Russia Plans To Extend Edward Snowden's Asylum 315
mendax writes "The New York Times reports, 'Russia plans to extend its offer of asylum to Edward J. Snowden beyond August, a Russian lawmaker said Friday at the World Economic Forum ... The lawmaker, Aleksei K. Pushkov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Russia's lower house of Parliament, hinted during a panel discussion that the extension of temporary refugee status for Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, might be indefinite. "He will not be sent out of Russia," Mr. Pushkov said. "It will be up to Snowden."'"
Snowden said yesterday that going back to the U.S. is not an option because of the country's poor whistleblower protections "which through a failure in law did not cover national security contractors like [him]." He added, "This is especially frustrating, because it means there’s no chance to have a fair trial, and no way I can come home and make my case to a jury."
Make him a Russian citizen.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why is this on Slashdot? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's on here because Snowden is the biggest whistleblower of his generation, and this article will get generate views and comments for a less-than-interesting Friday afternoon/evening.
Last time I checked, Russia's continual asylum was conditional on not releasing more information, otherwise Snowden had a year to find a new place to avoid a drone strike. One wonders if he made a deal, or the Russians just enjoy annoying the US.
Re:Your regularly-scheduled Snowden story (Score:4, Interesting)
Just in case you'd forgotten that Snowden still exists, here's Slashdot to stir up all that nice outrage.
So what? Snowden is "one of us" - I dunno if he had a slashdot account or not, he did post regularly on ars technica's forums. A great many of us here can identify with him - technical, libertarian, etc.
Of all the places on the net, slashdot is one of the few where snowden's personal story is just as relevant as role in the surveillance state debate.
Re:Why is this on Slashdot? (Score:5, Interesting)
Last time I checked, Russia's continual asylum was conditional on not releasing more information,
Easy for him to live up to since he gave the entire trove to Greenwald, et al. Snowden hasn't released anything since, because he doesn't have anything left. [techdirt.com] Same reason all the talk about the FSB getting access to the files is also baseless speculation.
Re:The US pokes itself in the eye with a stick (Score:4, Interesting)
Putin might be a thug but in America thug in government are a plenty.
Until a critical mass of corrupt politicians and their conspirators die off or a revolution occurs, there will be no whistleblower laws.
Government corruption is best measured on how bad whistleblower laws are in that country.
Re:Are you guys trying to threaten Snowden ? (Score:4, Interesting)
My remark was more about equating Putin and Obama's behavior toward dissidents than it was about Snowden himself.
You may not like Snowden, but in the broader context of the IRS scandal, and now this indictment against Dinesh D'Souza [politico.com], the real people who should consider whether they bear any shame are those who re-elected Barack Obama. Not only do I reject your attempted shaming, I say the buck stops here with trying to pass it on.
Re:Good... (Score:2, Interesting)
He already has the corrupt government of one superpower after his head, I don't think we should ask him to go for two. Maybe a Russian whistleblower will leak loads of damning details about Putin's government surveillance and be granted asylum in the US. That would be hilariously awkward.
No, they'd swap prisoners, after each interrogated theirs fully.
Re:So, where do you want Snowden to go ?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Mr. Edward Snowden is facing a stark future of being on the run all his life.
At a really high level of abstraction, Snowden's acts are kind of like the invasion of Iraq; both Snowden and W undertook decisive acts with tangible historical impacts.
Hero? Goat? Who can say, sooner than a couple of decades?
The quite obvious thing for Snowden to do is get his name on a ballot and win election to Congress. That's tantamount to the voters giving the guy a pardon.
Re:U.S. Willing to Talk if Snowden Pleads Guilty (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01...
Is this a new thing now, where /. cuts off the hyperlink?
unmolested: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01... [nytimes.com]
a href: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/us/politics/us-willing-to-hold-talks-if-snowden-pleads-guilty.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
This is dumb and whoever implemented it is dumb.
Re:So, where do you want Snowden to go ?? (Score:4, Interesting)
This world is occupied by 4.5 big thugs - China, Russia, USA, Japan, plus UK, which can only be rated as 0.5big, since they are living in their past glory.
Japan.... a thug? Really? And not just a 1/2 "thug" like you describe the UK, but a big thug? That is fascinating. Could you expand on that a bit? Between ninety to seventy years ago you would have been on solid ground, when Japan was at war with and occupying many of its neighbors, but today? How does that "thuggery" play out? Japan hasn't been fighting overseas wars like the UK has (to the credit of the UK). Why do you describe Japan as a thug?
Re:Are you guys trying to threaten Snowden ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Make him a Russian citizen.... (Score:4, Interesting)
If Depardieu can be made a citizen over a petty tax dispute, surely the Russian government can extend the same courtesy over a more significant issue.
Re:Are you guys trying to threaten Snowden ? (Score:4, Interesting)
I also knew that if I was going to be critical of it, I had better see it first hand. And after seeing it first hand, the truth of the matter for the average Iraqi citizen was that he feared Iranian troops far more than he did American troops, and his biggest fear would be American troops leaving and opening the door for Iranian troops to enter. That was the feeling I got, time after time, talking to interpreters and 10 year old English speaking kids. They loved the same idea of America I grew up loving. I did my best to be ethical, as an individual, and to this day I can't say I ever once compromised my morals. Hell, by the time I got there, we weren't even doing raids. We did "soft-knocks," meaning we knocked first and tried to communicate before any escalation of force. The only reason we'd be there is if there was a known "terrorist," that is "insurgent," that is someone who had actively tried to kill people who did not deserve it or tried to kill soldiers. And the quandary in all this for me is that many times this information was not received through fancy, high-tech intelligence gathering methods. It was received through good old-fashioned tattle-tales from the same neighborhood, people who needed something we could give them (usually money). We did some good things now and then, too, you know, things I am proud to say I was a part of, like handing out bundles of your precious tax dollars to folks who would 1) never forget it and 2) use it for something more than a new car in their driveway or a new television on their wall. I actually think that one day Iraq will be a modern, booming country with much more promise than many parts of America, and I'm not sure it could have been that way if Saddam had stayed in power. That's only my opinion, and it's not based on any sort of data (this is a thing I am trying to overcome this year on a general level).
But to you, Citizen, I would like to apologize for having been a part of that unethical war. And I would like to apologize for the disability checks they send me. In hindsight, I'd probably have found another job if I had thought about it longer. But I wouldn't have commented on the war anymore, I wouldn't have felt equipped to. I was tired of people in my family telling me that 1) I couldn't have an opinion because I had not been there and 2) I simply did not have what it took to be a soldier. That last part is exactly why I went infantry. I'm not a violent person.