Obama jabs Russia, China on failure to extradite Snowden

This is a very amusing distraction from the False Flag Operation now underway in Syria with the United States supplying Saran Gas to the Rebels, pretending Assad is using it. Nice try. Sure the United States is preparing for an invasion and war against Syria, but the real goal is full all-out war with Iran. In case anybody was watching what the Other Hand was doing during this Snowden slight of hand deception. War being all about perfidy and deception.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PxEuYUUMJI

So Snowden could be cooling his jets in the Moscow airport for weeks? How uncomfortable. And who cares what Ecuador says about anything at all.

I feel Obama is going to be responsible for starting another cold war with Russia due to his big greedy thinking he can do anything mouth. The man is in Russia. He should be asking politely about the situation, not demanding. Obama cant realize who he is talking to and what they are also capable of doing.

Where is the investigative reporting on the NSA?

- How could anyone walk out of the NSA with this kind of information? Unless there was inside help?
- You don’t just walk out of the NSA with a thumb drive, or 4 laptops filled with “top secret” information!

I would expect congress to be all over the NSA, and people fired, possible sent to jail if they were caught helping Snowden walk out with “top secret” information.

This information was all gathered for our safety, and I for one do not fee any safer!

“In a deliberately cheeky touch from the leftist government of President Rafael Correa, Ecuador also offered a multi-million donation for human rights training in the United States.”
Now here’s a great idea!

Let’s face it. Obama is all talk and no action. That will be his legacy. Very sad!

“Edward Snowden” may become a yearly call by people in Hong Kong and around some parts of the world to remind every world citizen the fragility of personal privacy on the Worldwide Internet.

It’s one thing to be spied on by one’s own government and quite another to be spied on by multiple (foreign) governments.

Imagine if the entire Snowden situation were reversed and it was a Russian or Chinese citizen who, at great risk, had exposed major spying on citizens of his own country as well as on the US government and US companies.

Had that individual managed to get to US soil or a US Embassy and requested asylum, and his birth country demanded he be extradited and returned to face “justice” in his native country, what do you think are the chances the US government would have surrendered that man to a certain and definitely not very happy fate.

If you answered Zero- then you answered correctly.

But having allowed the government to grossly violate the US Constitution, on his watch, and then having been caught in the act/s, the POTUS gets up on his high horse and rather than make the slightest attempt to come clean with the American people, continues to preach to the world about the “Rule of Law”.

He should give it a rest. We have heard it all before- ad nauseam.

Didn’t Abraham Lincoln say something about how “You cannot fool all of the People- all of the time”.

Either the Constitution of the United States of America stands for something that is Eternal and not to be violated or it does not.

Once a government begins to make exceptions, when it suits its purpose at the moment, we are already sliding down a slippery slope to a place called Fascism.

If the average American had even the slightest clue just how vulnerable he already is to being arrested at any time, with zero rights to protect him, because of certain “Acts” passed in the last few years, by his government, he would be scared out of his wits.

There are individuals who have been kept prisoner by the US government, many of them subjected to horrendous torture techniques, for over ten years.

And without ever having been officially charged with anything or being allowed the right to a free and open, public trial.

I wager you thought that was not possible- under our Constitution.
Well- you thought wrong. Think it cannot happen to you. Think again.

No Toto- We are definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Alternate headline:

“Obama whines, prevaricates after Putin and Xi stick their thumbs in his eye”

@Reuters1945 very well said.

HAH! Americans are so funny! it was almost 12 years ago that this information came to light, and no one roared, yet supposed adults are making this sound like spying on US citizens is something new…

reuters , the man behind the curtain was Bush, yet you rail now? You have not been in Kansas for some time, toto…

It looks like this is an established modus operandi of US government : every time they make a political mistake they start pointing fingers at other countries: Boston bombing – Russia warned CIA/FBI/HLS – no reaction , Americans died.
US government violated constitutional law, failed to vet Snowden, let him run out of the county to Hong Kong and Russia, start making rude and silly demands of extradition without any legal grounds, got cold refusal , rolled back, start screaming again

Is that how president and government of a great country should behave themselves. Isn’t it a national and Worldwide disgrace ?

@youniquelikeme You’re right. Sadly its because ITS ONE THE BIG NEWS just now. No newspaper made a big deal of that in the past.

And in the mean time…. war is raging in Syria. US is trying to get Iran through the rebels, and everybody is just concerned about Snowden.

I have noticed for days that the name “Edward Snowden”, arguably a very popular figure worldwide, has not appeard on the left menu of Google’s page.

“Edward Snowden” is not listed under “Top Stories”, “World” or “U.S.”. Instead, you have “Paula Deen”, “Aaron Hernandez” (I ain’t got no clue of who this person is), “Kevin Rudd” (Hello, it’s nice to see him again), James Gandolfini, etc. Just no “Edward Snowden”.

And you have to type “Edward Snowden” completely in “News” search — not the general “Web” search, please note — because Google won’t help you auto-complete or give you any suggestions.

Why? Simple me think that Google is trying to say: “Please, don’t be evil”.

Snowden is a traitor. He compromised US national security. Death penalty case.

He should turn himself in, history shows guys like him some how turn up dead.

oh no… this is not another cold war…
When this is over the final picture will be of China and Russia defending the american freedom… can you imagine that? hehehe
Obama wont be “wheeling and dealing”… but pretending Snowden never existed…

Snowden is a world hero. It should not be illegal for a person to expose a government’s illegal activities. It is illegal for the US to violate the privacy rights of European (and other) citizens, protected by their own constitutions / rules of law. Good point above @reuters1945:

“Imagine if the entire Snowden situation were reversed and it was a Russian or Chinese citizen who, at great risk, had exposed major spying on citizens of his own country as well as on the US government and US companies.

Had that individual managed to get to US soil or a US Embassy and requested asylum, and his birth country demanded he be extradited and returned to face “justice” in his native country, what do you think are the chances the US government would have surrendered that man to a certain and definitely not very happy fate.

If you answered Zero- then you answered correctly.”

Should WWIII take place, it will likely be due to instances like this, where America has pushed it’s agenda and interests too far, reaching a point where it no longer matters if other countries have worse records on how they handle their internal affairs, what matters is how those countries deal with their neighbors. So far the US has taken it’s good will and sympathy over the last few decades and squandered it on trying to lock down all threats to it’s interests and secure or ensure the reshaping of the political landscape to first and foremost favor itself. That others are now openly defying the US is a show that world opinion is breaking and the US is priming itself for it’s own fall.

This is so funny. How about we put GPS units in every American. I bet this would prevent terrorist attacks as well. The point of this is freedom of privacy. We are losing our freedoms, period. What ever happened to good old police work. I think they would rather sit on their butts and read everyone’s email. This will never stop unless we say enough is enough. Go do your job, secure our borders and keep the constitution the way our founding fathers wanted it.

The Cold War never ended. You think because the wall is down and the nukes are scaled back, that would be the end of it? The spying never stops. Never. We spy on them, they spy on us. We spy on us, they spy on themselves. It’s always been that way and now people are freaking out? Get over it.

The government doesn’t give a rats ass who you’re dealing with over Ma Bell unless that person decides that they’re going to blow up a bus full of kids. Personally, I don’t have to worry about stuff like that happening because my friends and family don’t blow up buses.

I don’t think Russia wants to deal with the US anyways, they have already said no to turning him over. And isn’t the art of politics all about wheeling and dealing. So guess what Obama, if you really want this “National Security Risk” who is such a concern with those documents he may or may not have, then just spread your cheeks and take one for the the security of our nation you say you care so much for.

Regarding “The Great Jabber” or would that be “Mr. Jabber Mouth”

If one wished to produce a block-buster, lines around the block, Hollywood movie, intended to be a satire about the present state of American politics and what goes on in present day Washington, DC, there would be no need to invent anything.

The script has already been written, the plot decided on, the character types all right out there, in front of our eyes, constantly in print and perpetually on the “Boob Tube” and a director need only find actors who look and sound like them.

Such a block-buster satirical film, that would give any “Wag the Dog” type movie a run for its money, would be an easy “cut and paste job”.

Just take all the news articles, and lame-brain quotes and assorted imbecilic utterances that have emanated from the mouths of the POTUS, Senator John “bomb, bomb, bomb” McCain, John Kerry, and all the other countless “geniuses” who have weighed in on the Edward Snowden situation, have a talented Screen play writer cobble all that together, and Voila- its a clean sweep of all the “Academy Awards” for next year’s movies.

The interesting point here is that in the year 2013, both the Democrats and the Republicans are still conspicuously trapped in a Time Warp of their own creation.

The “geniuses” in Washington, actually believe and are convinced they can treat the American voter and the world at large as if we were all still living in the 1950′s when people used Typewriters, “snail-mail”, and trudged to stores when they needed to buy something.

The “geniuses” in DC and elsewhere, constantly surrounded by their armies of paid lapdogs, flunkies, sycophants, so-called “advisors” and on and on, just do not “get it”. But the American people do !

The “it” is that the American people, at least a huge per cent of them, have grown up and “smelled the coffee”. They cannot be taken for granted in the way they once were, in the long distant past.

They can smell a phony and a con-job from a mile away.

They have grown sophisticated in ways their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents could have never dreamed.

And today’s Citizens of the world, know and understand that nothing on this planet is simply Black and/or White, and that the world cannot be neatly separated into two groups, that being just the “Good Guys” and the “Bad Guys”.

And today’s Citizens of the World understand quite well that a person who is labeled a “Bad Guy” by some people might very well be considered one of the “Good Guys” to a whole lot of other people, both here, there and everywhere.

So the old 1950′s and 1960′s and 1970′s, et al, approaches employed by all those jaded politicians whether inside or outside of America, just don’t “cut the mustard” anymore.

A whole lot of Americans, both young and old, understand now that “Mr. Change” was really just “Mr. Same”. Throw in an “h” after the “S” and you have “Mr. Shame”.

And that really is a very big shame, because America was really hoping that the age of hypocrisy and corruption and double-dealing and lying through the teeth, was coming to an end.

Alas, those with a functioning brain should have realized it was all too good to be true. But hope yet springs Eternal.

And perhaps maybe, just maybe, now that we all know what we don’t want, we can dare to dream that when the next Election cycle comes around, some type of truly “Real Choice” will present itself. Call it our “American Spring”.

There are those who say that will never happen because the two major Parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, have the whole deal in DC signed, sealed and tied up with Red and Blue ribbons so that the American “100 %” will always consist of the “1 %” and then the “99 %”.

But speaking of “Hope”, and I mean real Hope here, not campaign slogan mealy mouthed “hope”, if people never dared to hope, big time, America would still be a colony of Great Britain and we would all be speaking “King’s English” with a London accent.

One thing about Americans and people everywhere for that matter, is that they can only be conned for so long. And then they begin to get their feathers up. It can get really messy like the French Revolution or occur almost bloodlessly as when the Russians decided they no longer liked living under a Czar, with all his Jewel encrusted Faberge Easter Eggs.

We may yet see some type of “Spring” come to American shores as it has in so many other places around the world.

Let us hope the best is yet to come.

And let us never forget those beautiful words of the great Poet, Robert Browning.

“Ah, but a Man’s Reach should exceed his Grasp,
Or what’s a Heaven for.”

Is Snowden another “Manchurian Patsy?” Surely the Russians remember the ‘cover’ for Lee Harvey Oswald.

A few things don’t add up about Snowden. Coming from the CIA to a contractor for the NSA; Snowden should have still been in training at three months – if his data access is/was factual. But, “contractors” do like to cut corners on expenses.

As soon as anybody with a Top Secret security clearance in Hawaii turns up missing, the calls should have instantly gone out to the airlines. That didn’t happen. Snowden was ‘missing’ for approximately two weeks; but the NSA and/or the Obushma Administration learned another ‘secret’ from the news media? Funny, how that always seems to be the case.

If Snowden was anyone’s ‘rogue,’ he would have been super easy to kill, even in Hong Kong. Fake ID? Yeah, James Earl Ray had something like seven passports. Not too bad for a prejudiced street bum.

What does he do for money? Hong Kong is expensive. Cash or credit cards, he should have been financially profiled; with his access to money cut off. He couldn’t get all that much cash out of the USA. His credit cards would have been too easy to freeze.

Similar to the purported 9-11 culprits, nobody is tracing or contacting his “contacts” in Hong Kong. Why? Picking their minds should be a high priority.

Why is no one from the “Guardian” in custody? This isn’t a case of U.S. Constitutional law, ala the First Amendment. After just the Murdoch scandals, you’d think MI6 would have a few editors under a glaring white light; asking what else they might be sitting on.

Why isn’t someone from the contracting company facing criminal charges, just for Snowden’s job disposition? Why is the contractor still in business? If Snowden is a problem, the contractor is a far bigger problem.

Whatever data Snowden accessed, there would be an accurate record of it. We are talking about NSA data; right? If the NSA, et al, can track & monitor my calls & E-mail; why is Snowden a seemingly bizarre 19th Century “spy” enigma? Why does the Obushma Administration ask questions as to what he might possess? No pun intended, this ‘scandal’ reads like something out of “From Russia, With Love.”

In the meantime, U.S. laws & court decisions are being formulated to finalize the ‘authority” of the Next-Generation Nazi Gestapo. (or “New World Order,” if one prefers.) Shades of the Reichstag fire! There is no doubt or any ‘dumb questions’ in that picture.

Similar to the purported bin Lading “kill” raid; Hollywood will illustrate what the U.S. population, at least, is supposed to absorb as being ‘factual.’ I think it was Goebbels who is commonly quoted as saying: “Tell the same lie often enough; it will be believed.” More Nazi legacy at work on 21st Century Americans. That’s been working in the USA, since at least JFK’s assassination.

OR:

…. in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

—Adolf Hitler , Mein Kampf, vol. I, ch. X

Okay!

“Perception Control = Emotional Control = Mind Control = Behavior Control.” Hey, it works!

Is it fate, irony or mere coincidence that the Nazis broadcast the first (propaganda) television program, in 1936? Now, we have “Cable;” and Caucasians are the new ‘untermenchen.’

I’m old enough to vividly remember the days when it was glorious to be an American; it doesn’t seem all that long ago. Looking back, it seems that the incremental degradation of the “Great America” began with the ‘mysterious’ assassination of JFK. Except for being jarred into reality in Viet Nam in 1971; I’d probably also believe the Obushma Administration Next-Generation Nazi lies.

History doesn’t “repeat;” it evolves, based on previous patterns. There must be another major war on the horizon. As Viet Nam, Iraq and (soon) Afghanistan teach; boots-on-the-ground are too clumsy, slow and expensive. The next ‘war’ will most probably be at least a “test” of total stand-off warfare; including cyber warfare.

Is there something that Snowden hasn’t said yet?

An ancient Japanese proverb reads: “He who tells does not know. He who knows will never tell.”

In the 21st Century, the appropriate proverb should read: “He who tells; deceives. He who knows; should fear being known.”

Okay I don’t really think we need human rights training from the likes of Ecuador. Do they even know what human rights are? They really should keep their money. They may need in the future. As for Snowden enjoy your new country. Maybe after your stolen items are no longer valuable you will be elighten. We will recover from this, we always do. The US will grow stronger and you will get a taste of Human Rights Latin America style. Enjoy. We will continue to enjoy freedom American Style. Hell, we have 11 million plus illegal immigrants wanting to live here. That is something China, Russia, Cuba, and Ecuador does not have to worry about!!!

All this paranoia is as bad as the gun nuts.

Who has been harmed by monitoring calls to non-US terrorists? How many lives have been saved? You have not been harmed, therefore you are without standing.

The government is not listening to your stupid personal phone calls. The constitution has not been violated when a judge grants a search warrant.

Sheesh, read a book and get off your high Japanese proverb horses.

@SKYDRIFTER

You always write interesting comments but this time you have outdone even yourself.

There is meat, real substance, fascinating historical references here.

You have a masterly way of observing events and facts and then connecting all the dots so that anyone who is truly interested in understanding what is REALLY going on is free to have the cobwebs and mist lifted from his/her eyes.

I quite agree that in many ways, the assassination of JFK was a turning point. It was so clearly planned by powerful forces, including the Military/Industrial Complex and a host of other participants who clearly wanted JFK, “out of the way”. He had many enemies.

Regarding your mentioning “being jarred into reality in Viet Nam in 1971″, it has been said that JFK could clearly see where Viet Nam was going and intended, early on, long before it was too late, to extricate the US from something he understood would end in an horrific, bloody quagmire of epic proportions. And it did !

I believe you are 100 % correct that there is a gargantuan amount that we still do not know about the entire “Edward Snowden” situation.

Was he a lone “Freedom Fighter” valiantly trying to stop people from defecating on the US Constitution and The Bill of Rights whilst hoping to save millions of people from endless wars for profit.

It is too early to draw any conclusions. But I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. No doubt this event will lead to many future books, just like the killing of JFK, 9/11, the list is endless.

One thing is for certain and you can bank on it as surely as night follows day. Governments are capable of horrors which the average human being cannot conceive as being possible.

Kill six hundred people and the human brain will accept that as being totally possible. Kill Six Million and people will refuse to believe it can be done or anyone would wish it to be done.

It was a long time ago, way back in 1962 to be precise, that Military people in the US government dreamed up the idea of “Operation Northwoods”. Easily found on Wikipedia. If you can dream up something like “Operation Northwoods” you can dream up anything- including assassinating the President of the United States.

Your closing sentence is truly chilling but most apt.

“In the 21st Century, the appropriate proverb should read: “He who tells; deceives. He who knows; should fear being known.”

Thank you for this and all you contributions to the Reuters Comments pages. Reading- and then rereading- your most insightful thoughts, represents time well spent. Again, thank you for taking the time to do so. Please never stop.

Obama is losing face among China and Russia. Obama also needs to stop bullying the World and stop the double standard. As far as we know Snowden is done with his travels and his where abouts will remain a secret. Just because we live here does not mean we respect Obama, the $300,000,000 African player. Thats an expensive weekend. Obama is not worthy of the weekend vacation.

I don’t remember the “outrage” when Bush took his whole family to Africa for a safari. Maybe because Bush never travelled outside America in his whole life until after he was elected he was entitled, huh?

dstiebs@ you said something which is true.america (not just obama ,bush junior clinton and so forth) is bullying the world.Now that america is facing economic problems and the empire collapsing nobody will be found not only to save it but to show sympathy to its citizens as well.Obama is on the right track to make ameicans the most hatefull all over the world and the russians (the cruelest mafia on earth) the most adorable.

For fear of government’s reprimand, contractors like Booz Allen Hamilton don’t necessarily report employees missing at work at the first possible opportunity to NSA. And that’s where the loophole lies for contractor’s insensitivity. Snowden was not wanted until he came forward by himself. What a disgrace !

‘In a deliberately provocative touch, Correa’s government also offered a multimillion dollar donation for human rights training in the United States.’
Hardly unbiased journalism.

I guess nobody else read the POOR PATHETIC PHRASING PROVIDED BY REUTERS for this story – Obama jabs Russia, China ?????? The last time I checked our president had little option in what he can do and is basically hoping other nations will find an agreement with him to send Snowden back to America. A few posts before this website also kept writing how this guy worked for the United States ( spy ) agency, mostly in an effort to subliminally suggest this guy was working for another government.