I have had a few more thoughts on Edward BenedictArnoldovich Snowden a few weeks ago.
He said that he thought about exposing the NSA spying when Obama was elected, but decided to wait hoping that Obama would change things. Once again, either this guy is lying, or he is really really dumb.
There were plenty of other issues on Obama’s mind when he was elected: The stimulus, Gitmo, health care. The NSA was not on my mind, and not too many people were talking about it. Maybe if someone had brought it to his attention, things would have been different.
Plus, if you truly are sincere about getting the government to do things differently, then the best time to bring something to the public’s attention when we have a new president. Particularly when the presidency changes parties.
So why did he wait? Perhaps he was lying when he said he hoped Obama would change the NSA, and did this to make the US look bad (which I bet suits Russia just fine). Perhaps he is just not that bright.
Plus, as many commenters at Little Green Footballs have pointed out, before these leaks, the stuff inside the NSA stayed inside the NSA. The only way Snowden got some of it out was by convincing other people at the NSA to give him their passwords. But now these docs are outside the confines of the NSA because of Snowden.
Also, I and others have noted that if his intended destination really was Latin America, why didn’t he just go to Latin America from the beginning? It seems to be working out for Glenn Greenwald.
Image of Snowden’s role model from Wikipedia, assumed allowed under Fair Use.
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