Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Edward Snowden who exposed the massive secret US government surveillance programme continues his flight to freedom, our Russian cousins say he has not entered Russia, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is quite adamant about that!

















Dear All

The US of A is spying on all of us, even their ‘allies’ are not immune, in the Land of Free and home of the Brave, television presenters on some American news channels have called Edward Snowden a punk.

Mr. Snowden has outed the biggest spying operation by the US in recent times, are they looking at master spies, yes and no, they are looking at everyone regardless who they are.

After Snowden spilled the beans, he decided to come out and declare himself as the source of the leaks to the press.

Then the US decided to come after him accusing him of being a traitor.

Is Edward Snowden a traitor in the original sense as we understand treason?

Absolutely not, he is a whistleblower in the good old tradition of standing up for what is right.

8 people so far have been charged under the Espionage Act, people such as Bradley Manning, Manning’s trial is an affront to justice. He exposed not only wrong doing but also cover up, how does that make him a traitor?

So, Me. Snowden is now globetrotting, seeing the sights and walking the Earth, his travels have taken him to Hong Kong, which the Americans have been spying on and then to China, subject to cyber attack by the US. Currently it is said he is enjoying the sights and sounds of Mother Russia.

And what must be laughable, the US is upset because the Chinese and Russians who have been spied on for decades by the US aren’t playing ball and arresting him so he can be shipped to America and placed in Federal custody.

Even President Obama has criticised Russia and China after fugitive Edward Snowden left Hong Kong for Moscow.

President Barack Obama said the US was pursuing "all the appropriate legal channels" in pursuit of him, so they are ruling out a kill squad just yet?

It is a bit hard to murder someone for telling the truth and drone strike in Russia is out of the question.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said it would be "disappointing" if Russia and China had helped him evade an attempt to extradite him.

That is an outrageous statement by Kerry, our Russian cousins are hamstrung by the rather obvious fact that Edward Snowden is an innocent man, and arresting known innocent people is just not on.
Can’t do that, it would be an affront to the Russian justice system.

Edward Snowden’s journey isn’t over yet, he has applied for asylum in Ecuador.

The Ecuadorians are fast making themselves known for standing up for human rights and justice; sadly, their American counterparts have been less successful.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said he did not believe Hong Kong's reasons for letting him leave.

As if Hong kong gives a shit.

Also in an act of pure pettiness and against natural justice, the US has abandoned any pretence of rule of law and revoked Mr Snowden's passport.

What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

The Americans appear to have gone straight to sentencing and punishment.

At present a game of cat and mouse is in play, on Monday, a seat was booked in his Snowden’s name on a flight to Cuba.

Cuba is a stopover and said to be a great place for a holiday, and they are another group of people which America has taken the eternal huff with since the US trying to take over Cuba via rebels trained and funded by the CIA. The ‘Bay of Pigs’ disaster was rather embarrassing for the American people and government.

30-year-old IT expert is wanted by the US for revealing to the media details of a secret government surveillance programme.

Given the way the world operates at present; is there a need for such a programme?

They are spying on their own citizens under the guise of ‘war on terror’.

I would say no.

The information that Snowden had access to was obtained while working as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA).

Who are they supposed to be protecting?

The people or the political class!

He is charged with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence.

Obama briefly mentioned the case at the White House on Monday, telling reporters:
"What we know is that we are following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed."

I think that Obama is kidding himself on if he thinks that the countries who are victims of US spying are coming to help him enforce his idea of perverse law.

I think Mr. Snowden will like Ecuador, given his work in IT; he should be able to get a decent job and get on with his life.

He will go down in history as possible one of the greatest Americans who stood up for American values when the country of his birth abandoned them.

Now that America is transferring men, equipment and resources to the Pacific, we can only hope that they do what has been so disastrous for them in the Middle East. Clearly American policies need a major revamp from ‘war’ to ‘trading’ coupled with humanitarian assistance.

At present, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Edward Snowden hasn’t entered Russia, looks like this is a bit of a mystery or could it be that the Russians are just using some tech speak to rip the utter pish out the Americans!

You have to like this current Russian crowd in Moscow.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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