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back to article Obama says US won't scramble jets or twist arms for Snowden

NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden can fly the friendly skies all he likes, President Obama has said, since the US won't send out jets to intercept his flight or engage in diplomatic arm twisting over extradition. "I'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," Obama said at a press conference during an official …

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    1. Salts
      Reply Icon
      Big Brother

      Re: The Rabid US Media

      @ Steve Davies 3

      Just out of paranoid interest, I am also in the middle east this week and my gmail is at a crawl but downloads are no problem at all, tin foil hat needed?

      Have to notice with a smile my gmail also correctly reports the last three countries I last logged in from.

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  2. John Savard

    Movie

    The paragraph at the end of the article, about the sequester and the cost of scrambling jets, reminded me of the movie THX-1138.

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  3. g e
    Meh

    "I'm not going to be scrambling jets"

    No. That's what minions are for.

    'He' will be on the Whitehouse lawn sipping 'Camommiilytea' with a smug grin safe in the knowledge of how those expensive-per-hour jets are bringing a 'traitor' to 'justice'.

    Presumably Justice is a small town in Arkansas/Cuba/Egypt or something, rather than the dictionary definition.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This went well then

    So we have a program rejected as illegal which is being run by the state. A whistle blower...no...leak...no...hacker...erm....well...errr who trashed his life to do what he considers the right thing. And then we have the outcome- nothing.

    This is impressive. The president is happy to leave this running. Maybe they have good reason, but still it is deemed illegal and it opens the possibility for future abuse of power. The people will leave it alone for all their talk of the right to overthrow the gov when they act against the people have been demonstrated as a pile of wet fish. And that leaves the international community. That is a guaranteed zip even though this program is theoretically aimed at them.

    I might be wrong but I dont think the US population have a clear vision nor a united idea. What is the limit? Here in the UK we are probably more useless but this is ment to be the whole point of the US.

    My predicted end result is that snowden is forgotten about over time. The US capture him about then. Snowden ends up in jail with nobody knowing or caring any more as they accept the status quo of surveillance.

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  5. Rhino
    Big Brother

    Freedom

    Wow! America hacks Chinese servers! Never knew that!

    Wow! America spies on Russia! Never knew that!

    Wow! Britain AND America has to spy on elements within their own countries because of 'internal terrorism'! Err...never...knew that...

    It's been happening since people used writing to communicate. Letters, phone calls, emails and mobile phone calls, have been 'intercepted' by security services since time immemorial. No information is safe if it's shared. What's the saying? Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Unfortunate, but true. By the way, I *do* know that espionage such as that outlined in the opening lines takes place...and Western nations have it done to us. It's life Jim...but perhaps not as we'd like it.

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  6. wolfetone Silver badge

    Maybe Obama can have a quick word with the Queen to get the guys who were involved in a particular car crash in Paris 1997 to sort Snowden out?

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  7. Miek
    Linux

    Labelling Snowden a Hacker is the first step in the smear campaign against him. He's in no way a "Hacker" but, in order to demonise this chap in the public eye, they first need to get media articles using these words to describe him.

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  8. MrMur

    "Arm twisting" - he never said that - he said he wasn't going to horse trade for him.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is not a felony

    Of course Obama says everything is squeaky clean in the police state.

    Look at the flip side. Suppose the snooping on Americans was found to be felonious. All those NSA personnel become criminal accessories to a felony, and would lose both their jobs and their pensions, and promptly begin to write books on all the other dirt in the police state machine.

    But there is a silver lining to the scenario. All those congress creatures that knew of the shenanigans would be punted. Not only that, but someone would squeal as to the true location of Jimmie Hoffa. Lets face it, Americans are more interested in locating Jimmie Hoffa and finding out where Elvis is presently living (of course he did not die, that was CIA misinformation!) than any government snooping-- at least as long as the snoops don't spill the beans to the IRS.

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  10. Don Quioxte
    Stop

    Obama won't twist arms for Snowden.....suuuuure he won't!

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57591675/ecuadors-flower-growers-hurt-by-snowden-situation/

    "The Obama administration sent a thinly veiled economic threat to this South American country on Thursday when it indefinitely delayed a decision to eliminate tariffs on imports of roses worth about $250 million a year. The move created leverage over the leftist government seen as likeliest to grant National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden political asylum that would protect him from U.S. criminal charges."

    The President says one thing, then twists arms behind the scenes. I may be a Democrat, but I';m not a *dumb* Democrat!

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    1. Colin Bain
      Reply Icon
      Megaphone

      Re: Obama won't twist arms for Snowden.....suuuuure he won't!

      Of course, Spain and Portugal simply refused the official airplane of the head of state of a South American country on their own whim!

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