

Snowden withdraws Russian asylum bid after Putin says he must 'stop harming' US - joshfraser
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/02/19245678-snowden-withdraws-russian-asylum-bid-after-putin-says-he-must-stop-harming-us

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jwdunne
As an outsider looking in, I don't really see it as harming the US, just the
US government, by exposing how the US government are harming its people. I
think this is how Putin has worded it too, he hasn't said "harming the US" but
"US partners". It's horrible that there is such a distinction because the
ideal should be the government is the equivalent of the people.

~~~
bostonpete
Arguably, revealing the details of cyber attacks on Chinese targets harms the
US in the ongoing cyber warefare between the two.

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toddsiegel
> If #Snowden can't find asylum, it will be depressingly clear that the US not
> only eavesdrops on the world but runs it.

\- @JPBarlow
[https://twitter.com/jpbarlow/status/351937848217317380](https://twitter.com/jpbarlow/status/351937848217317380)

I am trying to imagine what leverage we have over Russia.

~~~
pixelpanic
> I am trying to imagine what leverage we have over Russia.

Russians don't want a cold war again

~~~
iuguy
It never ended, at least not in the eyes of governments.

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zby
Russia wants to have him as a possible tool to press the USA in the future -
that is why they want him to stop the leaking now - when all is leaked he'll
be of no value to them.

By rejecting these terms Snowden shows character - but he is now in a really
bad situation. Requesting asylum in Poland (where one of the secret CIA
prisons was located) was an act of desperation.

~~~
sigzero
That is pure speculation on your part. The other side could be that Snowden
wants to continue leaking information and thus "harming" the United States.

~~~
Argorak
There yet another side to this: by signing that he "stops harming the US",
Snowden would sign that he "is currently harming the US".

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quackerhacker
_Snowden withdraws Russian asylum bid after Putin says he must 'stop harming'
US_

This title strongly implies that he seeks to harm the US. Let the media
marauding begin. I really don't feel that Snowden looked to _harm_ the US, but
rather hold the country he was serving accountable for what it was and still
may be doing.

~~~
camus
Prism has done more harm to the USA that anything Snowden did. Let's not shift
the blame away from the guilties. And the guilties are those who abuse their
power in the name of security, along with those who let it happen ( the entire
executive branch and congress basically ). Or would you prefer not to know
anything about it ?

Obama says there are "checks and balances", there are none. Given the
situation today , it's not difficult to imagine what the situation will be 10
years from now. And putting republicans in power wont make a difference.

Frankly i dont know if there is any solution to that problem. Politicians
never give up willing the power they steal from the people.

Good luck america.

~~~
laureny
> Prism has done more harm to the USA that anything Snowden did.

We don't know that.

And if we were to speculate, we could observe that there have been very few
terrorist attacks on the US in the past ten years. I'm not trying to equate
correlation and causation here, just pointing out that very few people on the
planet are able to assess whether PRISM is beneficial or detrimental to the
security of the US.

~~~
furyofantares
> And if we were to speculate, we could observe that there have been very few
> terrorist attacks on the US in the past ten years.

Is that accurate? The list I found on Wikipedia indicates it is not but
perhaps you have a better source of information.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States)

------
philliphaydon
Can't see Snowden harming America. Pretty sure America is harming itself.

~~~
Ygg2
It would be funny if people realized that Snowden giving himself up will cause
harm to America (or more precisely its reputation). I just laugh at the
absurdity of Putin's statement in that light.

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quchen
All these page-long news articles published in the last couple of weeks
usually consist of one bit of useful information - in this case the first
paragraph - and then the same things over and over again. It doesn't even cite
the source, let alone name it (no, "a government spokesman" is not a source).
I feel like many news websites just use the issue to throw out as much content
containing the word "Snowden" as possible these days, and I'm finding it hard
to gather new information in this ocean of entropy.

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skc
I wonder if it's as simple as the old rule of the streets being at play here?
That is, if the USA and Russia are rival gang members, they would each look
poorly on "snitches" even if they are from the other side.

~~~
squozzer
There's something to that thought -- the phrase "I love treason but hate a
traitor" is from Shakespeare, and has been attributed to many leaders (such as
Julius Ceasar) but captures the essence of the point.

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david_shaw
I find it incredible that Snowden can't seem to find asylum; does the process
take longer than I thought, or is there something deeper going on?

It appears to my untrained eye that rather than force a state to hand him
over, the U.S. is simply pressuring them to deny (or stall) his asylum
requests. It's a face-saving neutral ground for the nations in question, but
it still gets the U.S. what it wants.

~~~
mark_l_watson
My government has a history of treating whistleblowers harshly when they
embarrass either the government or the government's corporate masters. Our
laws applied to whistleblowers are much harsher than in other countries (at
least in the UK and most of Europe) so our government has powerful weapons to
intimidate possible future whistleblowers.

I think Snowden knew his life would effectively be over before he started
this.

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drunkenmasta
Well if true then the move makes no sense. Why would he ruin any chance of
getting out of the airport if that's where he is? Also, if he really is there
then why have no photographs of him been taken? Surely there is at least a
couple (sarcasm) of people that go through the airport each day? Where is this
guy and why don't we see his face anymore?

~~~
brown9-2
More than likely he is holed up in a special area of the airport, detained or
guarded by Russian special services.

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loceng
He could be testing waters to see how different countries react, just to see
what their true colours or at least public ones are.

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camus
Well , there is no freedom of speech in russia , but there is none in most
European countries neither. He should chose carefully where he wants to go.
I'd suggest him to avoid France and UK. Dont know about other european
countries.

~~~
menato
In what sense there is no freedom of speech in Russia?

~~~
air
[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gay-
propagand...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gay-propaganda-
becomes-illegal-in-russia-8680574.html)

~~~
menato
It doesn't make any sense. Gay propaganda is considered to be a crime and it
is normal to restrict this crime. Meanwhile one could discuss is it correct to
consider such a thing as a crime or not.

~~~
mattstocum
I think what air was saying is that in the US, propaganda, of any sort, cannot
be a crime, due to the 1st amendment to the US constitution. That is freedom
of speech.

~~~
menato
Well, it could be so de jure in USA. But de facto we see opposite. Snowden
mentioned unconstitutional violation of human rights of US citizen. And now he
is hunted by US government, seriously hunted.

Russia is way more open in this perspective.

~~~
reaganing
He did more than just 'mention' it, he stoled government property and
disseminated classified information to the public. I'm not saying what he did
was 'wrong', but it is illegal and not particularly a free speech issue.

I'm not sure how anyone could say Russia's 'way more open' with a straight
face[1].

[1]: [http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/24/world/europe/russia-free-
speec...](http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/24/world/europe/russia-free-speech-
report)

~~~
menato
These people didn't negotiate this meeting. This is the formal reason.

Informal reason is that they are often organized by the institutions which
funded by other countries, institutions, which aim is definitely not a
prohibition of Russia.

May be it is a good idea to avoid judgements about countries/cultures, which
you don't understand?

