Edward Snowden: Obama is getting his clock cleaned

Loading

the amateur 2

Remember that 3 am phone call? Edward Snowden is calling and Obama can’t even find the phone.

The potential damage that Edward Snowden could visit upon the United States with disclosure of classified information is large. The U.S. officials who are being questioned about just how much information Snowden took with him are starting to sound like Obama- they don’t know anything:

In a weekend television appearance, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, said she had been informed by U.S. officials that Snowden possessed around 200 secret documents.

But one non-government source familiar with Snowden’s materials said that Feinstein grossly understated the size of Snowden’s document haul and that he left for Hong Kong with thousands of documents copied from the NSA files.

Two U.S. national security sources that were among the people Reuters spoke to confirmed that investigators believe Snowden possesses a substantial amount of secret material, though they declined to discuss numbers.

So far, the Guardian and the Washington Post have not published all the details of the documents that Snowden gave them.

Apparently, release could be very damaging:

Technical Roadmap of the U.S. Surveillance Network

Before he fled Hawaii for Hong Kong in late May, Snowden allegedly downloaded significant amounts of information about some of the country’s most sensitive secrets — specifically how the U.S. government does surveillance abroad. One source told ABC News that as an information specialist with security clearance “he understood the framework of how the whole U.S. surveillance network works.”

In short, Snowden’s stolen material would help America’s adversaries understand how we use electronics to spy.

Another official said Snowden had access to a particularly important computer server in the government’s system “which contained ridiculous amounts of information” totaling hundreds of pages worth of secrets. He is suspected of storing stolen material on computers and making copies of documents. At risk is the effectiveness of billions of dollars worth of supercomputer and clandestine spying resources.

What Snowden May Know About Human Ops

Beyond technical systems, U.S. officials are deeply concerned that Snowden used his sensitive position to read about U.S. human assets, for example spies and informants overseas as well as safe houses and key spying centers.

They worry this recent quote from Snowden was not an exaggeration: ” I had access to the full rosters of everyone working at the NSA, the entire intelligence community, and undercover assets all over the world. The locations of every station, we have what their missions are, and so forth.”

So it’s not just about what he took, but what he knows, officials emphasize. Officials describe Snowden as a walking treasure trove, a dream for foreign intelligence services. One intelligence official called Snowden and his cache an “entire U.S. government problem.”

Snowden has lead US authorities and journalists by the nose:

NSA Leaker Edward Snowden was supposed to be on Aeroflot Flight 180 from Moscow to Havana. He wasn’t. But “dozens” of journalists are. It just took off. And there’s no booze service on board. Welcome to the Cuban Whistleblower Crisis.

Since Snowden’s purported arrival in Moscow yesterday, scores of journalists have been staking out Sheremetyevo Airport, hoping to catch the 29 30-year-old (happy birthday Ed!) ex-contractor as he left Russia, possibly with an eventual destination in Ecuador, where he’s reportedly seeking asylum. When Russian media reported that he’d booked a ticket on Aeroflot Flight 180 to Havana, Cuba, a number of them did the journalistic thing and booked tickets as well.

Only: Snowden never showed.

Snowden may not even have been in Russia

As for Snowden himself, there’s little evidence he was even in Russia in the first place (a passenger on the Hong Kong to Moscow flight he was said to have taken told the AP he saw Snowden), and if he was, a source “familiar with Snowden’s situation” tells Interfax that he likely left the country already.

Obama has sent the feckless John Kerry out to bluster Russia about Snowden

Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the U.S. is doing everything it can do to apprehend him, describing the effort to persuade Russia that it is important to uphold the rule of law and to respect the relationship between the two nations.

“I hope our friends in Russia will do what is necessary,” Kerry said in an interview with CBS News.

But it’s apparent that Obama is helpless:

US threats that China and Russia face “consequences” if leaker Edward Snowden evades capture may prove just hot air, experts say, with Washington powerless in a game of cat-and-mouse.

Left red-faced after Snowden brazenly waltzed out of Hong Kong bound for Moscow at the weekend even after his passport was apparently canceled, US officials have angrily called on Russia to hand him over for trial.

President Barack Obama said Washington was using every legal channel to apprehend the former technician and the self-confessed source of explosive leaks detailing the extent of covert US phone and Internet surveillance.

Countries are even thumbing their noses at Obama and the US:

The carefully planned journey of Edward Snowden from Hong Kong to Russia – then to Cuba possibly, before ending up in Ecuador to seek political asylum? – underscores just how many countries, big and small, are happy to have an occasion to stick it in the eye of the United States.

The US and the Obama administration in particular are quick to emphasize the importance they give to the human rights of the citizens of the countries they are dealing with. Needless to say, however, those countries don’t always take well to American lesson-giving.

With the case of Mr. Snowden – a former National Security Agency contractor who leaked details of top-secret American and British surveillance programs and who is now sought by the US on espionage charges – those countries have a chance to turn the tables on the US.

So much for that hope and change.

putin body language

Obama is getting his clock cleaned:

Add to that Putin’s support for Iran’s nuclear ambitions and his crackdown at home. (The Washington Post writes that in “an attempt to suppress swelling protests against his rigged reelection and the massively corrupt autocracy he presides over, Mr. Putin has launched what both Russian and Western human rights groups describe as the most intense and pervasive campaign of political repression since the downfall of the Soviet Union.”). Taken all together, you can see that the Obama “reset”–which at the dawn of the Obama administration was described as a “win-win” strategy for both nations–has been a rout for the Russians.

With the Snowden situation, Vladimir Putin seems intent not only defying America but embarrassing her. It turns out that an irresolute amateur like Barack Obama was the best thing that the brutal but determined Putin could have hoped for.

He’s cleaning Obama’s clock.

So is Edward Snowden.

Barack Obama probably knows the location of every member of the Tea Party in the United States and has at his command the tax records of Mitt Romney and the Koch brothers but the real risks to this country leave him stymied. Obama suffers the foul blowback of his unending arrogance and lousy hypocrisy about spying on Americans and the rights of whistleblowers.

The Promise

Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.

The Reality

Punish the Whistleblowers

The Obama administration has already charged more people — six — under the Espionage Act for alleged mishandling of classified information than all past presidencies combined. (Prior to Obama, there were only three such cases in American history.)

Read that again. Obama is abusing the 1917 Espionage Act.

Obama has only himself to blame for this mess and Snowden said as much:

Edward Snowden says he decided to release classified information about national security surveillance after President Obama failed to live up to his 2008 campaign promises.

“Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes,” Snowden said in a Monday question-and-answer session with readers of The Guardian. “Many Americans felt similarly.”

“Unfortunately,” he continued, “shortly after assuming power, [Obama] closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge.”

It seems that only two secrets remain undiscoverable- the whereabouts of Edward Snowden and Barack Obama’s school records.

Obama probably has an extra drone around too.

Politico reported that obama welcomed the Snowden plot twist. We’ll see about that.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
92 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

The Obama administration has already charged more people — six — under the Espionage Act for alleged mishandling of classified information than all past presidencies combined. (Prior to Obama, there were only three such cases in American history.)

Are you seriously suggesting that Edward Snowden deserves some legal protection as a whistleblower, and that Barack Obama is a hypocrite for being an advocate of such protections, and then denying Snowden the same?

If you haven’t figured out what Edward Snowden is yet, I can’t see there being much hope for a return to reality anytime in the foreseeable future.

Snowden is a prime example of why assigning important government functions to private contractors that are primarily oriented toward the making of profits is totally moronic. You can’t buy real loyalty, or put a price tag on genuine patriotism.

Those prosecution statistics do signify something, but it’s not necessarily that there’s a problem in the White House.

Another lefty throws his country under the bus. Big surprise.

He’s a libertarian, not a “lefty” – whatever that means.

I don’t know how many libertarians would go to Russia. I think he’s a traitor if he gives away information to foreign govts. But I’m still glad he did what he did when he exposed this administration’s use of the NSA to spy upon innocent Americans. That’s the US Govt abusing it’s own people! It’s total big brother control b.s. and I hope they all get thrown the hell out.

(The Washington Post writes that in “an attempt to suppress swelling protests against his rigged reelection and the massively corrupt autocracy he presides over, Mr. Putin has launched what both Russian and Western human rights groups describe as the most intense and pervasive campaign of political repression since the downfall of the Soviet Union.”).

Until I reached the second line of this quote where Putin’s name is mentioned I thought it referred to Obama.

Come to think of it, I still do.

If Obama had surrounded himself with experienced diplomats, politicians, experts instead of picking his czars and cabinet by how well they play basketball and whether they have a Chicago tie-in, he might….MIGHT have been ready to NEGOTIATE with Hong Kong, Putin’s Russia, Cuba, Equador or other nations.
He also might have had the support of other countries, our so-called (once actually were) allies.

But instead the safe-for-Snowden countries all are laughing at this weak leader and his weakling attempts at bluster, at diplomacy, at demanding.
Allies are sitting on their hands…..just like Obama had done to them when they needed America.

It really would be funny IF it were not American that Obama has done this to.
But the words of Osama bin Laden keep coming to mind as if Obama used them as a template for how to ”transform America; “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.”
Transcript of Osama bin Laden videotape December 13, 2001

Snowden joined the NSA in order to mine data out of it. He hit pay dirt. Question is; who is his boss? Looks like Russia will benefit by getting names and photos of all our spies and plenty more. What does Snowden got?

I guess Obama is showing the flexibility towards Russia he talked about having after the last election….

@Person: He stated he had faith in Obama who has stood for and gone against just about everything the Libertarian Party stands for- small government, upholding the Constitution etc. As Rachel pointed out, not many Libertarians would go to Russia. They are farther from their viewpoints than Obama is. Had this stopped at the domestic spying, I could see him being Libertarian. Giving classified material to foreign governments goes way over the line.

Well, yes, Greg, the problem is, indeed, in the White House. Snowden seems to be just another ignorant, naive liberal ideologue that believes utopia can be achieved if only enough people are trampled; Obama sold him that bill of goods and when he abrogated his promises (which most intelligent people laughed off anyway), in addition to the door to legally taking his concerns to Congress being slammed in his face by Mr. 180 degree himself, he took his hurt feelings (and thousands of top secrets) on the road.

Obama could have either not over-promised everything to everyone or could have upheld at least some of his promises. Instead, he just lies and blames the outcome on Bush. Snowden is the lowest of low life traitors, but if he actually believed Obama’s fiction, it is understandable how we now suffer for a lover scorned.

you can publish this damn thing. i am not afraid.i come from the land of mahatma gandhi.i am now a citizen of usa.i am ashamed to say that how stupid americans have voted for this illegal immigrant bastard .this country i love is ruled by liberal politician scoundrels who only scheme to stick to power by allowing low information hispanic idiots who want free foodstamps.i am ashamed.are you not?

@DrJohn, #5:

I honestly don’t think who’s currently president should have much to do with how we view Snowden’s actions. He somehow managed to maneuver himself into a position of trust, unlawfully accessed and copied classified information regarding a surveillance program that’s vital to our national security along with God-knows-what-else, made just enough of it public to damage the program and turn himself into a highly marketable international commodity, and then fled with it, apparently to take refuge in nation having competing global interests that would undeniably qualify as one of his two most likely customers.

@loourduswami durairaj, #11:

It strikes me as very odd that a respectful attitude toward Mahatma Gandhi and a negative ethnic stereotype such as low information hispanic idiots could occur in the same paragraph, let alone coexist in the same mind.

Snowden played the US to get into a situation so he could gather then sell information to high bidders like Communist China and Russia.
Seems he’s getting his wish.
Just how bad do the Russians hate the USA?
A new book is reviewed in the Daily Mail today.
It reveals: how a KGB operation seeded Muslim countries with anti-American, anti-Jewish propaganda during the 1970s, laying the groundwork for Islamist terrorism against U.S. and Israel.

The review of that book is here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2348191/EXCLUSIVE-KGB-operation-seeded-Muslim-countries-anti-American-anti-Jewish-propaganda-1970s-laying-groundwork-Islamist-terrorism-U-S-Israeli-targets.html

Remember: Putin is an old KGB operative.

@Greg:

Greg

What crimes has Snowden committed thus far? Hasn’t Obama’s use of the Espionage Act pushed Snowden to the extreme? Maybe if Obama wasn’t conducting a war on whistleblowers Snowden might not have left the country. As it is, I would not be shocked to hear of Obama incinerating Snowden with a Hellfire missile.

@Greg:

I honestly don’t think who’s currently president should have much to do with how we view Snowden’s actions.

That might fly if, Snowden hadn’t said this:

“Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes,” Snowden said in a Monday question-and-answer session with readers of The Guardian. “Many Americans felt similarly.”

Your bias in favor Obama is astounding. You’re talking in circles. Obama and his puppeteers’ House of Cards is falling down, and it’s time for the duped to shut up, mourn their own idiocy, and come back to the collective US community with something useful rather than more Obamania.

Obama is the farce many of us knew him (or more correctly, the people behind him) to be.

Everybody knows now, and those who defend him simply look like weak personalities trying to justify an abusive relationship . . .

…or simply idiots.

@Nathan Blue:

I made that point, Nathan. Obama brought this upon us. Some simply choose not to see it.

@drjohn: Sorry — I got it from the article and forgot to cite/thank you for it.

I thank you for pointing out that Snowden was a former-Obamaton.

I’m just getting tired of Obama defenders getting farther and farther away from truth, because they simply can’t admit they were wrong for “drinking the kool aid.” The time for silence from those who disagree with Obama and his faithful is now at an end. The lefties have tried to steam-roll the entire country, and when the pendulum swings back the other way, they are not going to be happy.

@Nathan Blue:

I hear you!

@Nathan Blue, #17:

It astonishes me that people would be defending Edward Snowden’s actions, sometimes even going so far as to cast him as some sort of American hero.

Have you even considered what the man has taken it upon himself to do, and how serious the damages to the nation could be? Or is it all just a matter of getting on whatever side of an issue seems the most in opposition to the current administration?

Most of us would feel very angry with Snowden and consider him a traitor, IF we trusted our Govt. But we don’t. We’ve learned in so many ways that our Govt cannot be trusted and clearly don’t have OUR best interests at heart. So how is Snowden any worse than our own Govt?

The Obama administration must be in full paranoia mode by now. They know that there are other Edward Snowdens hiding in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy. People who have access to information highly damaging to the Regime, and have absolutely no loyalty to Obama. And like Snowden, they’re waiting for just the right moment to kick the hornet’s nest and then run like hell.

@Greg: Nice trick — no one is defending his actions, they are merely printing what he said his own actions were based on. You can’t accept that he’s pissed that Obama is fraud. No conservative bias necessary: Snowden admits it all himself. I’m not sure who you’re talking to . . . though that might only be the usual attempt at rhetorical misdirection. Not sure.

I’m not sure if you were an opponent of Bush, but if so, it makes me laugh to hear you and so many other Obama supporters try to write off criticism of this admin as “hysteria,” since we saw real hysteria in the form of Bush Derangement Syndrome for eight years.

No, there aren’t hollywood actors railing against Obama like they did with Bush (instead, they support O to a fault). No replaying of Obama’s scariest statements over and over and over again.

No, there aren’t Green Day albums coming out just before the 2012 election as barely-masked anti-Obama propaganda. No Flobots, no Oprah endorsements of Romney, no pop-culture crazes and no SNL skits. There’s no 16 to 36 year old movement in entertainment targeting to paint Obama as an idiot.

All of the criticism you see is legitimate, and also being done by voices in society that the WH, hollywood, and pop-culture is trying to suppress.

There is no parallel, and there is no weight behind the accusation that party loyalty or “bias” is the hidden force behind Obama’s place as a very, very poor president.

Using America’s cultural ignorance, it’s ascendency of non-important people like George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, and an assortment of angry musicians, a cabal of rich, white overlords, both foreign and domestic, installed a cheap demagogue, a vacuous image of leadership propped up by billions in propaganda and misinformation.

Many of us saw through this and rejected it. The growing scandals, THE SCANDAL, which is that the WH was overtaken by interests other than the wishes of the people of the United States of America, is finally coming to light. Snowden’s comments show why he took his actions. He’s mad at Obama. Here. I’ll show it again from DrJohn:

Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes,” Snowden said in a Monday question-and-answer session with readers of The Guardian. “Many Americans felt similarly.”

Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes.

Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes.

Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes>

Do you get it yet? Obama is a fraud and people are waking up. That’s not bias — it’s fact.

Time for you to wake up and start being part of the solution rather than allowing the problem to fester on. Don’t care if you are liberal or conservative. Letting a fortune-backed demagogue hijack the nation isn’t permissible. Ever.

Well said, Nathan Blue!

@Greg:

You said:

Have you even considered what the man has taken it upon himself to do, and how serious the damages to the nation could be?

Could that not also be applied to Joe (Loose Lips Sink Ships Get Seal Team 6 Members Killed) Biden?
If you want to put Snowden on the rack, he needs to get in line right after our own Vice President, and a number of other Administration officials who have leaked sensitive national security secrets for the purpose of trying to heap laurels on the current occupant in the Oval Office.

How much national security information do you think the movie producers were allowed to have when they were permitted unprecedented access to the FBI/CIA in order to make a “feel good about Obama” movie about the killing of bin Laden?

Even Dianne Feinstein, hardly a conservative Republican, complained about the amount of national security secrets that were being leaked by this Administration. So if Obama wants to prove that he is serious about stopping the leaks, and going after the leakers, he needs to start with his own personnel. But he won’t, and so he will continue to get rolled not only by those whistle blowers who have had enough, but by the nations that understand you and your ilk helped elect the weak horse.

@jespasinthru, #22:

They know that there are other Edward Snowdens hiding in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy. People who have access to information highly damaging to the Regime, and have absolutely no loyalty to Obama.

It’s ridiculous and very dangerous to think about all of this in the narrow context of “the Obama Regime,” which is apparently some imaginary construct that’s currently central to right wing delusional thinking.

As I suggested in another thread, we’ve got to think about what Snowden has done in a much larger context. It isn’t “the Obama Regime” that he’s mainly put in danger. That danger transcends partisan politics, and will extend long beyond the end of the Obama administration, carrying over into whatever administration follows.

As far as I’m concerned, any politician who plays this politically also represents real danger to the nation—whether because of unacceptable priorities, or because he or she is just too damn uninformed or stupid to be making any decisions about national security.

@Greg:

I honestly don’t think who’s currently president should have much to do with how we view Snowden’s actions.

I tend to agree here. I see Snowden’s actions as an America problem; not an Obama problem.

I’m with Cheney: Snowden’s actions are that of a traitor.

@Nathan Blue:

I thank you for pointing out that Snowden was a former-Obamaton.

He’s only that in the same sense that anti-war libertarians share similarities with the anti-war ACLU-wing of the liberal side of the aisle.

He’s more properly a Ron Paul man; not a rah rah Obama supporter. He just bought into the campaign promises of ending all the things he and the Ron Paul non-interventionist/isolationist wing of the conservative side hated about the Bush administration (endless war, torture, Patriot Act, and so on…).

@retire05:

How much national security information do you think the movie producers were allowed to have when they were permitted unprecedented access to the FBI/CIA in order to make a “feel good about Obama” movie about the killing of bin Laden?

Apparently not much (article linked in comment #9).

@Greg:

As I suggested in another thread, we’ve got to think about what Snowden has done in a much larger context. It isn’t “the Obama Regime” that he’s mainly put in danger. That danger transcends partisan politics, and will extend long beyond the end of the Obama administration, carrying over into whatever administration follows.

As far as I’m concerned, any politician who plays this politically also represents real danger to the nation—whether because of unacceptable priorities, or because he or she is just too damn uninformed or stupid to be making any decisions about national security.

Well said.

Thiessen:

Any conservative still tempted to hail Edward Snowden as a hero needs to get a grip.

Consider the events of recent days: With the help of Communist China, Snowden has fled Hong Kong to the protective custody of Russia. He missed a scheduled flight to Havana (perhaps the KGB needed a little more time with him before allowing him to leave Moscow), and is now reportedly seeking asylum in Ecuador from the left-wing government of President Rafael Correa. Another potential destination is Venezuela.

If a man is known by his friends, Snowden’s friends represent the who’s who of anti-American sentiment in the world today.

Snowden is carrying laptop computers loaded with files of Top Secret information. He is transporting those classified documents around the world. No doubt China has already accessed those files during his stay in Hong Kong. Now it’s the KGB’s turn. Soon it will be Cuba’s or Venuzuela’s or Ecuador’s. Kim Jong Un must be seething at being the only one excluded from the party.

Every minute Snowden remains at large, he is damaging US national security. Not only are foreign intelligence services feasting on the classified information in his possession, while still on the lam in Hong Kong, Snowden publicly exposed details of US signals intelligence collection efforts against China and Russia, as well as those of our ally, Britain. That isn’t whistle blowing. It’s treason.

@retire05, #25:

You’re trying to change the subject, and divert the discussion back onto an approved line of thought, aren’t you?

@Greg:

Seriously Greg? No such thing as the “Obama Regime”? So I guess he isn’t REALLY using the IRS and the NSA and the DOJ and the EPA as his weapons against his political foes? Riiiiiiiiiiight. I guess it’s all just a coincidence because patriotic Americans really ARE terrorists. Idiot.

@Greg:

You’re trying to change the subject, and divert the discussion back onto an approved line of thought, aren’t you?

What is the subject, Greggie? Is it the leaking of what the NSA is doing and that comes under the heading of national security? If so, then the leaks that come out of the White House itself threatens national security and those leakers should be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, including the Big Mouth himself, Joe Biden.

“Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Monday that someone at the White House was responsible for the recent leaks of classified information.

“I think the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks,” Feinstein said in an address at the World Affairs Council, The Associated Press first reported.

Feinstein said she was certain that President Obama had not disclosed any of the classified intelligence, but believed others in the administration were responsible.

“I don’t believe for a moment that he goes out and talks about it,” she said of the president.

Last month, reports in the press detailing a U.S. cyberattack against Iran and an administration terrorist “kill list” provoked outrage on Capitol Hill and led to bipartisan calls for an investigation into the disclosures.”

http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/policy-and-strategy/239661-sen-feinstein-says-someone-at-white-house-is-behind-leaks

So while the Administration chases its own tail over Edward Snowden, it can’t seem to find leakers in its own midst.

The subject is not Snowden. The subject is the fact that this Administration can’t keep a secret any better than a 3rd grade girl.

@Wordsmith:

While The Hurt Locker was filmed during Bush’s term, the story line came from a reporter who had been imbedded with soldiers, not the FBI/CIA. And if you do not consider the bin Laden movie no more than a propaganda film for Obama, even if it was a terrible movie, you’re nuts.

No one is saying Snowden is a hero. He’s not. But he is no more a villain than those who are actually in this Administration that leak sensitive national security secrets like a sieve. If Snowden is guilty of treason, so are those in the White House leaking information that does not need to be leaked.

“Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor? I don’t care. You read right: I don’t give a whit about the man who exposed two sweeping U.S. online surveillance programs, nor do I worry much about his verdict in the court of public opinion.

Why? Because it is the wrong question. The Snowden narrative matters mostly to White House officials trying to deflect attention from government overreach and deception, and to media executives in search of an easy storyline to serve a celebrity-obsessed audience.”

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/why-i-don-t-care-about-edward-snowden-20130612

Read the entire article.

@Wordsmith:

What is it that makes Snowden a traitor thus far?

And how is what he’s done any different from Lichtblau and Risen?

And what culpability does Obama bear for creating the atmosphere of hostility towards whistleblowers to whom he pledged support prior to his election?

God forgive Snowden for believing what the Chicago Jesus spoke.

@Rachel, #31:

So I guess he isn’t REALLY using the IRS and the NSA and the DOJ and the EPA as his weapons against his political foes?

Correct. In my opinion, at least. There’s no evidence of it.

@retire05, #32:

The subject is not Snowden. The subject is the fact that this Administration can’t keep a secret any better than a 3rd grade girl.

I suspect there are plenty of secrets that are still being kept quite well, exactly as they should be. It would be naive to think otherwise.

@Greg:

I suspect there are plenty of secrets that are still being kept quite well, exactly as they should be. It would be naive to think otherwise.

So what you are saying is that as long as not ALL national security secrets are being leaked by this Administration, and its lackeys, that is OK with you. IOW, you support Obama because he is only partially incompetent.

@retire05: Come on now. Those leaks were being investigated by two highly competent federal prosecutors appointed by Eric Holder. They will get to the bottom of it. Don’t you trust Holder and Obama? It’s only been over a year. These things take time. Just because FOX found out in a week and a half who the SEAL was who supposedly revealed classified info in his book doesn’t mean the Obama Justice Dept. is stonewalling.

As for Snowden, he most likely signed a nondisclosure agreement and therefore broke the law by doing what he did. If he gave classified info to foreign governments, he is a traitor. Had he stopped with the domestic part of this, maybe he could be seen as someone who was looking out for the country even though he would still be criminally liable for what he did. He alone is responsible for his actions. I definitely agree that it is selective justice going after him but giving a pass to the intel leaks leaker(s).

@retire05, #38:

I suggest you worry about the clarity of your own statements, rather than expounding on what you imagine I actually meant by mine.

@DrJohn, #40:

And look at how easy it was to pry these secrets away from this pathetic regime.

There wasn’t any prying involved. What was involved is what might best be described as an act of treachery, or a betrayal of trust. That betrayal wasn’t of the Obama administration, but of the entire United States. It isn’t Obama’s safety and security that have been compromised.

I’m not really clear why the obvious has become so difficult to grasp: Edward Snowden has sold his country out. Consider where he’s gone and what he’s taken with him. This guy is no Eagle Scout. He is not selflessly sacrificing himself for Truth, Justice, and The America Way.

@Greg:

LOL. I guess you think OJ was innocent too.

Sometimes people reveal more than they realize.

The two topics are not even remotely related.

@Greg: You’re biased and putting things in a perspective that is pleasing to your own self-identity and world-view. You dodge every point made against you and pretend other people are “changing the subject.” You have no interest in the context of all of these scandals, including Snowden. You defend Obama at the cost of your own scruples.

Talk about people revealing more than they realize . . .

Indeed.

@Greg:

That proves that you have very poor reading comprehension. The unspoken TOPIC of my comment was your gullibility and obtuse refusal to accept facts. Clueless.

@Greg:

What was involved is what might best be described as an act of treachery, or a betrayal of trust. That betrayal wasn’t of the Obama administration, but of the entire United States. It isn’t Obama’s safety and security that have been compromised.

Do you believe that Edward Snowden should be prosecuted to the full extent of federal law for what you call his “act of treachery, betrayal of trust” for releasing U.S. classified material?

@Rachel, #47:

Gullibility? I’m not the one who’s convinced that fleeing to Moscow with a harddrive packed with stolen classified U.S. national security data was a selfless act of public service, calculated to make the nation safe from its own elected President.

@Greg:
Yes…Gullibility. And you might want to re-read my original post which says that “libertarians” do NOT go to Russia and that if he’s giving nat’l security info to foreign govts then he’s a traitor. He’s an Obama voter…so obviously he’s NOT a libertarian as someone suggested. He’s a LEFTY. And a traitor. That said, I’m still glad he exposed what this admin has been doing to American citizens. That’s a separate issues from giving other info to foreign govts. Try using a little common sense, Greg. Just a little will do.