6 ms·

Ironic, people used to seek asylum in US from persecution in other countries. How times have changed? Now people run to other countries for asylum to avoid pers

• neilc 13y ago
  20,000-40,000 people per year seek asylum in the US; we're discussing one person who has fled the US to avoid prosecution. Let's not overreact.
  • pyvpx 13y ago
    yeah guys. let's all calm down. the status quo is just fine. this guy is just an aberration. /s
    • untog 13y ago
      Uh, he is, though. How many people try to seek asylum from the US each year?
• vbtemp 13y ago
  > Ironic, people used to seek asylum in US from persecution in other countries. How times have changed? Now people run to other countries for asylum to avoid persecution in US. More and more land of the free is becoming land of tyrants. Lol. Russia is a place where journalists are routinely murdered, where governors are appointed like local fiefs, where Putin has rigged elections and brutally intimidated opponents. If you think Snowden is going there to avoid "persecution" I don't know what la-la-land you live in. He's going to run from the law, and he's going there because Russia is still geo-political public enemy #1, and they are giving him asylum not because he is some champion of human dignity (he lost that when he fled to China and revealed a whole lot more that was unrelated to surveillance), but because he has valuable information and having him in their possession obviously advances some political goals for them.
  • enraged_camel 13y ago
    >>not because he is some champion of human dignity (he lost that when he fled to China and revealed a whole lot more that was unrelated to surveillance) He didn't lose shit. He revealed the fact that the USA targets and wiretaps non-military targets (universities, civilians, etc.) in China and Hong Kong. This is still whistleblowing, and these revelations make me think even more highly of him. Now, if he had told them which military targets the USA was spying on, he would have stepped into traitor catagory. But targeting non-combatants is illegal under multiple international treaties that the USA has signed. As such, the USA is breaking the law and Snowden has the duty to reveal that.
    • vbtemp 13y ago
      Just curious, do you have the same indignation that China does the exact same thing?
      • btilly 13y ago
        I don't, because China doesn't CLAIM to not do so. And doesn't try to drum up disapproval of the USA for doing it. By contrast do you remember the CIPSA nonsense?
  • gasull 13y ago
    Russia isn't Snowden's final destination. Moscow is just his layover.
    • vbtemp 13y ago
      Right, Cuba or Venezuela is his final destination. Does this change my point at all?
      • gasull 13y ago
        We don't know yet what his destination is. Some people claim Iceland or Ecuador.