BRUSSELS — The European Parliament narrowly (285 vs 281 votes) adopted a nonbinding but nonetheless forceful resolution on Thursday urging the 28 nations of the European Union to recognize Edward J. Snowden as a "whistle-blower and international human rights defender" and to shield him from prosecution.
On Twitter, Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents about electronic surveillance by the American government, called the vote a "game-changer."
But the resolution has no legal force and limited practical effect for Mr. Snowden, who is living in Russia on a three-year residency permit. Whether to grant Mr. Snowden asylum remains a decision for the individual European governments, and thus far, none have done so.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday November 02 2015, @09:54AM
We seem to be mixing levels here. I'm talking about the CEO of Lockheed-Boeing being on the golf course and finding out from his friend in the .gov that the Airbus quote for Somewheria Airlines is going to come in at $1.24 billion, but that if they come in at $1.235 they can swing the deal by leaning on the chief of the evaluation committee, (who is cheating on his wife and has an embarassing fetish for smelly feet).
It is not just pricing info. It's stuff like who to lean on, how to lean on them, who is really making decisions, what parts of a deal are negotiable up or down and what is the real level they will agree at. This is all very valuable info in the business world.
We are not talking just legally mandated terrorist tracking, or even Joe Blows love letters to xx@gmail. What is actually written in the legislation is almost irrelevant at this level.
What has really got them pissed is that this sort of information is now being extracted from the massive amounts of data the NSA is collecting. It used to require specific spying, but now programs like Watson's children can just extrapolate and cross reference. What did you think, Watson was just to win Jeopardy?
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.