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Of course, giving asylum to Snowden would definitively give a signal to Washington, but I would not advice Snowden to go to Germany. With the current situation
by PythonicAlpha 13y ago
Of course, giving asylum to Snowden would definitively give a signal to Washington, but I would not advice Snowden to go to Germany.
With the current situation in Germany, Snowden would be dead or in a plane to Guantanamo in very little time. And I guess, even the German BND (comparable to the US NSA) would be helping. I would not trust any promises from a current German government -- by the way, how many US troops are in Germany? I guess, there is no count for US spies yet.
- toyg 13y agoSnowden only needs a German passport.
- PythonicAlpha 13y agoFor what, to be captured by the NSA? There was a person with a German passport years ago, he was wrongly held in Guantanamo for a while ... against all international rights. Even after they concluded, that there is no evidence against him, they still kept him for some years. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Kurnaz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Kurnaz Do you think, only because Snowden has got some German looking waste-paper, the NSA will stop hunting him down? Dream on!
- toyg 13y agoNo, but he can then legally hang around Russia or some other half-safe country without embarrassing the local government. At the moment his situation is squarely in Putin's court, which is diplomatically problematic. Should he get a new valid passport from any other country, Putin could wash his hands of it and let him stay without looking too adversarial.
- PythonicAlpha 13y agoPossible. But most people understand by asylum, that he comes to Germany. I hope, you don't want to unembarrass Putin ;)
- toyg 13y agoAn unembarrassed Putin is a safe Snowden, which is all that matters at this point :)
- wahsd 13y agoHe knew what he was doing by going to Russia by way of Hong Kong. He's a damn smart guy that guy. I am curious what will happen when his asylum runs out. Technically speaking, by international law he should be fine as Russia will have legal standing to provide him permanent asylum based on the threat to his life. We have to remember, we are talking about our government, the same types that while fighting a war on drugs are also making deals with the Cartels that consolidates power under one and permits import of drugs into our country.
- PythonicAlpha 13y agoYou should definitively watch the film "The House I Live In" (One of the producers was Brad Pitt) it is an eye-opening documentation about the US drug policy. It shows, that even that is just a mock-up to fool people.