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Here is an update, WaPo at 9am eastern. Putin knew that Snowden could not comply with his terms for asylum (that he stop publishing things that harm their "partner" the U.S.). He also, I suspect, is trying not to create a popular backlash against himself. A fine line. Now it remains to be seen whether he will help Snowden get to an embassy. WaPo says the charges against Snowden don't carry a death penalty, and this is technically true, but if more charges under the Espionage Act are added, we all know that there are some that do carry the death penalty, which were lodged against Manning.
Snowden withdraws request for asylum in Russia
MOSCOW —Fugitive Edward Snowden has withdrawn his request for Russian political asylum, a presidential spokesman said Tuesday, apparently because he was unwilling to go along with President Vladimir Putin’s requirement that he stop any activity damaging to the United States.
“He has abandoned this idea and his request for permission to stay in Russia,” Dmitri Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told Interfax and other reporters Tuesday.
Peskov reiterated that Russia had no intention of returning Snowden to the United States, where he has been charged with leaking classified documents.
“The extradition of Snowden to such a country as the United States, which applies the death penalty, is impossible,” he said. The charges Snowden faces, however, do not qualify for the death penalty.
Oy.
President Obama joins George W. Bush at Tanzania memorial to end Africa trip
DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican predecessor President George W. Bush found common ground in Africa on Tuesday, honoring the victims of a terrorist attack in an unprecedented chance encounter a world away from home.
Pres. Correa had a talk with VP Biden. Snowden applied for asylum in more than a dozen other countries. Ecuador is not looking as good as before, at the moment.
Rafael Correa not considering Snowden asylum: helping him was a 'mistake'
Ecuador's president reveals travel pass was granted 'without authorisation' and says whistleblower is now Russia's problem
Asked if he thought the former NSA contractor would ever make it to Quito, he replied: "Mr Snowden's situation is very complicated, but in this moment he is in Russian territory and these are decisions for the Russian authorities."
On whether Correa would like to meet him, the president said: "Not particularly. He's a very complicated person. Strictly speaking, Mr Snowden spied for some time."
The comments contrasted with expressions of gratitude the 30-year-old fugitive issued hours later, before Correa's views had been published.
"I must express my deep respect for your principles and sincere thanks for your government's action in considering my request for political asylum," Snowden said, according to a letter written in Spanish and obtained by the Press Association news agency, based in London.
"There are few world leaders who would risk standing for the human rights of an individual against the most powerful government on earth, and the bravery of Ecuador and its people is an example to the world."
Stunning photos from Egypt in this post.
Millions March in Egyptian Protests
One year after the inauguration of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, millions of Egyptians marched in city streets and squares across the country, calling for Morsi to resign.
Al Jazeera English - liveblog on Egypt.
International pressure mounts on Morsi
UN and Obama call on Egypt's leader to engage in dialogue as ministers quit and army-imposed deadline approaches.
Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has come under international pressure to engage in "serious national dialogue" hours after he rebuffed an army ultimatum to find a resolution to the political crisis.
Guardian liveblog on Egypt.
Egypt on the brink: Obama urges Morsi to respond to protesters - live updates
• Morsi hit by more resignations
• Presidential aide says army ultimatum amounts to coup
• Record number of sexual assaults in Tahrir Square
• Obama says democracy is about more than elections
• At the scene? Share your stories, videos and photos
Greenwald was on Fox & Friends this morning. His editor:
Glenn Greenwald interviewed by Fox & Friends
The admin. needs Clapper to stay in the spokesliar position a little longer before they send him off to spend more time with his family. Will the Senate demand that he be prosecuted? If he was a little guy, he'd be detained by now, sitting in a jail.
Clapper under pressure despite apology for 'erroneous' statements to Congress
US director of national intelligence has apologised for denying in March that the NSA collected data on millions of Americans but senator remains 'deeply troubled'
The US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has attempted to head off criticism that he lied to Congress over the extent of government surveillance on American citizens, with a letter to senators in which he apologised for giving "erroneous" information.
Two weeks after telling NBC news that he gave the "least untruthful answer possible" at a hearing in March, Clapper wrote to the Senate intelligence committee to correct his response to a question about whether the National Security Agency "collected data on millions of Americans".
[...]
According to the latest revelation in the Washington Post on Monday, and confirmed by an Obama administration official, Clapper wrote to the Senate intelligence committee on 21 June, when he admitted directly that his answer was wrong. "My response was clearly erroneous – for which I apologize," Clapper said in the letter.
Clapper appeared to row back from his MSNBC statement that his March answer was calculated to avoid betraying confidential information. In the letter, Clapper said that he had misunderstood the question.
This blows a lot of apologist arguments right out the window.
US drone strikes more deadly to Afghan civilians than manned aircraft – adviser
Study focusing on one year of conflict contradicts claims that robotic planes are more precise than manned counterparts
A study conducted by a US military adviser has found that drone strikes in Afghanistan during a year of the protracted conflict caused 10 times more civilian casualties than strikes by manned fighter aircraft.
The new study, referred to in an official US military journal, contradicts claims by US officials that the robotic planes are more precise than their manned counterparts.
It appears to undermine the claim made by President Obama in a May speech that "conventional airpower or missiles are far less precise than drones, and likely to cause more civilian casualties and local outrage".
Washington shrugs as student loan rates double
Borrowing costs for lower-income students shot up on Monday, jumping from 3.4% to 6.8% on subsidized Stafford loans from the federal government. For the average borrower, that means an additional $761 for every loan they take out through the program, according to Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert and publisher of Edvisors Network.
Neither party is thrilled about the outcome. But in contrast to last year’s student loan fight, when both presidential candidates took to the bully pulpit on the issue, there seems to be little sense of urgency coming from Congress or the White House, despite the absence of any clear resolution.
And now, the two former Special Ops guys are on DemocracyNow. They've published part of Ambassador Stevens' diary, proving that he had no idea what was going on with the night raids and assassinations of militia members and CIA assests in Benghazi as this secret program was run rogue by John Brennan and Adm. McRaven. If he had known about those missions, he would have been better able to assess his security situation. The rogue missions run out of the White House bypassed all of the regular channels at the Pentagon, State and CIA. In one case, CIA was grooming an asset and JSOC killed him. This is the part of the Benghazi story that nobody is talking about but now that they've published the diary on their SOFREP site, it might change the direction of the story that almost every Democrat that I know claims is a non-scandal. These types of secret operations are not limited to Libya. In my opinion, every person who thinks there is no scandal here owes it to themselves to at least understand this part of the story from two guys whose best friend was killed in this attack and who wrote the ebook and continue to tell this story because of that and because while they usually seek out their insider sources at CIA and State and in the military, this time those sources came to them, in urgency.
Also, as a side note, there is some more information on the Petraeus takedown, which is not part of the main story, but just some information that is related and that they came upon while researching this story. Petraeus realized after Benghazi, that he would always be an outsider in this administration (according to the authors, he was not informed about the secret JSOC missions in Libya) and therefore he decided to leave and seek a position as president of Princeton University. Instead of allowing him to leave on his own, the powers that be at the CIA decided he'd be forced out, and they arranged for his widely known affair (on the inside) with Broadwell to become a public scandal. I think there is something missing in that story, but it makes more sense than the official explanation. It's also worth noting that Michael Hastings was working on that story just before he died (one of a few stories he was pursuing).
Was Deadly Benghazi Killing of Amb. Stevens, 3 Others, "Blowback" for Secret US Assassinations?
Citigroup to Pay Fannie Mae $968 Million Over Mortgage Claims
Citigroup said on Monday that it had agreed to pay the mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae $968 million to resolve any claims on 3.7 million mortgage loans that might sour.
The company said the settlement would apply to troubled loans as well as any potential future claims on loans that originated between 2000 and 2012 that were purchased by Fannie Mae, which was bailed out by the government during the financial crisis.
[...]
The company will continue to service the mortgage loans covered under the deal. Citigroup said most of the settlement amount was covered by the bank’s existing mortgage repurchase reserves. As part of its quarterly plan, it will add $245 million in the second quarter to its reserve.
Interesting, and very good news, IMHO. Now I'd like to see this group form an commission for a big inquiry (and not skip town in three weeks for six week recess). At the moment they are making the argument that basically, Congress can't do their job of oversight with the current arrangement, and we know it's true that they can't. This destroys the executive branch's argument that the American Stasi program has the oversight and approval of all three branches. So now we've got the (secret) judicial branch protesting because they look bad, and now Congress protesting too. I wonder what the Spokesliar Clapper will have to say about this. The president is busy globetrotting (costing the sequestered govt. tens of millions of dollars for the trip, maybe $100 million).
Transpartisan Arguments the Government Won’t Want to Succeed
Justin Amash, Paul Broun, Tulsi Gabbard, Morgan Griffith, Rush Holt, Walter Jones, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Thomas Massie, Tom McClintock, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Beto O’Rourke, Steve Pearce, Matt Salmon, Mark Sanford, Ted Yoho.
Well, that’s got to be a group of people the Powers That Be don’t want to see joining together?
Captain Tulsi Gabbard, Physics PhD Rush Holt, Appalachian Trail Hiker Mark Sanford, and Paleocon Walter Jones. With my libertarian Congressman, Justin Amash apparently leading the bunch.
All on a court motion together, calling for the court to release the FISC opinion explaining why the government’s Section 702 collection was unconstitutional because without it they can’t do their job. Which includes, in part, informing the American people.
- See more at: http://www.emptywheel.net/...
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