this area. It has a pretty
poor one, and I'm guessing you're not going to see a wave of libertarian
idealists heading there any time soon for just this reason. It's not
unreasonable to question Snowden's motives based on the company he keeps.

~~~
LoganCale
It's tremendously idiotic. It makes sense for him to go to countries likely to
push back on the U.S. extradition request. He went to Hong Kong for reasons
which made sense, then left while they temporarily resisted extraditing. He
went to Russia with plans to meet with ambassadors from at least one other
country, and that plan was arranged by Wikileaks. Now it's not publicly known
where he is, and it may not be in Russia anymore.

I'm not supporting these countries at all as having great governments, but to
say that he is a supporter of them because he isn't openly criticizing them
while they're helping him is just stupid.

~~~
anigbrowl
You've missed the point that there are other countries likely to push back on
the US extradition request that _don 't_ have bad human rights records or an
antagonistic stance towards the US. Like Iceland and Sweden, as I explained
above.

~~~
LoganCale
I didn't miss that point, it was just irrelevant to my point, which was that
it's absurd to say his point is moot simply because he doesn't criticize the
countries he's in as being as bad as he alleges the U.S. is.

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rhizome
I don't have time to watch Oprah, so lets get back on track: are the FISA
courts really Article III courts?

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e3pi
Q Last thing on this. The administration was obviously embarrassed when you
had a 29-year-old person as contractor just leak all these documents in the
first place. Is the administration embarrassed now that you can’t track him
down, that he’s -- this cat-and-mouse game that’s going on for all the world
to see?

...

Q Is the President enraged? You know -- like really angry? -- like throwing
around stuff? Like the throwing of that bronze horsie statue -- in the oval
office?

~~~
rhizome
I don't think they were embarrassed by the fact that he's a 29 year old blah
blah, but that the citizens of the US, the government's constituents, found
out the government was doing something the citizens weren't comfortable with.

