The things he leaked were already known in a general sense to anyone that wasn’t a teenager at the time.
But the details helped foreign adversaries. Which is why he lives in Russia now.
And now they’re on Russia’s payroll
Wasnt a choice for Snowden. He wanted to go to South America, they trapped him in Russia. Now he has to wave and smile to whatever happens there politically.
Snowden could have
-
been an official whistleblower and avoided prosecution
-
leaked only to US papers and avoided prosecution
-
leaked only non-classified information and avoided prosecution
Snowden sold classified info to enemies of the US. He made his bed.
-
Not like that! Do it how we meant to say but couldn’t quite bring ourselves to say publicly. The way that protects the military industrial complex and the corporations and the lobbyists and the government officials from any charge of mendacious greed.
My favourite moment of that era was when Obama told us he was just about to drop dime on all the spying and Snowden beat him to it. Dang it Snowden, now I gotta eat shit on live TV. The American state simply cannot be trusted whatsoever.
I hope one day he will be able to come home a hero and not a criminal.
There’s no chance he’ll be allowed back in the US after, understandably, becoming a piece of the Russian propaganda pie. He’s basically trapped in Russia. On the bright side, it’s a gilded cage where he resides with his family.
Not where I’d want to be right now.
Russia is great, for people useful to Putin.
Not even an impossible task. We just need a President that actually loves what America professes to aspire to. It’s what the Presidential pardon is for.
Any decade now…
AND he only did so after the “proper channel” for whistle blowing, his internal superiors, told him to shut the fuck up.
I feel this always needs to be said. The United States has a lot of slogans and posters about integrity and ethics for a nation that has neither in practice.
And of course, the next logical step is to leak gigabytes of secret and sensitive information.
…Leaked to a reputable member of the fourth estate to decide what was safe to report. Do you disagree with the founders of the United States about the importance of the fourth estate’s role in keeping leadership honest?
The only other steps short of that would have been to either quit and shut the fuck up or continue participating and shut the fuck up.
Sounds like you just wanted him to shut the fuck up about your freedoms being eroded by the government that’s supposed to protect them.
I don’t believe willful ignorance is a defensible position, ever.
Thanks for reiterating this and posting a source. Every time I see an article on Snowden year over year, someone brings up the tired old “argument” that because he is now trapped in Russia, that somehow makes everything he did “wrong”, and invalidates everything he exposed the government for doing. The media campaign against him was apparently quite effective, and these soundbites are ever ready to jump out of people’s mouths without any research or critical thinking.
You’re not supposed to speak up about real things. Just roleplay dumb shit like the alien WAP being talked about in court with zero evidence of course.
Unrelated question, but ever since Snowden became a citizen of the Russian Federation, could be be drafted during a round of conscription? Or would they use him for cyberwarfare?
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to fight Ukrainians.
his value is anti-west propaganda so I doubt he will fight in any way