No, that actually makes good sense. Doesn’t matter that the Guardian actually has other copies. Officially, they don’t, and that’s the important part. It also means that they can trash talk and threaten Snowden all they want, but their ability to prove that he took any particular document is now even more damaged. For all they know, wikileaks got it from somebody else and passed it on.
This kind of thing always starts out with a lot of big talk, but when it gets down to it, those threats can’t usually stand up to any real scrutiny by the courts (which is the threat they’ve been slinging - but are deathly afraid of, themselves.) It takes time, but this one isn’t going to just fade away and be forgotten.
I’m watching all of this, and remembering Nixon’s game. It was was eerily similar. He talked a whole lot of smack, right up until the Supremes made him turn over those tapes. And he was a lot scarier than Obama’s minions. Keep in mind - he’d been using this very same law to persecute people, and some of them were actually executed! He was the guy who wanted to imprison and deport citizens for opposing him without a trial. Hello, Guantanamo, and all those secret detentions. Nixon actually thought he was untouchable…right up until he wasn’t.
Obama and his crew act the very same way. That’s why Snowden’s smart not to trust their bs about returning, and Cameron made the right move. Cameron’s remains a snide, uppity total jackass - but he’s still got a little game. The critical piece, at this point, is discovery of specific abuses of individuals domestically. That would put these guys in some deep doo-doo, and they know it.
