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I think he's doing a ridiculously good job for an individual taking on the largest military intelligence organization in the world without lawyers or paid polit

I think he's doing a ridiculously good job for an individual taking on the largest military intelligence organization in the world without lawyers or paid political consultants. I'm not sure how you would expect him to conduct this disclosure without the "act of flight" or "becoming a focal point of the story".

glurgh 13y ago
I suppose I'd expect him to conduct himself like, well, just about every other whistleblower before him. Just yesterday three high level NSA whistleblowers gave a joint interview to USA Today. All three still in the US and none in prison. One of them, William Binney, while being generally supportive of Snowden went as far as to call some of his actions traitorous. Or, say, here's a take by Slate's resident libertarian: http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/06/17/snowden_veers_into_useful_idiocy.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/06/17/snowden_veers_i... When your natural support constituency starts saying things like that you have a serious (and, inexplicably, self-created) image problem. I believe this is an actual thing rather than, you know, you and me just shooting the shit on a nerd message board.
- marshray 13y ago
  None of those three (bless their hearts) were anywhere near as effective in getting their message to the public as Snowden.
  - glurgh 13y ago
    No doubt, but that's also why the concern that he may be turning himself from 'effective' to 'ineffectual' is so much greater. I guess the simplest way I can put it is - I wish he'd stop taking his cues from journalists, however high-minded and well-intentioned and start working with a local lawyer specializing in human rights and civil liberties issues, yesterday.
chris_mahan 13y ago
I suppose that with the wikileaks precedent, he would assume they would have thrown him in solitary confinement, with no access to the press, which would defeat the purpose of his leaking the info.

glurgh 13y ago

I suppose I'd expect him to conduct himself like, well, just about every other whistleblower before him. Just yesterday three high level NSA whistleblowers gave a joint interview to USA Today. All three still in the US and none in prison. One of them, William Binney, while being generally supportive of Snowden went as far as to call some of his actions traitorous. Or, say, here's a take by Slate's resident libertarian: http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/06/17/snowden_veers_into_useful_idiocy.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/06/17/snowden_veers_i... When your natural support constituency starts saying things like that you have a serious (and, inexplicably, self-created) image problem. I believe this is an actual thing rather than, you know, you and me just shooting the shit on a nerd message board.

marshray 13y ago
None of those three (bless their hearts) were anywhere near as effective in getting their message to the public as Snowden.
- glurgh 13y ago
  No doubt, but that's also why the concern that he may be turning himself from 'effective' to 'ineffectual' is so much greater. I guess the simplest way I can put it is - I wish he'd stop taking his cues from journalists, however high-minded and well-intentioned and start working with a local lawyer specializing in human rights and civil liberties issues, yesterday.

chris_mahan 13y ago

I suppose that with the wikileaks precedent, he would assume they would have thrown him in solitary confinement, with no access to the press, which would defeat the purpose of his leaking the info.