I wonder if Snowden now realizes that he was a tool of Russia's soft war against the US

[Renew Deal]

(This is not related to the Assange arrest.) I wonder if he finally realizes that he was used by the Russians to harm the US. Does he realize that he was not some brave whistleblower being protected by the benevolent Russians? Does he finally realize that he is a traitor being harbored by those that wish to harm the US? Does he realize that no matter how badly the US acts at any given moment, there are those out there that are consistently and historically worse?

And I wonder if he could leave if he wanted to. Let’s say he comes to a moment of clarity and turns himself in. Would the Russians let him go?

[boston bean]

1. eh, I defended him at the time of the release because I thought it was important.

The second that creep went to Russia, his innate intentions of harming this country were revealed.

He aint no innocent baby who got rooked by russia.

[octoberlib]

2. You know who set up his Russian asylum

including meeting him in Hong Kong and escorting him there? Wikileaks employees. Pretty much says it all.

[boston bean]

5. yep. The left had been played by wikileaks since the beginning of the Iraq War.

That is when this shit began in earnest.

[True Blue American]

4. None of them re innocent, including Stone.

[JI7]

6. Chelsea Manning also with her recent actions

[Docreed2003]

9. +1

Right with you there

[delisen]

10. What were Snowden's options at the time?

One was return to the US and arrest. What were his asylum options elsewhere.

I have great respect for the whistleblowers such as Bill Binney before Snowden who were treated so badly by our government; and I have tremendous respect for Daniel Ellsberg.

Bill Binney told us, at great risk to himself, about how the NSA was illegally spying on us after 9/11. They did not need to do it to protect the US.

https://www.npr.org/2014/07/22/333741495/before-snowden-the-whistleblowers-who-tried-to-lift-the-veil

Why should I hate Snowden or have contempt for him-just because he chose to not be arrested?

There are things citizens in a democracy must know in order to hang on to a democracy. If we had been privy to what government knew about Russian interference in election 2016 to defeat candidate H Clinton because of her strong stand against Putin's aggression and opposition to human rights and democracy we would not be in the mess we are in today.

The only warnings we got were from the candidate herself and retired intelligence people and it was easy to the media to discount them or ignore those warnings.

[boston bean]

11. Face the consequences if you believe what you did was right and just. Not flee to Russia.

[delisen]

12. Do you think he could get a fair trial?

While he was in Hong Kong he was being threatened with 30 years in a country (the US) that had become more authoritarian and engaged in more imprisonment and harsher sentences than it was when Nixon was president and Daniel Ellsberg released documents.

The George w Bush years repressive government policies did not get significantly reversed afterwards. Unfortunately this will may be just as
true after Trump.

[boston bean]

13. Snowden was during Obama,no?

[True Blue American]

3. This is tied into

The Roger Stone case. All tied into Russian spying and the fools that helped them.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg

[WeekiWater]

7. The timing of so many things is interesting.

The Intercept Shuts Down Access to Snowden Trove

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-intercept-shuts-down-access-to-snowden-trove

[Hortensis]

8. No. People don't have to be insane to construct very different realities

from most others, and even directly contradictory but never allowed to conflict within oneself. Whenever he wants to believe a Russian intelligence conduit is a journalist, Wikileaks the press, he will.

The "voice of America" currently operating out of precarious temporary asylum in Russia:

Link to tweet

[pnwmom]

14. More than a tool. He was a witting agent. n/t