Snowden: If 'Country Is Helped,' Ending Up in Ditch 'Worth It'

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/01/22



In New Yorker interview, NSA whistleblower says 'I acted alone' and calls spy accusations 'absurd'

Snowden: If 'Country Is Helped,' Ending Up in Ditch 'Worth It'
- Jon Queally, staff writer
Published on Wednesday, January 22, 2014 by Common Dreams

Edward Snowden says that even if he ends up in "a ditch" some day, if his acts help his country, then it will all have been worth it.

Mike Rogers, a Republican congressman from Michigan who is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, took to the Sunday news show circuit to make unsubstantiated claims that whistleblower Edward Snowden was possibly working for Russian intelligence when he downloaded and subsequently leaked a trove of internal documents from his one-time employer, the National Security Agency.

But in an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Snowden called such claims 'absurd,' telling investigative journalist Jane Mayer, using encrypted email, that he “clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no assistance from anyone, much less a government.”

"This 'Russian spy' push is absurd," Snowden told Mayer, and made the point that he wasn't welcomed in Russia with open arms, but was stranded in the Sheremetyevo International Airport (stripped of his passport by the U.S. government it's worth nothing) for over a month before his temporary asylum was granted. "Spies get treated better than that," he said.

[fasttense]

1. Russian Spies?

Really? I thought it was 2014 not 1985.

[tridim]

2. "Spies get treated better than that"

How exactly does Snowjob know how Russian spies are treated?

[bemildred]

3. He knows they don't get stuck at the airport for a month for lack of someplace to go.

And the US government would not be acting like asses, if they really thought so. They could deal with that, a real spy, that fits their world view. That's why they push it. Good enemies are hard to find.

[tridim]

4. I know he stated that he knows, I want to know why he knows.

Most people in the world don't.

[bemildred]

5. Good luck. nt