Edward Snowden has issued a statement tonight through Wikileaks. He’s not very happy with President Obama.
STATEMENT: by Edward Snowden from Moscow http://t.co/aDKgLy1xya #snowden #wikileaks #nsa #prism
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 1, 2013
It is posted in its entirety below, from its page at the Wikileaks website.
One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.
This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
Edward Joseph Snowden
Monday 1st July 2013
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Comments
Sounds like this dude didn’t take into account all of the BAD things that might happen if/when he pulled a stunt like this.
I’m sure that in the blockbuster Hollywood movie that he has spooling in his little head, he is the good-looking star who saves the world, and everything works out exactly the way it is “supposed” to.
Instead, he’s getting a front-row seat to the horror that is “real life”, where nothing ever happens the way that you thought it would.
And once his usefulness is gone, he’s going to find out just how much other countries SUCK when it comes to “civil” rights.
Putin ain’t playin’ pattycake with Bammy, and there isn’t a thing that Bammy can do about it.
Wonder if Mr. Snowden knows yet that Obama views him as nothing more than a “29-year-old hacker”, deserving of no more than sneering disdain and contempt from his president?
These folks learned about “Russian hospitality” the hard way:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Forsaken-American-Tragedy-Stalins/dp/1594201684
Fortunately for Mr. Snowden, more than a few people know that he is in Russia right now; like Roosevelt, however, Mr. Obama is probably thinking he doesn’t really want this young man back in the US any time soon, causing trouble for his “historic legacy”…..
Sorry Ed, asylum isn’t a right for everyone. It’s for the politically persecuted, not suspected criminals.
Few politically persecuted individuals escape accusations of criminality by their persecutors, so your fine distinction is not very illuminating. More interesting is this meditation on what Snowden possibly overlooked (though at least this observer allows that he may have realized the risks attending his chosen course):
http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2013/06/24/what-snowden-didnt-know/
I wonder how Obama would act if the Taliban captured this guy and said “Give us a million dollars or else”.
Snowden is very impressive. He just called out Obama for being 2 faced. What’s O going to do when this hits the newsstands tomorrow?
Another disappointed Obama voter?
Just like George Zimmerman and Paula Deen.
The Left eat their own.
He voted third party
Maybe San Francisco will offer itself as a sanctuary city for Snowden.
He’s not gay (unless he’s bisexual, in that case perhaps); he had a girlfriend.
My sinking feeling is that conservatives are getting behind the surveillance state. It is a bad idea.
“In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.”
Snowden’s statements to date have provided ample evidence of a thoughtful independent spirit who has carefully counted the cost (including the cost of snarky dismissals by midget-souled people like BO and teresainfortworth, a small price to pay). His modest academic credentials are likely a significant part of the reason that he failed to fit into the usual Dilbert-like cubicle mentality, eternal grousing and passive-aggressive responses to absurdity and venality. His Seven Lesson Schoolteachers failed to squeeze him into the mold occupied by so many of his detractors.
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=11375
If you mean to say he avoided indoctrination by not going to college, thus became an independent thinker..
…I’ve noted that from day one.
So the skinny little creep is unhappy about losing his passport.
Show me in the Constitution where it says that you can have one.
Sovereignty means that the State, in the end, controls its borders both in and out. That’s been accepted common law and international law for a long time.
The skinny little creep is still a citizen. If he wants to come home we can arrange that — boy, can we. But he doesn’t get a passport he can use to continue his flight from our law enforcement.
Bet he didn’t think of that when he took off for Hong Kong.
“Sovereignty means that the State, in the end, controls its borders both in and out. That’s been accepted common law and international law for a long time.”
Please forward this information to the federal government immediately. It is clear they have no idea.
It’s hard to see Snowden or Manning as any worse traitors or enemies of the State than this administration.
It’s The Season For Treason: http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-season-for-treason.html
This list is by no means complete:
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/06/president-barack-obamas-complete-list.html
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