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The Globe and Mail reports that Edward Snowden's Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena says the fugitive former US spy agency contractor who leaked details of the government’s mass surveillance programs was working with American and German lawyers to return home. “I won’t keep it secret that he … wants to return back home. And we are doing everything possible now to solve this issue. There is a group of U.S. lawyers, there is also a group of German lawyers and I’m dealing with it on the Russian side.” Kucherena added that Snowden is ready to return to the States, but on the condition that he is given a guarantee of a legal and impartial trial. The lawyer said Snowden had so far only received a guarantee from the US Attorney General that he will not face the death penalty. Kucherena says that Snowden is able to travel outside Russia since he has a three-year Russian residency permit, but "I suspect that as soon as he leaves Russia, he will be taken to the US embassy."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday March 04 2015, @03:51PM
no 'promises' will ever be trusted by the US government, at least on this issue.
if I was snowden, the only way I would agree to return is if I had some major balance of power I could use if the lawyers and judges decide to 'redefine' what US law is, yet again. something that gives him power against those who want to only make an example of him.
what could you have or do to keep the mighty giant in check?
I can't think of a thing. not a thing that would keep me safe in that situation.
he's safer where he is, right now. I wish him well, I look up to him and we all owe him so much, it can never be repaid.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gaaark on Wednesday March 04 2015, @06:30PM
I think i'd set up a 'kill switch' (can't think of the correct term i am looking for):
If i don't get a fair trial and i am kept away from a computer for too long, there is an automatic emailing of unreleased documents...
...that way, if i am Guantonamoed (sp?), i can at least get some satisfaction knowing i will have f'd the people who are f'ing me.
I think i'd stay where i was: how can he get a fair trial when so much of what will be in the trial will be under 'National Security' guidelines that can't be seen by the public at large.
I think i'd rather be snowd-in in Russia (yes, i know... my humour sucks).
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Thursday March 05 2015, @12:58AM
kill switch (or I think you mean 'dead mans switch') would be the right kind of thinking, but he'd have to go all 'james bond' to really have a safety net. sort of an inverted supervillian (which would be a superhero, I guess).
you could then call him...
(wait for it)
snow-finger!
"do you expect me to talk, snow-finger?"
(etc)
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday March 04 2015, @07:20PM
Exactly if he returns he'll spend the rest of his days in a hole that they forgot the key to, like Assange they WILL make an example out of him and make damned sure he gets life without parole and that is if he's lucky. If he thinks he'll get a fair trial? I have some magic beans he might be interested in.
I urge everyone to watch the end of America [youtube.com] which is a lecture detailing on how many pages has been taken from classic fascism by our leaders and remember that its gotten MUCH WORSE since this lecture was filmed. Also note that the woman doing the lecture is now on the watch list and harassed and intimidated every time she flies, her "crime"? Giving a lecture on how to invoke your constitutional rights when confronted by authorities.
I miss the hell out of him but I'm glad my grandfather that came back from fighting WWII in a full body cast isn't alive to see how fascist we've become, you could probably power most of the southern US by wrapping his body in copper, the man is probably spinning like a top in his grave right about now. The sad part is nobody will say or do squat until the economy collapses completely, as long as big mommy can keep cutting those checks so the populace can have their take out and cheapo Chinese widescreens they won't say boo, bread and circuses works as well today as it did 3000 years ago.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Balderdash on Wednesday March 04 2015, @08:09PM
"Espionage" is passing secrets on to a third party in order to enable it to cause damage to the people. Whistleblowing is publishing crimes to the general public in order to enable them to stop the damage to the people.
Conflating one with the other is exactly what the weaseling cronies in the government would love to do. Even better, blame their crimes on the person who uncovered them. Which is exactly what the talk about all the "damage" Snowden has done is about. Snowden damaged the enemies of the American people, and they will get him for that.
I browse at -1. Free and open discourse requires consideration and review of all attempts at participation.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aristarchus on Wednesday March 04 2015, @09:34PM
"Espionage" is passing secrets on to a third party in order to enable it to cause damage to the people.
Very close. Espionage is passing classified information to the enemy. For there to be an enemy, legally, we have to be in a legally declared state of war. We said in signing the UN Charter that we renounce the use of force in international relations, hence, we cannot be in a state of war. Therefore, there is no "enemy", and therefore there is no "Espionage". (Unless the enemy is the American public.)
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:25PM
If you release the documents to everyone, then someone deemed to be an enemy by the government will be able to get them too. State of war or not, his actions were correct, as the People always need to know when their government is violating the constitution and violating people's freedoms.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday March 05 2015, @12:24AM
If espionage occurs in such a way that you know it has occurred, it is not nearly so harmful. Once you know that they know, unless they don't know that you know that they know, we are on an equal playing field. This is why public release is "journalism", and not espionage. Maybe the enemy knows, but we now know that they know, so we are not giving them any advantage. (Unless, of course, it comes from the Total Information Awareness department, in which case the whole thing might be a disinformation campaign to make us thing we know when actual the enemy knows that what we think we know is not so! See why the whole spy-vs-spy thing is so morally ambiguous?)