
U.S. asks Hong Kong to extradite Snowden - Jaqua
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/06/22/snowden-extradition/2449147/
======
dmoney
_" A senior administration official also not authorized to speak publicly told
USA TODAY that the United States is asking Hong Kong to act quickly on the
request or risk complicating relations between the two for failing to hand
Snowden over as required by international law. "_

So it's OK for senior administration officials to leak information without
authorization, about trying to prosecute someone for leaking information
without authorization...

~~~
graedus
Indeed, just like it's OK for top officials to leak about what a terrific
success the drone program is and how it doesn't kill any civilians (NB: anyone
killed by a drone is considered a "combatant" by definition in the official
language[0])

[0] [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-
in...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-
qaeda.html?pagewanted=all)

------
weinzierl
With all the news it is difficult to keep track: When did we receive the last
sign of life from Snowden in Hong Kong? Do we know he is still there?

------
hkmurakami
Well this for we knew would happen. It was just a matter of time. Now we enter
the undefined territory where we don't really know what to expect from the
various levels of the Hong Kong court system, as well as potential Beijing
influence in one way or even the polar opposite.

------
kriro
Personally I don't think he is in Hong Kong. Decent idea to just claim you are
and be somewhere else.

~~~
notdrunkatall
I hope that's the case.

------
ANH
I have a hard time believing the US authorities want anyone to detain Snowden
_besides_ US authorities. He is, presumably, sitting on a big pile of
classified but as-yet-unreleased information. Pure speculation (what fun!):
perhaps Hong Kong law enforcement and the US know precisely where he is, but
they are biding their time until they can get their ducks in a row for a US
team to bring him back. All these public statements are just for show.

------
aneth4
Chances US would extradite a Chinese dissident talking about CCP methods of
oppression? Zero

Chances Hong Kong will extradite Snowden? Very low I think.

------
clicks
[http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/22/us-usa-security-
sn...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/22/us-usa-security-snowden-
charges-idUSBRE95K18220130622)

And they're urging Hong Kong to do it quickly. I wonder what the result of
that will be.

~~~
lignuist
"If Hong Kong doesn't act soon, it will complicate our bilateral relations and
raise questions about Hong Kong's commitment to the rule of law," a senior
Obama administration official told Reuters, speaking on condition of
anonymity."

This is totally disrespectful. I would call this extortion. Not good for
bilateral relations.

~~~
stackedmidgets
And American policy regarding spying on private people worldwide isn't bad for
international relations? Isn't bad for relations with China? Isn't harmful to
American businesses seeking to serve the Chinese market?

~~~
mc32
All the majort powers in the world spy on each other.

They know that they each spy on each other. Friendly nations spy on each
other; foes spy on each other. If nations know they spy on each others'
'national secrets' and don't publicly do much about it, I don't think they'll
care much about the more quotidian things each other might record about their
masses of people. Would the US care that France recorded American civilian
citizens comms? I don't think so. Same for France. They might make some public
fuss about it, but they care more about the spying on 'sensitive' information
--and even then it's more of a 'game'.

------
ck2
So when a Chinese dissident tries to escape to the USA, all the Chinese have
to do is charge them with espionage and ask the USA extradite them.

What a crazy, dangerous game.

~~~
jbjohns
That part isn't dangerous at all. The US would simply say no.

------
blhack
does the US charging him mean that they confirm what he us saying is true?

Haven't they been playing the "he is crazy" card?

~~~
mpyne
No, they actually declassified some of the stuff he leaked as a result of the
leak, so it's not just "ese hombre está loco, yo"

------
cobrabyte
Hope he hops on the plane to Iceland.

~~~
throwaway10001
Someone, you know who, will call in a bomb and force the plane to land in UK,
or Germany or another US satellite state. Or maybe USAF F-16s will greet the
plane along the way

~~~
Mikeb85
There's routes to Iceland that can bypass the US altogether, and its allies in
a more roundabout way...

------
eliben
Can we please stop this? If anyone wants to follow this story, she can go to
cnn.com or news.google.com; let's please leave HN for interesting technical
content. This is truly becoming tiring.

~~~
lignuist
Why don't you just accept, that people are upvoting this, because it is
relevant to them and they want to discuss the topic with fellow hackers?

I think I will never get the point of those "why is this on HN?" posts. HN's
frontpage is not redacted by editors, but filled with posts people have
upvoted.

~~~
derefr
The only eventual result of "people upvoting things relevant to them" in an
open-membership community is the upvoting of the things the most people can
agree on: pictures of cats with words on them. Communities on the internet
have disparate purposes, and must be tended--if not by editors, then by the
conscientious decisions of their members--lest they all become pointless
microcosm-representations of society as a whole. And yes, this sometimes
involves being "that guy" and telling people to think more about the net
effect of everyone voting the same way they do (in a Timeless Decision Theory
sort of way) before they upvote things.

~~~
cantos
There are two things wrong with this. First, you are assuming that a nonzero
fraction of people will sign up for every open-membership community available
to them, frequent, and vote in each such community. Realistically most people
probably can't do this for more than ten communities. Second, even if there is
eventually convergence it may not occur quickly. For example, the universe
will eventually reach a state of maximum entropy but it isn't something that
any of us need to worry about today.

