Great, now Snowden broke BoingBoingās layout. Whatās next?!
Looks like an unclosed < code > tag present.
Not sure if thatās whatās doing it. Everything after that shows up in a different font though.
Even if I donāt believe Putin (and I donāt as a matter of course), he is still making the right noises, and gets what should happen in a way Obama just doesnāt seem to.
I kind of have to feel pity for Snowden here. Heās stuck living in a country that he must find revolting to his principles because his own country was doing things that were too like the country he was stuck fleeing to, while his home country is planning to treat him the Stasi treated dissidents. In trying to take a stand for freedom he wound up trapped with no freedom at all.
Definitely donāt believe Putin.
Clearly they looked into each othersā souls.
I agree - thereās a definite irony in the fact that in disclosing illegal surveillance programs in the United States, he put himself in a position to be used for political purposes by a country that is no doubt significantly worse in its abuses of privacy and human rights, particularly at this time when Russia is behaving so badly. I wonder if heāll ever get out of there, whether thatās to another country that gives him asylum or back to the United States. Somehow, I donāt see that happening any time soon.
I see what you did there.
Donāt judge just yet
I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a Russian equivalent to Snowden who has revealed docs to the press, and/or Greenwald and co are about to publish something about Russian spying
Somehow, Iām sure moronic Snowden detractors will figure out a way to shoe-horn this action by Snowden as more proof heās a sekrit Russian/Chinese agent.
I agree, but itās countries, same issue with China.
āMr. Snowden, you are a former agent,ā the president replied. āI used to work for an intelligence service. Letās speak professionally.ā
He should have just saidā¦Everything I say next will be bullshit and you know it and better shut up about it.
That wouldnāt bode well for Snowden since Greenwald and he are so closely associated.
I wouldnāt go so far as to say Snowden is a secret Russian/Chinese agent but what do we know? To me intelligence agencies are like organized crime in that no one involved is to be trusted and life is precarious).
āin the fact that in disclosing illegal surveillance programsāā¦
Snowden would have been much more likely to be treated as a protected āwhistle blowerā if he had blown the whistle on a few specific programs, rather than vacuuming up everything he could get his hands on and giving it all away (even the things that havenāt been published yet can no longer be relied upon, so he broke those too whether he intended to or not.) I strongly suspect that people who view him as a hero think that the U.S. shouldnāt be spying at allā¦which is a fine position if one can figure out how to exist in a world where none of the most likely threats are out in the open.
It would not surprise me in the least if Putin arranged this call.
Fair point, and Iām not one of those people who thinks we shouldnāt be spying at all. But I think his āvacuuming upā and his actual leaking have been of different magnitudes, so Iām more inclined to think him a whistle blower than a traitor.
So youād prefer that Obama lied outright and stuck to those lies? Cāmon, Putin clearly knows how to manipulate popular opinion of his people, and the noises he was and will continue making is essentially anything to keep his folks from looking into the shoddy loans handed out to cronies in order to build the Sochi experience, among other things.
āMr. Putin, would you do what America has done in the way ofā¦ā
āOh, NO, we would never, ever do that because weāre great.ā
