NSA
Uh but the US/NSA have shown time after time they can't be trusted on their word. They'll just agree that he can travel without being bothered and then force the plane to land and that will be the end of it.
NSA squealer Edward Snowden has offered to pop over to Germany to help investigate allegations that Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone was tapped by US spies. German Green Party MP Hans-Christian Stroebele met Snowden in Moscow, Russia for three hours on Thursday - the lawmaker said on his website [in German]. The two men …
It ain't gonna happen. The moment he sets foot on German soil the US will file an extradition request and then he'd be totally dependent on Russia agreeing to take him back again.
And he still has the problem of how to fly to Columbia (or wherever it was that offered him asylum) without crossing US airspace.
Maybe/Maybe not. Depends on how its handled.
If the germans have parliamentary enquirys or Grand Juries or something similar its quite possible for Snowdon to agree to testify in return for immunity from Prosecution/Extradition.
That would be a poke in the eye for the Leftpondians.
Dear Anonymous Coward-
Edward Snowden is one of very few people who saw a wrong and at great personal risk, decided to right it. He is a HERO in the eyes of many Americans-myself included-and every day that passes brings me hope some of the thousands of others guarding "state secrets" will take a look around the world and see that protecting the US pocketbook; like global domination of petroleum interests, allowing major oil companies to buy up patents and inventions to save fuel, and then hiding them in Indiana Jones-like warehouses to insure they never see the light of day, is morally wrong. Those keeping the secret that we have advanced technologies like zero-point energy, antigravity vehicles, and achieved faster-than-light speed before Star Trek was even written need to get out from under the umbrella of doing it for the home team, and recognize we are a global community of people suffering from needs the privatization of these reverse-engineered devices could bring to everyone. Come forward. Share Secrets. The only true treason is witholding from your fellow human beings those things that could end hunger and poverty forever. Free Energy Disclosure NOW!!!
@AC SF tech: whilst I agree with the sentiment in general, bringing lunacy like ZPE, anti-gravity and FTL travel doesn't help. There is no evidence for any of them, and, if they existed, someone in another country would have found them too.
Please, don't buy into the far end of the conspiracy-nut spectrum just because the near end has been proven by Snowden's evidence.
@AC-Nutter
If ZPE, Anti-Grav and FTL drives existed it doesn't matter how big your corporation is and how oil dependant it is you couldn't keep a lid on those kind of discoveries. The day an oil company gets ZPE is the day it becomes a power company, they could provide power for the entire planet for cents per megawatt and and it's 100% pure profit, they would become the richest company on the planet.
I wouldn't trust the US government as far as I would throw them. He should stay put in the country he fought so hard to get asylum in until his 2 years are up, and then reevaluate his position. The NSA may well monitor his video call to the Germans (I'd be really surprised if they didn't), but that's better than risking life imprisonment getting on a plane.
ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Annoying traitor is annoying. Yes Anna Chapman is hot, but she's really not so hot that she's worth betraying your country for.
Snowden has had his 5 minutes of fame, so can he please pipe down now? Yes, we know you didn't like what the NSA did, no its not really suprising that they do it.... Please can we not turn this guy into Assange 2.0 where he lingers like a bad smell, dreaming up new allegations every time the media focus moves elsewhere?
@hplasm
*Yawn*
Both Assange and Snowden are cowards. They both knew what the penalties are for what they chose to do, well in advance of actually doing it, then hid like roaches in the light rather than growing a pair of balls and taking the punishment for it.
Acceptance of the punishment for your crimes is what seperates a conscientious objector from a treacherous coward.
"their security services are, thinking they have the right to spy on everyone else"
That's kind of what security services do, especially the spying ones. If I was funding the NSA and they weren't spying on everyone they could I'd be pretty pissed off.
Obviously no spy agency thinks they have the right to do these things, otherwise they wouldn't try so hard not to get caught.
I dunno, my supply of national secrets is rather pathetic and uninteresting (i.e. non-existent), so an offer of Anna C would seem, on the face of it, pretty good value for them. At least from my perspective, if not from anybody else's. :-)
"Please can we not turn this guy into Assange 2.0 where he lingers like a bad smell, dreaming up new allegations every time the media focus moves elsewhere?"
You know that Snowden has leaked all he's going to leak, right? It's the newspapers (well, the Guardian) that are staggering the release of what he leaked.
Besides showing outdated information, what would his value be, besides raising the exposure level ?
Not to take value away from what he did, for what I'm very thankful, he's was just a hired techie who took a lot of data with him. (and with every day the value of that data will become less relevant)
Let's pretend for a moment that Snowden is actually intending on moving himself from Russia to Germany (he's most likely not, but let's pretend).
Not only would he have to get binding assurances from Germany. He'd need assurance from Russia that he wont be lawyered out of his asylum because of some weird law.
He'd need assurances from any country he plans to cross - whether by land, sea, or air - that he wont be stopped and have his journey extended by a couple of thousand of kilometres (landing him in the US/Guatanamo Bay), he'd probably need assurances from the other EU countries too that the EU wont try to step in once he's within the EU.
There's just way too much stuff that could go wrong - especially when a video call could probably be just as good!
No need for weird laws: I don't know what he signed or did not, but IIRC Mr. Putin has publicly conditioned the grant of the asylum on Snowden "stopping to hurt the US". It is not a stretch to consider his testimony in the matter as "hurting the US".
IMHO, even if he testifies over Skype or equivalent he should first get written guarantees from the Russian government that his asylum will not be revoked.
Shooting down Snowden's plane would make for an excellent story.
Especially considering he's has (probably) already leaked everything to others.
The result would be a lot - a LOT - of angry Germans (and Europeans).
Some very frustrated Americans
And
A whole lot of diplomatic discussion - if not an actual war.
May I suggest that the reality of the situation is that no laws have been changed. He is still a fugitive (officially). The infrastructure is still in place. The UK govt is digging itself a hole.
Isnt this part of the media spin cycle? As someone has mentioned the Chancellor only became sympathetic when it was "discovered"/published? she was the victim of the surveillance...
Is there a firefox plugin that shows news threads/topics over time, so the patterns are more obvious....;-)
P.
well, it's not a FF plugin, but a quick look at this scraper website often reveals a story somewhere that UK/US mass-media somehow overlook
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/Current+Affairs/War+%26+Terrorism/Intelligence/Secret+Services
I do open this in FF with NoScript etc to deny the myriad facebonk/fbcdn/googleapi links,
NewsNow's "Top Stories" & "Previous Top Stories" give an excellent pattern analysis - but its DIY at present
"Have you forgotten? Germany's real pissed with the US atm." I suppose you refer to the US kind suggestion Germany should produce and export less and learn from the US how to spend more time at McDonalds by more Apples, increase the deficit and live a happy and obese life, American style. Sorry.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304073204579169454159735052?mod=WSJEurope_hpp_LEFTTopStories
Reading through those comments was sort of "fun", nobody seems to remember any more that the coffer was emptied by Bush the lesser.
Anyway I hope either Germany or France have the balls to give Snowden asylum.
What "testimony" could Snowden possibly give the German government at this time that was even remotely worthwhile?
Was the NSA spying on Germany? Absolutely. They spy on everyone, that's what they are paid to do. Are they still spying on them? Duh. You'd have to be a moron to think otherwise.
So, we move along. The fact that the NSA was apparently successful in spying on Merkel should be a condemnation of the German intelligence services. If I was the German Chancellor I wouldn't bother calling the US President about it, instead I'd be in the process of replacing the people responsible for keeping my conversations private as they have completely and utterly failed at their task. Certainly I wouldn't bother bringing snowden in. I might send the guy a thank you card for pointing out how my own government and swiss cheese had a lot in common but that would be about it.
Do the various US intelligence agencies (NSA, CIA, DIA, etc) spy on foreign governments? Yes. Does the US spy on foreign governments they are supposedly friendly with? Yes. If for no other reason than to make sure they are staying friendly. To do otherwise would be a dereliction of their duty.
Does the US spy on their own citizens? Yes - and this is the real point of contention but it is a local issue within the US as it's against constitutional law. However, it has been almost completely ignored. I'm sure Obama is happy that the stupid health care website has been crap because that story has eclipsed this one.
Hearing countries like France, Germany and the UK complain over US spying is laughable. Here's a clue: secure your own borders and communications. Oh... wait, you say that it would then make it harder for you to spy on your own citizens? Well that's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black don't you think?
So, my message to those governments: Grow a pair and fix your own problems.
Rational comments are not approved in this forum. Since you have a badge, I assume you fell out of your chair and suffered a terrible head injury resulting in amnesia but luckily you remembered to post on El Reg, I’ll remind you of a few El Reg rules.
Never let facts get in the way of a good rant. Ever.
Microsoft is the Devil (they poke puppies in the eyes!)
Apple is the Devil (they poke kittens in the eyes!)
Google is the Devil (they poke baby seals in the eyes!)
Linux is the Devil (they poke themselves in the eyes!)
There is no such thing as God/Devil
Any article about the USA or any USA based company is an opportunity to bash on the USA and its citizens even though the USA has been protecting Europe since WWII
Edward Snowden is the savior of the free world, even though all he did was to give countries much worse than the USA a road map of how to setup spying (India is taking the lead in this with more to follow)
If someone posts a 1000 word article, they do not want a rational discussion. They are asking you to point out all of their spelling and grammar mistakes.
These are just a few of the rules to help get you back on your feet. I would pray for you but see the rules above.
"Any article about the USA or any USA based company is an opportunity to bash on the USA and its citizens even though the USA has been protecting Europe since WWII"
Let me try to explain a bit about that, If a foreigner is bashing my country then I might feel a bit pissed off, if somebody in my country does the same then it might not piss me off in the same way. If some foreigner is bashing your country then you might get pissed off too in the same way, understandably. But there is a difference, the USA is just too important to ignore, too important to fail. My country will not cause the next financial crisis or the next world war. You have to understand that difference and accept it. Next, non of the often very good reasons to bash the USA are invented in Europa or elsewhere. They are problems intelligent people in the USA detect and are worried about, and that is one of the fine and valuable features in the US population. And then there is this stereotype bashing of people, the Germans are like this, the French like that and so on, That is stupidity. When Europeans bash the USA it's more about the Government and how it behaves and in that respect you Americans are very similar even if I must admit you seem to think that you have no personal responsibility for your government. As for defending the world I would agree on that up till the Vietnam war. Afganistan I can understand. But the Irak war has nothing to do with defending anybody. That was seen before the start by most Europeans and to look at a "good" guy presenting his Hollywood Donald Duck slides in the UN was unpleasant, spooky. I think quite a few Americans feel the same today.
As for bashing companies I would bash Monsanto as the top one. Everybody to his taste. I would suppose you might bash some company too even if it was American.
Grammar and spelling mistakes, well I hate the fact that I make them and sometimes I think it's a bit unnecessary that people find the time point it out. Then again this is an English site and there is this feeling among the English that you Americans are abusing the language. Color and coluor and so forth. Just accept it. Then there is the question how to pronounce the language and that makes it even more difficult. If you want to listen to something really odd and hard to understand English then spend some time in England, I have. Then again the most pleasant "English" I have ever heard was a colored IT guy from down south Mississippi, go figure, but I am a outsider.
Speculation, Mr. Lively, is that part of Snowden's information includes the same things Scotland's famous hacker, Gary McKinnon discovered: We are not alone. We have never been alone. Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids using levitation, just like the Coral Castle guy in Florida. We have zero-point energy, anti-gravity, and reverse-engineered spacecraft the size of two football stadiums. All of this is hidden because the USA and friends wants to keep all the marbles. They fear the entrance of China, India and Africa on the same playing field.