Obama refuses to barter over Snowden

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/06/201362713534987861.html

by monorail • 13 years ago

32 24 13 years ago

beat3• 13 years ago

If he's really refusing to barter, he must not want Snowden back that much.

More likely, this is Obama's equivalent of Reagan's "We do not negotiate with terrorists"... just a lie for the cameras.

ajross• 13 years ago

The corrolary to your argument would seem to be that Obama is negotiating with Russia for Snowden's release. It strikes me as more likely that he is not. The whole issue is a domestic nightmare, having turned Obama from "good guy" to "bad guy" in the eyes of many (notably the primary demographic of this site).

He doesn't want a trial for this guy. He just wants the issue to go away. The security damage has already been done, if you believe the bit about Snowden having distribute d encrypted copies of the documents, etc...

cube132• 13 years ago

And the fact that Snowden brought everything he had into Russia, and you have to be a complete idiot to believe Putin's line that nobody from the Russian government or intelligence has talked to Snowden about it, or gotten a copy yet.

beat3• 13 years ago

Indeed. Obama can play the diplomatic equivalent of "We do not negotiate with terrorists" (like "We do not negotiate with allies", I guess), as a machismo stance while Snowden conveniently walks free until he's forgotten by the mainstream American media and stops being a political problem.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn't buy Obama much with the people he's disappointed on this issue. But it does get the matter out of the public eye and prevent additional embarrassment.

gasull2• 13 years ago

I don't think there is any security damage, no matter what they claim. There is embarrassment because of the wrongdoing being revealed.

apalmer• 13 years ago

The cat is out of the bag, really catching snowden at this point is just to serve as an example for others, not in strategic value of its own...

China already has whatever they wanted from snowden, Russia already has whatever they wanted from snowden, Encrypted copies of his data are in the hands of probably dozens of journalists and ambasadors, and the story is already on the news...

beat3• 13 years ago

And if they wanted to make an example of Snowden, the last place they want him is in an American court of law, with cameras and stuff. Gitmo or some other extra-legal incarceration isn't much better, if it's public.

The best example would be for him to be disappeared. Let his encrypted secrets come to light, so it's obvious that he's either dead or getting tortured somewhere, and that the American government simply doesn't care about diplomatic niceties when it comes to silencing whistleblowers. That would be a lesson to the wary.

dmix• 13 years ago

Keeping the NSA's program(s) running would be easier if they keep Snowden out of the news.

Fighting with Russia for him would just draw more attention to it.

smoyer2• 13 years ago

Interesting comments so far ... I'm more incensed that Obama called him a hacker. There was absolutely no hacking as he had a security clearance to work with (and apparently copy) the data he was responsible for.

slg• 13 years ago

While he might not be a hacker in our minds, whether he was permitted to access the documents he did is still up for debate. If he accessed them without permission, that would be enough to qualify him as a hacker under some definitions.

potatolicious• 13 years ago

It's still a pretty wild stretch of the term. By that notion, trespassing through an unlocked door would make me a locksmith.

smoyer2• 13 years ago

Or perhaps a cracker if you believe in the original usage of the word.

Bosence• 13 years ago

Demonize him and also case your state for requiring internet monitoring in a single blow. It's done very intentionally.

tekacs• 13 years ago

Just having security clearance doesn't mean that he absolutely didn't necessarily do any 'hacking' to get the data - he may well not have had direct access to the data in question, clearance or not.

deletes• 13 years ago

>it took two months for the country to make a decision in the case of Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblowing website Wikileaks, and that Snowden's case would take at least as long from the time the request was filed.<<

Snowden might be in Russia for some time.

gasull2• 13 years ago

The headline should be "Obama says he refuses to barter over Snowden". And every time a politician says something, that's just PR. What matters is what politicians do.

lukashed• 13 years ago

"What's more, Ecuador offers the United States economic aid of $23 million annually, similar to what we received with the trade benefits, with the intention of providing education about human rights" well played, Ecuador.

vog• 13 years ago

I wish some European states would have that much courage.

However, at least here in Germany this is unthinkable, given the number of human rights violations we still have to fix here in our own country.

Obama refuses to barter over Snowden

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