Russia May Turn Over Snowden to U.S.

[applegrove]

https://politicalwire.com/2017/02/10/russia-may-hand-snowden-u-s/

SNIP..........


NBC News has learned that U.S. intelligence has collected information that Russia is considering turning over Edward Snowden as a “gift” to President Donald Trump — who has called the NSA leaker a “spy” and a “traitor” who deserves to be executed.

“That’s according to a senior U.S. official who has analyzed a series of highly sensitive intelligence reports detailing Russian deliberations and who says a Snowden handover is one of various ploys to ‘curry favor’ with Trump. A second source in the intelligence community confirms the intelligence about the Russian conversations and notes it has been gathered since the inauguration.”


...........SNIP

[gordianot]

1. The spy who should remain in the deep freeze.

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't give two shits about Edward Snowden, but Trump....

has his own problems with "spies" & "traitors" in his own administration. So, I expect Snowden to be returned home to resume his life just as before.

[gratuitous]

10. Snowden is persona non grata for the rabid right

My reading of this offer is that Putin can see that Trump's in trouble, and this would be an easy win to mollify the base. Some of the base are becoming ever so slightly disaffected with Trump, but nailing "that traitor Snowden" (that is, if they remember why they hate him) could give him a shot in the arm.

The problem, naturally, is what can Putin do to prop up Trump come March?

[randome]

11. I think you're right.

[Tarheel_Dem]

23. You may be right, but I agree with the poster downthread who said this may be a very public....

tit for tat. They give us Snowden, and we drop the sanctions. That way DT can claim he got something in exchange for something he was already planning to do anyhow.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

3. That sounds incredibly cruel.

The man does not deserve execution.

[nolabels]

7. My guess is they will not touch him with a hundred foot pole

Also be willing to bet this because do you really think all the information he has had his hands on has been released?

Get a clue, this is idle B.S. to stir up some kind of happy news

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

8. Happy news?

Not sure what you are talking about.

[nolabels]

15. Happy news is the B.S they spew to try make the general population think everything is going....

as planned. It must also titillate so something like the sky is blue will not work

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

16. I still don't get how this is happy news.

I think it is terrible news.

[nolabels]

18. Well to you it might not be happy news but to a Law and Order crowd it's steak dinner

And besides, it is B.S., not going to happen

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

19. OK, maybe for them it is. n/t

[forgotmylogin]

31. Surely Snowden has a "dead man switch"

on a lockbox that is quivering and ready to burst with damaging info.

[metalbot]

35. If that's true, then we have to assume the Russians already have that info

And they are unlikely to let him go, since once they let him go, he'll tell US officials what the Russians know.

This is pretty much a no-win for Snowden. I think the most likely end is that he'll be killed in a "random" mugging in Moscow, or perhaps contract a serious disease.

[flamingdem]

4. They're trying to create the illusion of quid pro quo

Oh we gave you Snowden so lighten the sanctions.

Look, we don't want him back, you're stuck with him.

Have some more borscht Eddie

[sunonmars]

5. and just about confirms everyones suspicions about Trump and Putin.

[elehhhhna]

6. Donny want a to kill some people. Snowdon is one of them.

What's the headcount so far anyway?

[BannonsLiver]

21. One Navy Seal, an 8-year old girl and a dozen or so more

That's the stuff we actually KNOW about. Who knows what else has gone on That hasent seen the light of day.

[SaschaHM]

9. When was the last time the U.S. executed someone for treason?

This seems like a huge piece of red meat to throw to his base and given Trump's statements on Snowden and Chelsea Manning, I'm not sure he can walk this back to a pardon. Prosecuting Snowden would also curry a lot of favor with Military and Intelligence brass.

Link to tweet

[JHan]

22. That tweet says it all

[Cha]

12. Russia Considers Returning Snowden to U.S. to Curry Favor With Trump: Official

"Former deputy national security adviser Juan Zarate urged the Trump administration to be cautious in accepting any Snowden offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"For Russia, this would be a win-win. They've already extracted what they needed from Edward Snowden in terms of information and they've certainly used him to beat the United States over the head in terms of its surveillance and cyber activity," Zarate said.

"It would signal warmer relations and some desire for greater cooperation with the new administration, but it would also no doubt stoke controversies and cases in the U.S. around the role of surveillance, the role of the U.S. intelligence community, and the future of privacy and civil liberties in an American context."

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russia-eyes-sending-snowden-u-s-gift-trump-official-n718921?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

[NCTraveler]

13. Putin knows this would cause even more division here at home.

It would be a win for him.

[applegrove]

14. It would smash the US into two groups

even more. You are correct. Very worrisome. And while I do not like Snowdon, it is frightening to think such a famous person who we have known of could be in such jeopardy. Just an awful feeling. I wonder if Putin too wants to push us along on the road to authoritarianism by
putting such concrete fear in our hearts.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

17. I agree... we have a nitwit in charge

and we are totally getting played by Putin.

[roamer65]

24. Pootie's end game is the breakup of the United States.

He sees it as revenge for the breakup of his beloved USSR.

[uponit7771]

25. Yeap... It's like NATO took Something he loved and choked it to death in front of him....

... and he wants revenge yesterday.

[mvd]

20. I'm happy he exposed our spy program

Maybe he did break laws, but if I was President, I would be talking about pardoning him and not executing him.

Now Assange is different - I wouldn't mind if he is jailed.

[uponit7771]

28. No not at all... He gives info to Russia, our elections get hacked and now we have Benedict Donald

... no pardoning him seeing he didn't add to the overall what have been exposed by Obama months before

[LiberalLovinLug]

30. That's RW fake news

There is not only no proof at all that he leaked any info to the Russians but he was a relativity low level worker so he didn't even have access to any high level security info. As far as the DNC being hacked, why would he have any special knowledge about internal DNC servers?

[mvd]

32. Thank you - that is true

He pretty much had to take refuge, and there IS no proof.

[uponit7771]

33. This is false on its face, I have Obama's words you have a statement. Also, he gave the data to the

... Chinese media which = Chinese government to anyone paying half ass'd attention, that's a known known... no conjecture needed.

In regards to the data

No one in their right mind thinks Snowden gave no information to the Russians and the Russians are just letting him stay there just to screw with whom they can... who gives a fuck what level it was at ... Red Herring but just in case US said it was damaging I believe them more than a traitor... full stop.

In regards to hacking and your other red herring

I'm not talking about the DNC being hacked I'm talking about the intel report saying the state and local electoral boards being hacked... its in the intel report itself... twice.

Either you're here fucking with us or you need to keep up with these stories better k?

[LiberalLovinLug]

34. gobbledy gook

I haven't heard that kind of triple speak since Rumsfeld. Known knowns, and no one in their right mind thinks otherwise eh? Blah blah blah. Still no proof. Just reactionary hysteria.

The only real thing we know is that he gave up his freedom, forced to live in a country he never wanted to stay in, for exposing the lie of mass data accumulation in his home country. And we saw Clapper having to reverse his lie to congress about it. (a felony that of course was never prosecuted). And he opened the conversation that was long overdue.

Putin let him stay because he was an embarrassment to the previous government that was critical of him. Did you notice that now that his pal Trump is in charge he's more than willing to dump him?

Think for a minute. What was in it for him? He was an NSA worker that decided that the American public deserved to see how their government was abusing their rights to privacy and lying about it. Even Obama himself said the leaks prompted, “an important conversation we needed to have”.

There is a great detailed expose with Snowden by Wired magazine. I'd suggest it as a good read.

https://www.wired.com/2014/08/edward-snowden/

[uponit7771]

36. Link inside to Snowden giving intel to Chinese press...

http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-giving-us-secrets-to-china-2013-6

Snowden is a traitor ... full stop

[LiberalLovinLug]

38. Nothing there

Its full of "ifs".
In fact the article says only that he said in an interview that he told the Chinese paper that the US has hacked some Chinese servers. Do you think they didn't know this? Do you think that they don't do that, or attempt to, as well? There is nothing in that article that reveals he handed them any top secret security information.

The only thing we can go on is listening to him explain himself, judge his character from how he looks, how he behaves. And IMO he seems legit. He had the best of intentions. He was the very definition of a whistleblower. We will agree to disagree.

[uponit7771]

39. You're not even reading the business insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/snowden-gives-us-secrets-to-chinese-2013-6

According to the SCMP, Snowden has documents showing how the U.S. has systematically targeted and hacked computers in Hong Kong and mainland China.

But I guess SCMP is fake news too hunh?!?

[Adrahil]

26. I bet ole Eddie...

Is wishing he had come home under Obama after all now....

[bigtree]

27. trying to distract from the Flynn/Trump scandal

[hrmjustin]

29. Snowden made his own bed and now he has to sleep in it.

[liquid diamond]

37. Didn't this asshole have a chance to come back while Obama was president?