After several false starts, Edward Snowden has finally left Moscow airport and can move about in Russia. It must be nice for him to be out in the open again, for the first time since arriving in Moscow on June 23. He has been granted temporary asylum for one year.
Cue the screaming in the US by the usual political and media hacks about the need for him to be sent back to the US and to punish Russia for not doing so. Here are the initial salvos.
Senator Robert Menendez: “Edward Snowden is a fugitive who belongs in a United States courtroom, not a free man deserving of asylum in Russia.”
Senator John McCain: “Snowden stays in the land of transparency and human rights.”
Ha! Ha! That’s hilarious Johnny because the US is the leader in transparency, no? But wait, isn’t it because of Snowden that we have any transparency at all in about what the NSA is doing?
Any minute now we can expect a sanctimonious statement from the Obama administration about how disappointed they are that Russia has not handed Snowden over to them, completely ignoring the fact that the US does not hand over even convicted criminals to other countries if they are doing the government’s bidding. And no reporter will ask them such embarrassing questions because freedom! [UPDATE: Yes, that is exactly what the Obama spokesman said. These people are so predictable in their hypocrisy.]
Lindsey Graham, you are wanted on line 2, stat! Menendez and McCain are way ahead of you in the race to idiotically grandstand.
I don’t know whether this is good news or not, since it may expose him to greater danger of kidnap or murder by the operatives of the US or--er--certain smaller states with whom the US enjoys particularly close relations.
Hush, Corvus. slc1 will be here any minute to inform us that you are an anti-Semite. The Colony cannot be criticized in any way for any reason.
Somehow, I don’t think that Obama, whatever one might think of him, is crazy enough to order a hit on Snowden while he is in Russia. Neither is Bibi for that matter.
Actually, I had in mind the other members of the Five Eyes group*, comprising the UK and some other members of the Commonwealth. H.M. secret service has a track record on this kind of stuff. But we should thank slc1 for bringing the Mossad to our attention as another possibility.
*See just about any page of James Bamford’s Shadow Factory.