In Venezuela, Snowden Can Prepare For Life As A Pawn

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 10 July 2013 | Editorial

[IBD editorial writer]

Diplomacy: National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden seems to have taken Venezuela's asylum offer, an odd choice for a man supposedly motivated by a desire for transparency. He should prepare for life as a pawn. U.S. surveillance is "not something I am willing to live under," Snowden told the U.K. Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, in a story published Monday, condemning yet again the NSA, whose operations, he claims, motivated him to hack into its computers, steal U.S. secrets, leak them to the press, and then flee a $100,000-a-year job and a pole-dancing girlfriend on the island paradise of Hawaii for a life on the lam. His whining to Greenwald now has a hollow ring, assuming he can exit the Moscow airport transit lounge where he is marooned with a cancelled passport, because Venezuela is far, far worse. Venezuela, contrary to its claims of sovereignty, is a nation run by totalitarian Cuba's security organs, a sort of zombie state under the same goons who keep watch over ordinary Cubans in the crudest surveillance this side of North Korea.

[BipolarBob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKRma7PDW10

[Blood of Tyrants]

So far Snowden has been offered asylum in several countries but the problem is that he can’t figure out how to get to any of them without flying over a country with an extradition treaty.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Same here, for identical reasons.

[Zakeet]

In Venezuela, Snowden can prepare for life as a pawn

In America, Snowden can prepare for life as a pawn ... unless things change immediately and decisively!

Keep shredding the Constitution and with it the rule of law ... grant amnesty and citizenship to millions of illegal aliens from third world countries ... place a majority of the voting public on the public teat ... continue to regulate and tax both businesses and productive individuals into oblivion ... fail to control government spending ... kill the currency ... destroy the economy ... undermine morality ... shout down and shut off intelligent public debate ... take away an independent and free thinking media ... ruin education ... replace the military with a KGB style policing gestapo ... remove opportunity and freedom ... and you have life as a pawn!

And brother, we are racing down that path at breakneck speed!

[txhurl]

Must be something ‘unpleasant’ about to come out. Opinion shapers are circling like hawks on this case.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Yep, I noticed.

[bigbob]

Very. Sittin’ in a thermal spa sippin’ a cold one rather than sweating away in a jungle...

[Paladin2]

They are also free to go play in the snow and icy glaciers with their SUVs.

[txhurl]

Or, would ‘Venezuela’ mean a Venezuelan Embassy somewhere in ... Australia, or some such place?

---

Good point. Snowden’s top choices require he be in-country before granting asylum. Guess I’ll go look for an Ecuadorian or Venezuelan embassy in Iceland. Step outside the embassy, BOOM, you’re now in-country.

[caww]

....” most of them seem to be about our government”...

..and China...and Britain...and International Allies...and he’’s passed the documents he has to unknown sources....which should concern everybody.

.... the fact is he's a fool...and his situation is a direct result of ‘his decisions’ to lie, steal and run like the rat he is.

Frankly he's revealed nothing not already known by those informed...and the Int’l. Leaders are playing their “scripted” responses... but they all know they “spy” and so do we”...no news to them either.

Sooo...he's stuck...or better said “cornered”...which like with Assange was the plan.

He's got a heck of a dilemma getting to Venezuela by air...might better go in a hole in a cargo ship...but that's a very long ride.....

[af_vet_rr]

Must be something ‘unpleasant’ about to come out. Opinion shapers are circling like hawks on this case.

There are some articles floating around today that Microsoft was giving the NSA some kind of access to Outlook, Skype, and SkyDrive, but that's probably not what you are thinking about.

Snowden is a dead man walking. Most of us paying attention here on FR and elsewhere knew serious things were happening in 2003 and on, but Snowden forced the issue, such that the average American found out. That's a big no-no. It might not be Obama's administration, but some future administration will get him.

[txhurl]

I guess it depends on his ‘insurance’ policies and whether he agreed with Putin to ‘stop leaking stuff about the USA’.

[kearnyirish2]

“I’m pretty much rootin’ for Snowden and against the American Regime on this one.”

Same here; he exposed our government (and more importantly the Obama regime) as an dictatorship.

[Procyon]

Putin is finished with him. There’s no upside for Moscow to keep him around.

Putin made Snowden an offer of an STFU-asylum in Russia and Snowden didn't realize that Putin doesn't entertain counter-offers. Putin, in his comment about shaving a pig results in a lot of noise but no fleece, means this punk's troubles aren't worth a minute of Putin's attention.

Snowden's only way out is valid passport issued by a sympathetic country. His entry into Russia is permanently barred. And so Snowden is twisting slowly in the transit-area of Moscow airport.

No airline will carrying him unless it flies non-stop to the receiving country. I can think of only one that will: Air Koryo (North Korea).

[txhurl]

No airline will carrying him unless it flies non-stop to the receiving country.

---

Why do you say that?

[American Constitutionalist]

Traitor or not this is the treatment of those for formerly worked in Government or government agencies who came out and told the truth about the abuses of government.

[caww]

Again...what has Snowden revealed that hasn’t been already out there to see? ..Nothing...

The truth is there for all who want to know it..and has been....some choose to ignore it..others deny it...some even excuse it....others don’t bother to know rather have the daily media inform them, with all it’s spin and slant.

We know how governments operate...and we know that if media wants a good story they’ll make one to feed the public while OBOZO continues to duck and weave..especially when the public is engaged with these media stories.

However people want to think...Snowden knew well ahead of taking the job at NSA that his intention was to steal “documents”...that is pre-meditated...and he was a pawn in the hands of Assange and the new meal ticket for him to gain popularity, which was fast eclipsing as was his bankroll...Snowden bought into Assanges plan.

[Praxeologue]

what has Snowden revealed that hasn’t been already out there to see? ..Nothing...

Plenty. Notably, Snowden has revealed that the NSA spys on Americans inside the U.S. That was previously denied by the government, to include lying to Congress in statute-mandated briefings. The consequences are enormous, including the likihood that the Executive is blackmailing members of the Legislative and Judicial Branches: Justice Roberts, for example. Is the NSA the reason we are stuck with ObamaCare? This is the rationale for the comments above that we live in a dictatorship.

Snowden is not just letting the average American know what knowledgeable Americans have always known. Snowden's information was not previously known beyond the intelligence community.

[caww]

Snowden actions, regardless of the public knowing or not...is still against the law...and his actions continue to be so...and that is the bottom line.

I understand the “possibilities” people attempt to claim “might” be as a result of Snowdens actions...that still does not excuse the facts, which are not only known but admitted by Snowden,... that he has purposely palnned, and with intent, sought and stole US Gov. Intellegence ‘Documents’..and lied to accomplish these actions with the purpose of distributing them to whom “HE” determined...and which he has stated he has done just that.

It did not take Snowden for anyone to know our country is being led to a dictatorship......

[Praxeologue]

Snowden has broken the law and must face the consequences. I do, however, believe that his disclosures have had a much needed salutary effect on our political culture.