Snowden speaks..or maybe not..
Last edited Tue Jul 2, 2013, 12:13 AM - Edit history (1)
**UPDATED**
Within minutes of Edward Snowden releasing his first statement after eight days of silence, published on Wikileaks’ website, a number of journalists and others noticed something strange.
The language in the statement, between accusations that the Obama administration was employing “political aggression” and feared “an informed, angry public,” seemed to betray a tinge of non-American English. It was this line that first jumped out: “For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum.” As Slate’s Farhad Manjoo pointed out on Twitter, Americans refer to the United States as singular, rather than plural: one would expect Snowden, an American, to write “the United States of America has been.”
Alone, that wouldn’t seem to say much. But there were other details, such as the date on the letter, appended as “1st July 2013? rather than the typical American style. But maybe most eyebrow-raising of all is the statement’s fiery tone and dramatic cadence. “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,” the statement reads, a far cry from the straightforward, plainspoken voice Snowden has used in all other public comments.
The statement’s tone and word choice seems conspicuously similar to that of Julian Assange, the Australian and Wikileaks chief who has developed a reputation for his extremely distinctive writing style.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/07/01/some-see-julian-assanges-hand-in-new-snowden-statement/
= new reply since forum marked as read
“Given the fact that he feels that he is a human-rights defender, he is unlikely to stop such work, so that is why he should choose a country of destination and go there,” Putin said yesterday. “When that will happen, unfortunately, I don’t know.”
No rest for the weary!
((My prediction: Several very sensitive, delicate souls will put you on ignore after that post. And you will give nary a fuck.))
Sid
"unilaterally revoked..."
So, let me get this straight...the State Department revoked the passport of somebody charged with a fedeal felony known to be traveling abroad? Get outta here! They can do that?
Astonishing.
(Sarcasm tag not needed...)
@#$% you pal.
The Obama administration isn't afraid of me. They're my pals. I get more emails from them than from my family. 
Snowden's prose and tenor has improved tremendously since his 'TheTrueHOOHA' days.
Hmmmmm, I wonder whose mommy wrote this for him.
Collective nouns usually take a plural verb in British English ("Manchester United are expected to do well against Arsenal", as an example). Australian rules for collective nouns seem to be kind of...fuzzy.
Although as to the date format, it's "1 July", not "1st July". This date format is standard for military correspondence and for correspondence within national security agencies (see for instance the examples below).
