Putin Tells Edward Snowden He Doesn't Spy on Russians Like the NSA

The Verge ^ | April 17, 2014 | Chris Welch

[lbryce]

NSA leaker Edward Snowden is currently living under asylum in Russia, so it makes sense that he would want to know about the country's own surveillance practices. He managed to take his inquiry straight to the top and pose the question to none other than President Vladimir Putin during a live, state-run television broadcast. "I've seen little public discussion of Russia's own involvement in the policies of mass surveillance," he said. "So I'd like to ask you: Does Russia intercept, store or analyze, in any way, the communications of millions of individuals?" The show's host claimed that Snowden "revolutionized the world by leaking the information about American secret services" before he appeared via video link.

[sakic]

Yup, the ex KGB big shot does not spy on his own people. Yeah, right.

[PieterCasparzen]

Your previous post stated it best:

Best to be neither a KGB tool nor an NSA tool.

Snowden had quite a few legitimate concerns. If you have worries about the militarized super-state being used against its own citizens, one only look at Nevada to see the latest example. The irony is though, when Snowden left the USA, did he realize he would become a tool of another nation's vast intelligence service?

Yes, that was his only protection for his life.

The US government, especially the Treasury, State, Intel and Defense Depts, work for global elite finance.

The number one priority of the elites to maintain their hold over government so that it does not print its own money and thus not need to borrow through their banking services.

Intel (espionage) is an essential tool for elite finance to use in controlling government actions. Thus they can not have the truth come out about what they have been doing all along and continue to do. So when some truth occasionally leaks out, they mitigate the problem, clouding up Congressional testimony, telling half truths, etc. It looks terrible, the papers, led by by CIA's own Washington Post, run the engineered stories, America gets mad, then gets over it and moves on. And the elites switch programs around and continue.

When Snowden confirmed William Binney's and others' assertions, and then some, it was a huge revelation, especially when combined with evidence of NSA backdooring that has been publicly reported on since at least 2006. With Snowden, it was the extent of targets (heads of state and American citizens en masse) and the level of penetration (stored history of continuous full sweep of data traffic) that was publicized.

The government's first preference would have been obviously to have a complete refutation of the revelation, i.e., get a retraction from him, brand him as a lunatic, drug user, etc.

Clearly, this was so big, his life was guaranteed to last only until the retraction could be constructed; at that point, they would want his story to permanently end, with no possibility of opening the book again.

As most espionage agencies cooperate with UK/US intel to a surprising degree, i.e., even former enemies are now friends, I guess the best option he had was to go to the one country where the old theatrical idea of them being an "enemy" is being kept alive in order to have some semblance of a significant adversary left to actually give the CIA/NSA a reason for even existing. If Russia just relented and forked over such a prized intel public figure to their "adversary" the US, Russia and the US would, by implication, be acknowledging that they are, in effect, a single police state mechanism. The illusion of an epic struggle between good and evil would be shattered.

[Nifster]

Putin spies on his country the good old fashioned KGB way

[Nifster]

Your deductions are illogical and pointless

[PieterCasparzen]

I meant this to be sarcastic:

/SARC

(

Right.

The American government would never use it’s intelligence services against conservatives.

Snowden must be a commie.

Commies bad, so CIA and NSA are good.

Let them do whatever they want.

If you have nothing to hide, you won’t mind them monitoring you.

)

That is to say, I believe the opposite of those statements.

I was saying that sarcastically to point out how ludicrous it is to assume Snowden is a "commie" just because he made accusations against the CIA.

[Cold Heart]

Undermine Putin?!

How about destroying (transforming) America as we knew it by using his new found flexibility.

[a fool in paradise]

Putin's methods can be simply stopped by using tinfoil.

[TexasRepublic]

I guess we should just trust a former KGB agent. Da?

[dmz]

But that he, as inheritor of an authoritarian regime that was the very model for ‘Big Brother’ can now prove himself more respectful of the privacy of his citizens than the President of the United States of America has for his own, the irony of it is almost too surreal.

<><><><

How ‘bout we give Eddie the same level of access to information in Russia as he had here in the US, and then let’s chat.

Your “it must be true becuse Putin said so” take on this is quite baffling.

[caligatrux]

The USA may be the country becoming more socialist, but Putin is clearly steering Russian -— indeed, maybe even the areas surrounding Russia — back towards the old USSR days.

Seems like the whole world is going more socialist.

[Nifster]

I understood your snarky comment. English is my first language thank you very much.

What you apparently do not understand is that there are some of us who look at Snowdon and see nothing more than a twos bit little punk who’s goal in life was to get a ticket to where he really wanted to live....the workers’ paradise.

My statement still stands Putin is, was, and always will be KGB and that group is KNOWN for its deceptive, spying, thuggery

[Tijeras_Slim]

Why spy when you can write out the confession in advance and beat them until they sign it?

[Nifster]

And that is the KGB way

[Tijeras_Slim]

And the NKVD, and the OGPU.... all the way back.

[PieterCasparzen]

Are these guys “commies” ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Andrews_Drake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_%28U.S._intelligence_official%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Klein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Fellwock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Tice