Funny business with Snowden, courtesy of the Russians.

[MADem]

I heard this reported on NECN, but haven't heard a retraction.

Sorry for the Faux Snooze link, but there it is:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/09/russian-official-snowden-accepts-venezuela-offer-asylum/

Russian official claims Snowden accepts Venezuela asylum offer -- then removes tweet


Are the Russians trying to kick the guy out???

[Cleita]

1. Yes, from day one if you've been paying attention but they don't want to hand

him over to us.

[MADem]

2. I think they want to jerk our chains.

You don't find it odd that a Russian politician spoke for Snowden? That he did not speak for himself?

[Cleita]

4. Well, I've been finding it odd that there have been no sightings of Snowden at

all at the airport. You know that reporters would try to interview hotel maids, guards, room service anything. The guy has to eat and take care of bodily functions. In this day and age I thought there would be cell phone photos taken of him and sold to the media. But there has been nothing. No one saw him on the flight from Hong Kong to Moscow he was supposed to be on either. I don't think he actually ever left Hong Kong and that the Moscow ruse is a distraction until he finds and gets to a safe haven.

I think this is why the Russians want it over or they too will have egg on their face and I believe they know he's not there. I could be wrong, but so far nothing has happened to make me change my theory.

[xtraxritical]

7. He's being detained in a secure hotel room.

How he's expected to get a passport under the circumstances is just nuts. The Rooskis are "passively" handing him back to the USA by hamstringing him.

[Cleita]

8. You mean like a cement block "hotel" room in the Kremlin?

I wouldn't doubt it. Another one of my possible scenarios. Another DUer posited that once Putin gets his hands on the information he has, he will probably be found floating down the Volga with a bullet in his head. It's okay if they get the information and destroy it. Enough of the lid of the secret spying has been pried off for the world to look inside and see what's happening. That and the Morales' plane diplomatic fiasco will lead to maybe challenging and changing of these abuses.

[MADem]

11. I like the plastic surgery theory....it's given me the biggest amusement thus far.

A surgeon with a heavy hand can certainly make a person look...unrecognizable!



There's not much they can't change...if he's willing...

[flamingdem]

13. My theory: They took him for plastic surgery at a Russian hospital and he came out looking like

[MADem]

18. That is hilarious...and very do-able, too.

He's got the right coloring; with contact lenses and some electrolysis to thin the hair, then put a few pound on him...boom goes the dynamite!

And he could get a job as Pootie's double!

[Cleita]

22. Don't need anything that extreme. Dress him up like a babushka and walk him

to the train station and he can probably travel incognito through Europe and then board a tramp freighter in Calais to Venezuela dressed as a woman.

[bunnies]

3. Heres your hat, whats your hurry?

Seems to be Russias feeling toward him.

[MADem]

9. Bingo. Putin knows that the big opportunity Russia has to host Obama will go out the window

if Snowden is still there.

The WH has said the visit is cancelled if Snowden is still hanging at the airport. The clock is ticking. September is less than two months away.

Of course, maybe Obama isn't too thrilled about visiting anyway. George Bush almost bit the big one a thousand miles from Moscow, in the same region:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Arutyunian

They aren't too welcoming in that part of the world....and the security is a bit sketchy, too. They wouldn't have caught that guy that tried to off Porgie without the US FBI, ironically enough.

[bunnies]

10. holy crap!

Thanks for the link. I dont remember hearing about that! Cant say I blame Obama if he doesnt want to go there. A grenade?!

Putins gotta know that the longer Snowdens there, the more damage will be done to US - Russia relations. I know he loves to poke the US in the eye but now that he's got that out of his system.... Time to go, Ed.

[MADem]

14. That was one country over--in Georgia....but they were all part of the old USSR.

And we all know that Putin is an old USSR guy.

I'd be very cautious if I were Obama. I'd be ordering a new suit of clothes from Colombia--down to the underwear.

(There's a world-renowned outfitter of "ballistic clothing" in Colombia--his stuff is stylish, undetectable, and it stops bullets. )

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/09/26/110926fa_fact_owen

ANNALS OF FASHION about the bulletproof clothing created by Miguel Caballero. Caballero’s company, which is based on the outskirts of Bogotá, Colombia, makes fashion-oriented body armor, and sells it mainly to executives, celebrities, political figures, and others who have security concerns but don’t want to dress like members of a SWAT team. Popular items include a three-button blazer, a V-necked wool sweater, a Nehru vest, and a polo shirt. Caballero also makes bulletproof camouflaged hunting clothes, to protect hunters from misdirected shots fired by their companions. Carolina Ballesteros, who is the company’s design director and Caballero’s fiancée, said that being shot by her boyfriend is “very normal”: he has more than two hundred employees and has shot most of them at least once, a practice that encourages team loyalty and close attention to quality control. Caballero’s sales have roughly doubled annually in recent years, and his marketing ambitions, increasingly, are global. When he started making bulletproof garments, nineteen years ago, his customers were almost exclusively Colombian. Today, ninety-eight per cent of his production is for export. Tells about the company’s origins and its first product, a bulletproof leather jacket. Those first jackets were heavy—fifteen or sixteen pounds. Making them lighter required years of experimentation and a significant investment in technology, and it drove up the price. But the company’s primary customers have always been concerned more about comfort and discretion than about cost, and the business grew rapidly. By the late nineties, Caballero said, the company had developed its own bulletproof material. The sale of body armor is closely regulated in many countries, to prevent criminals, terrorists, and other undesirables from making themselves more difficult to apprehend. Caballero does background checks on his customers and he won’t sell to anyone who, for example, appears in the U.S. Treasury Department’s voluminous listing of “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons.” Tells about clothing Caballero has made to protect priests and journalists. Mentions the bulletproof clothing worn by Ned Kelly and Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Writer visits DuPont’s laboratories to learn about the development of Kevlar and other materials.

[bunnies]

15. No kidding.

He should probably get more than one.

Maybe that designer should start selling kids clothes to people in the US... considering all the "accidents" happening lately.

[MADem]

17. He does--most of his stuff is for export. He can recreate articles of clothing, too.

He will make clothing for anyone--man, woman, child.
His kid's line is more recent, but it's in production! He's the guy doing the bulletproof backpacks, too.

http://nbclatino.com/2013/01/03/colombian-bulletproof-clothing-designer-launches-childrens-line-of-vests-and-backpacks-after-sandy-hook-tragedy/





Say you have a great suit that you really like--he can follow the lines of it and make a near duplicate that will stop bullets. He makes coats, hats, even umbrellas! Amazing stuff and he will manufacture to order--not cheaply of course. Very high quality, though--he's the go-to guy in the business.

[bunnies]

20. thats awesome!

Im amazed at how "normal" the clothes look! I hadnt gone to the site before but now that Im looking at, the clothes look incredibly well made. Very impressive. If I were the President, Id probably wear his stuff exclusively.

At the same time though, its incredibly sad that we live in a world where kids need bulletproof backpacks. Kids for crying out loud. Its so twisted.

[MADem]

21. I agree with everything you are saying.

I grew up without computers, cell phones, and for half my childhood, television--and when we had it, it was black and white--but I wasn't confined to my yard, forced to have parents hovering over me day and night, sent on things called "play dates," (WTF).... and not being allowed the freedom to do stupid stuff like ride your bike until dark, build forts in the woods, or go swimming with a bunch of friends without parental supervision.

There were creepy people in the world back then, too, but I had parents who told me that not all adults were well meaning and if I got a bad feeling my job was to run, run, run and tell, tell, tell. Since I came from a family of pretty well-behaved kids, my parents knew we weren't bullshitters. If we said something was "off," it was "off." Not all kids have good parents like that, ones that listen actively--I was lucky.

[bunnies]

23. I grew up much the same way.

We had TV and cable (years later). Oh, and an Atari. But I certainly wasnt allowed to just park it and stare at the tube or play games. There was a group of kids Id hang out with and, like you, we were free to roam the neighborhood ourselves and no one ever worried about us. We never thought about being kidnapped or even considered that we could get shot. I mean... it just wasnt even a reality for us then. And we sure as hell knew never to touch the gun cabinet. Not one of us ever suggested it even once.

We got "Its a nice day, go outside, play with your friends". So we'd go to the train tracks or the park or ride bikes or something. Kid stuff. So, I cant imagine what it must be like to grow up in the here and now. These kids dont get to have the fun or freedom that we did when we were young.

I think we're the last of the analog generations. Its all technology all the time from here on out. I think a lot of peoples lives lack balance.

[winter is coming]

5. IMO, Putin doesn't want to be seen as being compliant with the U.S., but

he also doesn't want to piss us off too much. He wants to be frenemies, not open enemies.

[MADem]

16. Yeah, and he needs Snowden GONE before Sep--otherwise Obama won't come visit him,

and that will make him look baaaaaad!

He's got the Olympics coming up, too--doesn't want to annoy us too much....

[randome]

6. First he has to find his way out of the transit hotel.

It's not as easy as it seems.



[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font]
[hr]

[flamingdem]

12. Der Snowdermaus

[HipChick]

19. LOL!