The greatest damage done by the Snowden revelations has not been to US security. It has been to the US's reputation and supposed moral authority.
It has been interesting to watch the overseas reaction to the revelations, something most Americans probably are not aware of. The anger over the revelations and the delight in the flight of Snowden has been fascinating to watch.
On the lighter side it has been amusing to watch the media chasing of Snowden to the point where the plane that he is supposedly not on is filled with legions of reporters now going to Havana ... with no booze on the plane. Hah!
Not exactly from the playbook of how to win friends and influence people. Unfortunately the Obama approach is now looking more like the Bush approach every day, with so many of the gains he had made in rebuilding America's reputation now rapidly melting away under the glare of the non-US media.
1. First there was the rather small and quiet crowd that showed up for the Obama speech in Berlin. It seems Germans are not too keen on being spied on again.
2. Some of the Irish were none to happy either.
3. The Chinese were not impressed and basically ignored a US request for extradition (there were some errors in the paperwork) and a cancelling of Snowden's passport. You think they might be thrilled with the spying allegations? The Russians too are not being overly cooperative. I wonder why?
4. Ecuador though not overly friendly with the US added the following ... from the foreign minister at a press conference today in Hanoi
He is noting Wikileaks source Bradley Manning's "cruel and inhuman treatment" by the US.
also
In the last few days the word treason has been mentioned, he says. We have to ask who has betrayed whom?
5. The most interesting to read have been the comments on the Guardian website. It is important to realize that the UK has imported the US approach to a large degree, even having 250 NSA employees stationed in the UK. That does not mean the people are happy ... and at least in the UK there is one paper that is keeping up the charge against the US approach.
So to save you some time ... and to avoid the NSA tracking your linking to a foreign site that has revealed national secrets ... enjoy!
If he does indeed get on that plane and fly to Havana, that will be the biggest Fuck You the US has received for a long, long time. And rightfully so!
I sense a genuine change in how the world perceives the US... it really seems that we are beyond fear, beyond any kind of respect, and we just want them to go the hell away. They Suck! ;)
They did more damage to themselves than anyone could ever imagine. The worst of it all is this pathetic, condescending and wholly-21st century incompatible idea of "non-US person". I am one, and proudly so!
Well, the world certainly seems sick and tired of having the US shit on everybody from great heights (often in the form of bombs and missiles) and at the same claim the high moral ground and wag its fingers at everybody.
The FUs USA are likely to be louder and louder.
It's deeply satisfying seeing the US get taken down a few pegs.
That note from the Hong Kong government was cutting. Long may it continue.
Thank you Mr Snowden.
Give it up America, you got caught, hand in the till, smoking gun... whatever, have some dignity and start to rebuild trust.
"They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age"
Hypocrites tend to shout the loudest.
As an American ex-pat (and now a naturalised Brit) who is living in the UK and is appalled by the abuses of law and wholescale spying on its own citizens by the government of my native country, I can only say one thing regarding this sorry escapade:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Now, if only the creepy morons in charge of the UK weren't doing the same bloody thing to us...
1. Notwithstanding Mr Obama's claims that the US was the victim of Chinese cyber hacking, now that Mr Snowden has put facts on the table, we are beginning to learn just who is the hacker and just who are the victims.
2. This incident makes one reflect on just who is the terrorist now terrorizing the whole world.
You really couldn't make this stuff up. It's epic! It's James Bond for real, except he's the ordinary man wronged and maligned. From Hong Kong with Love, Mr Snowden.
Don't these Congressmen understand that by attacking Snowden they are simply proving themselves even bigger hypocrites? It is precisely because of their flagrant abuse of all international laws and conventions to spy on these nations that the world (except the fawning, bankrupt, poodle UK) are giving them the proverbial shaft.
I do hope America wakes up to the fact that they have undermined all trust and kudos once-and-for-all. The land of the free and the brave rings very hollow now. So sad.
Bloody marvellous! They can spy on us but cannot stop the most famous man in the world fleeing. So laughable! Well done Mr Snowden!
Finally a little musical interlude by someone who probably would have been sympathetic to Mr. Snowden's plight ... and of being chased by reporters. Let's hope the chorus is not prophetic - "The ways things are going they are going to crucify me".
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.”
George Orwell