Edward Snowden, judo master?
Edward Snowden is a judo master, or perhaps I mean a ju-jitsu master. I mean the form of hand-to-hand combat in which you use your opponent's own weight and momentum to lay him out flat on the floor.
On this Wednesday, July 3, 2013, I reflect that during the last week, the American government has become the object of united and angry reaction from our European friends and allies, countries who sent troops to assist our invasion of Afghanistan, because we've been spying of their citizens as well as our own. In the last twenty-four hours or so, we have succeeded in angering all the presidents of South America because somebody believed a rumor that Mr. Snowden was on an aircraft leaving Russia for Bolivia. Did somebody panic? Whatever happened, the pilot certainly believed he couldn't fly across France, Portugal, or Spain, and he couldn't land in Italy. France either did or did not refuse use of its airspace. The U.S. government either did or did not pressure three or four or more countries to give no cooperation to this airplane, thus forcing it to land somewhere, where it was either searched or not, for Mr. Edward Snowden. I really cannot imagine a more magnificent cock-up. A monumental diplomatic FUBAR. The number of different stories we are getting tonight is significant. Nobody wants to be associated with any part of it.
Europe is ticked off, and South America is ticked off. China made its attitude clear when it found flaws in the extradition request we sent to Hong Kong, and Russia is clearly having a great time sheltering Mr. Snowden while laughing at America's pretensions at being a haven for political asylum seekers. There are few countries, or even continents, left who aren't ticked off with us at the moment.
The three-hundred pound bully lunged for Mr. Edward Snowden in the transit lounge of a Moscow airport, and wound up sprawled on the floor with his breath knocked out of him, and at least one American citizen, me, laughing.
President Obama has played it cool, which is his style, and assured us he's not going to scramble any jets to scoop up Mr. Snowden. But the actions of his government belie his cool disdain for this lowly IT leaker. His government appears to have tried very hard to bag Mr. Snowden. And failed. And not just failed, but failed loudly, in public, in front of several countries who were already ticked off about the extent of our intrusion on their privacy.
There was a meeting held a few years ago, probably after 9/11/01, at which a bunch of people from the NSA, the CIA, and various other federal agencies were discussing just how much data on American communications they could gather, at taxpayers' expense, of course. And a plan was proposed. And there was someone at this meeting, or another meeting before or after it, who said, in pretty clear terms, "Of course, this is flagrantly unconstitutional. And if this ever gets out to our allies, our name will be mud." This person was assured, reassured, massaged, and reassigned. In short, ignored. And this person gave up that battle, and retired from the field. And was right. When did our government lose the ability to imagine how people would feel about being relentlessly spied upon? At what point did the government's small voices of sanity get shown the door, and advised not to let it hit them on the way out?
I don't mind paying for security, but I mind paying for total incompetence.
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