Your idea that the Chinese and Russian governments have all the information on his laptops is baseless. You may think its simple realpolitik to assume that is the case, but I think you’ve been watching too many movies. For one, we have no idea what information he even has with him. He has denied providing any information to those governments. Until we have any proof otherwise its merely a guessing game. And most Americans see Snowden as a whistleblower, despite all the propaganda from our MSM and from the likes of you. He is most certainly NOT “widely viewed as little more than a traitor”. That is a fantasy you are spinning, just like your other fantasies that you have any idea of what information Snowden has with him, let alone who has access to that information.
And finally, Snowden is trapped in Russia because the US revoked his passport. And aside from China and Russia, what nation on earth would either not have simply returned him to the warm embrace of the US government and/or had enough political clout to dissuade the CIA from merely grabbing him? But according to your narrative, being caught and imprisoned is the only way we would get a “real” debate about the issues. I addressed this assertion in my earlier reply and yet you simply reiterate your view without any response to my points. That is not a reply, its a reiteration. You clearly need to step back from this issue because you are not seeing it clearly. You claim to know things that are not knowable and assert things that are not true. Propaganda is made up of just such vapor and lies.
I wonder why you’re so confident in the incompetence of the Chinese and Russian intelligence services. What evidence do you have to suggest that they did not acquire all the information on his laptops? Perhaps you know something I don’t know.
My point about not being trapped in Russia, etc., was simply that: The only way Snowden could have had a constructive impact on the national discourse would have been for him to have played the role of martyr. That would have made him sympathetic, and it would have prompted more Americans to pay attention to what he was saying. Instead, he wants to have his cake and to eat it, too. That’s understandable, but this is about politics.
Finally, I would counter that it is you who is not seeing things clearly. You are the one who appears determined to view the American government in the very worst and conspiratorial light and, without any apparent reflection, appears to see no moral nuance between Washington, and Beijing and Moscow. I agree with you that the U.S. government has done some reprehensible things – indeed, my criticism of Snowden is that his mishandling of this situation has prevented us from having a more candid conversation about some of those things – but I am not ideologically committed a priori to arriving at any one conclusion. You, on the other hand, appear very much committed to arriving at a certain conclusion. That’s the only way I can explain the ad hominem attacks you’ve resorted to, sadly.
Then you’re wrong. Snowden is already suffering for releasing information, just trying not to more than was necessary to do so, and has already changed the national discourse - where do you think this vote came from? The limits to this change have much more to do with vested interests than whether he’s shed as much blood as you would like; in fact there is nothing actually preventing a more candid conversation, except whether people want one.
And for the record, lots of people would have called Snowden a traitor no matter where he had gone. That’s how people defending the establishment react to leaks, as their readiness to tar Greenwald with the same brush shows. That the allegation would have been avoided had Snowden gone to Europe and been prosecuted is something you are simply making up.
That should be obvious if you consider for a moment how things have gone with other whistle-blowers who have been railroaded. The only thing making a martyr of Snowden is sure to accomplish is to indimidate other would-be leakers. The narrative you’re uncritically adopting, that despite the dialog they’ve spurred Snowden’s actions can’t have real value unless he’s rotting in prison, really only serves the same.
