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[Strife26]

Very few opinions will change. Extreme right will continue extreme mistrust over a definitely powerful tool in the intelligence apparatus. They'll continue to buy all of the friggin combat caliber rounds too (those terrible people)


Far right will be cool with it, although they'll probably have Fox telling them that Obama is plotting with it. 

Mid right, centrists, and mid left will all say meh, those politically inclined will follow closely.

Far left will shake their head annoyedly at the President and call for additional oversight.


Freedom of information types will continue to be over represented in the media while they whine. Anonymous will do something meaningless with an attached hashtag.


Edit: Removed artifact from being on my phone

[Guardian G.I.]

At least one Republican senator already suggests that USA should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi if Russia doesn't extradict Snowden.

Also, according to RT, Snowden has no plans to leave Russia, and might even apply for Russian citizenship.

[DWC]

At least one Republican senator already suggests that USA should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi if Russia doesn't extradict Snowden.

Also, according to RT, Snowden has no plans to leave Russia, and might even apply for Russian citizenship.

Why is Snowcone so damned determined to live in Russia when they are decidedly adverse to giving him asylum and harming relations with the US? He's acting like this is 30 years ago or something. Does he speak Russian or have family there or something?

Very few opinions will change. Extreme right will continue extreme mistrust over a definitely powerful tool in the intelligence apparatus. They'll continue to buy all of the friggin combat caliber rounds too (those terrible people)


Far right will be cool with it, although they'll probably have Fox telling them that Obama is plotting with it. 

Mid right, centrists, and mid left will all say meh, those politically inclined will follow closely.

Far left will shake their head annoyedly at the President and call for additional oversight.


Freedom of information types will continue to be over represented in the media while they whine. Anonymous will do something meaningless with an attached hashtag.


Edit: Removed artifact from being on my phone

Kinda irrelevant, because they won't ever do this anyways and Americans will never warm up to the idea that all their 'meta-data' is being logged somewhere in the hopes it can be used to put them in prison someday. They drag out and air this great oppressive boondoggle to the public eye, the more people will consider it an eye sore that needs to be taken down. No massive surveillance project can be transparent or accountable to the public, right?

[GreatJustice]

At least one Republican senator already suggests that USA should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi if Russia doesn't extradict Snowden.

Also, according to RT, Snowden has no plans to leave Russia, and might even apply for Russian citizenship.

Why is Snowcone so damned determined to live in Russia when they are decidedly adverse to giving him asylum and harming relations with the US? He's acting like this is 30 years ago or something. Does he speak Russian or have family there or something?

Because all of the alternatives are in South America, so (A) the Western Europeans won't let planes over their airspace carrying Snowden and (B) South American socialist countries are vastly poorer and less pleasant to live in than Russia for the most part

[Strife26]

At least one Republican senator already suggests that USA should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi if Russia doesn't extradict Snowden.

Also, according to RT, Snowden has no plans to leave Russia, and might even apply for Russian citizenship.

Why is Snowcone so damned determined to live in Russia when they are decidedly adverse to giving him asylum and harming relations with the US? He's acting like this is 30 years ago or something. Does he speak Russian or have family there or something?

Very few opinions will change. Extreme right will continue extreme mistrust over a definitely powerful tool in the intelligence apparatus. They'll continue to buy all of the friggin combat caliber rounds too (those terrible people)


Far right will be cool with it, although they'll probably have Fox telling them that Obama is plotting with it. 

Mid right, centrists, and mid left will all say meh, those politically inclined will follow closely.

Far left will shake their head annoyedly at the President and call for additional oversight.


Freedom of information types will continue to be over represented in the media while they whine. Anonymous will do something meaningless with an attached hashtag.


Edit: Removed artifact from being on my phone

Kinda irrelevant, because they won't ever do this anyways and Americans will never warm up to the idea that all their 'meta-data' is being logged somewhere in the hopes it can be used to put them in prison someday. They drag out and air this great oppressive boondoggle to the public eye, the more people will consider it an eye sore that needs to be taken down. No massive surveillance project can be transparent or accountable to the public, right?

Gathering sigint is kinda what the NSA does, and what they've *always* done. I don't think that the American people care, all things considered. I mean, I can definitely see the value of their being proper oversight to the thing but no, at the end of the day, this isn't an unreasonable enough thing that the American people will refuse to go along, especially if parts of the oversight are made open, just to soothe hurt feelings in the media.

[Bauglir]

At least one Republican senator already suggests that USA should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi if Russia doesn't extradict Snowden.

Also, according to RT, Snowden has no plans to leave Russia, and might even apply for Russian citizenship.

Why is Snowcone so damned determined to live in Russia when they are decidedly adverse to giving him asylum and harming relations with the US? He's acting like this is 30 years ago or something. Does he speak Russian or have family there or something?

Because all of the alternatives are in South America, so (A) the Western Europeans won't let planes over their airspace carrying Snowden and (B) South American socialist countries are vastly poorer and less pleasant to live in than Russia for the most part

Also, without a valid passport (the US having revoked his), he can't board a flight to travel to anywhere that's offered him asylum. Meanwhile, Russia has offered him asylum on the condition that he stop bothering people, unless something's changed lately (entirely possible). If he has given everything he has to the Guardian already, and he makes that clear, they may still be willing to follow through even if the Guardian hasn't released all of it yet, but it depends on how many points they'd like to score on the "Point Out America's Hypocrisies" chart.

[lemon10]

I'm not quite sure why countries care about his passport being revoked. I imagine if you are being granted asylum for political crimes, the countries that support him would ignore whatever legal paperwork the regime tried to throw at them. I know the US certainly wouldn't care if someone they were going to grant asylum to had their passport revoked.

[Zangi]

I'm not quite sure why countries care about his passport being revoked. I imagine if you are being granted asylum for political crimes, the countries that support him would ignore whatever legal paperwork the regime tried to throw at them. I know the US certainly wouldn't care if someone they were going to grant asylum to had their passport revoked.

Because countries technically follow the rule of law when most convenient.  Apparently, the countries granting asylum do not have a plane that can go non-stop over the Pacific or something.  Going over Europe is not an option, what with them being able/willing to ground/deny access to a sovereign president's plane over this.  And just about everyone else is 'friendly' with the superpower that wants this 'criminal'.

[XXSockXX]

I'm not quite sure why countries care about his passport being revoked. I imagine if you are being granted asylum for political crimes, the countries that support him would ignore whatever legal paperwork the regime tried to throw at them. I know the US certainly wouldn't care if someone they were going to grant asylum to had their passport revoked.

Snowden may be a special case, but having paperwork is technically important when requesting asylum. You have to prove that you actually come from somewhere where you are persecuted.
For example Palestinians who come from Lebanon to Europe often have no paperwork. If they had lebanese passports they would not get asylum, but if they came from Palestine they probably would. Since they have no passport they can't be sent back to Lebanon and basically stay in legal limbo.
Also try bordering any regular flight, even a national one without paperwork. Even when crossing borders in the Schengen zone you might be subject to random passport controls, so a passport is really essential for international travel.

[Baffler]

Yeah, he's pretty much stuck in Russia. The only people who seem to be willing to accept him don't seem to have the resources to get him. And the will to move him out is basically nonexistent in the countries that could, because they don't want to piss off the United States. It should be interesting to see what the Russians ultimately decide on, but I have a feeling all this won't end well for Snowden, one way or another.

[DWC]

Seems pretty short-sighted. Maybe he should have requested asylum before breaking the law? Or leaked everything in an unimportant country that might be sympathetic to him?

Instead he went to Russia and now he can't escape. The Russians might even decide to hand him over to the US. They have nothing to gain by giving Snowden asylum.

[Zangi]

Seems pretty short-sighted. Maybe he should have requested asylum before breaking the law? Or leaked everything in an unimportant country that might be sympathetic to him?

Instead he went to Russia and now he can't escape. The Russians might even decide to hand him over to the US. They have nothing to gain by giving Snowden asylum.

Requesting asylum, it is stated that he needs to be in the sovereign territory of those countries while applying and he needs to show good cause/reason for applying. 
He would not have been able to apply for asylum before leaking the documents since he wasn't in danger of stuff.  (I'd expect a few countries to quickly deny the asylum application and haul Snowden over to US custody without much fanfare once the US asks for him.)

I'm pretty sure he thought Hong Kong was going to be sympathetic to him, I don't know why he would... but it was a 'democratic' place I guess.  He may have had a good reason for leaving it in the first place though...
Russia was just a stop-over/flight change that went wrong or something.

[Scoops Novel]

Why do you think Snowden genuinely pulled this off himself? I ask this from the standpoint of someone who thinks this was an intentional leak probably agreed by several governments, though i couldn't tell you any more then the inconsistencies that make me think this.

[Strife26]

Because it certainly doesn't help the NSA at all, and they're monitoring all the other countries. :p

[Scoops Novel]

I've heard the term "managed resistance" used here, and any conversation that happens in America will carry to other superpowers undoubtedly running similar programs on their citizens and others. Last i checked they haven't lost anything either. It's been noted throughout this thread that everyone was expecting this and may account for part of the diminished reaction. I also see no reason for a fashionably evil government to maintain mass surveillance on the one hand and freedom of the press as good as they say it is on the other, particularly given that PRISM can be seen as bog-standard dragnet surveillance, as opposed to what a prominent newspaper would receive.