Edward Snowden – The flight of freedom

The attempt by Edward Snowden to escape the clutches of US authorities descended into farce when the 30-year-old surveillance whistle-blower outpaced the world's biggest intelligence apparatus in a round-the-world chase.  Washington could barely disguise its fury at the manner in which Snowden was hustled out of Hong Kong, despite the US having revoked his passport and demanded his detention. The White House made it clear that China-US relations had been placed under great strain. The US 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. 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. The whereabouts of Snowden were unclear on Monday night. Journalists who boarded a flight from Moscow to Havana, a suspected lay-over stop a journey to Ecuador, reported that they could not see the former National Security Agency contractor on the plane, despite reports that he had checked in.

Maybe this is the Commie propaganda Edward Snowden believed in?

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

US Declaration of Independence

As always in these situations the United States with its insatiable appetite for self-serving delusion believes its narrow interests and those of the rest of the world are the same as words like “National Security”, and “Rule of Law” are flung around in bombastic statements to justify the illegality of the United States actions. High on the list as Mr. Bombastic is John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State. Huffing and puffing, Kerry warned China and Russia of "consequences" if, as seems probable, they have conspired to deliberately thwart U.S. justice by twisting the long arm of the law.

Like too many American politicians, Kerry seems to believe "the law" is what the White House counsel and U.S. Justice Department deem it to be on any given day, and that this made-in-America "law" applies inexorably to every country and every corner of the world.

After the revelations of massive hacking by the US and Cyber spying encroaching not just on US Citizens but on foreign citizens and countries how does the US have ANY MORAL AUTHORITY to prosecute hackers? It shows the concept of partnership, legality and respect for others is alien to the US which is totally fixated on its own selfishness and greed. This is something WikiLeaks demonstrated about US Foreign Policy, a total lack of morality in the headlong and unthinking pursuit of a narrow concept of US interests.

That is why you station military forces in 143 countries and every war fought by the US since WWII has been a war of aggression - the stuff you hanged the Nazis for. Your War on Cyber Theft is now in the same place as your wars on Terror and Drugs, and for the same reason, a total lack of moral perspective. This Imperial hubris has always preceded the End of Empire.

During the "Cold" (Hot) War the United States applauded dissent in the Soviet Union and condemned the persecution of peaceful dissenters who exposed the abuses of the Soviet State and its security apparatus but Snowden's case is different how? Precisely how is it different?. He has not advocated violence which means he is qualified to be a political prisoner, how the “Freedom Loving Democracy” changes its tune when the boot is on the other foot?

Edward Snowden and his Flight of Freedom have done the world and its individual citizens a great service. Details of the NSA's Prism spying programme have heaved forth since Mr Snowden, the agency's former contractor, made his initial leak earlier this month in The Guardian. They reveal widespread illegality and crime including hacking and cyber terrorism by a sovereign government against other governments, organisations and companies as well as bulk theft of an enormous amount of private data from all of us and that here in the UK our supine government has not been just collusive but through the self-serving Hydra of GCHQ has facilitated illegal cyber theft on an industrial scale. Wherever Edward Snowden’s flight ends the conversation can never be the same.

CIA and NSA please copy.