(In case you haven't been following the news for the past month+) Edward Snowden is a former CIA technical worker who provided the Guardian with top-secret NSA documents leading to revelations about US surveillance on phone and internet communications. He fled to Hong Kong in May, reportedly requested asylum in Ecuador and is currently in transit zone of the airport in Moscow, Russia, waiting for decision of the Ecuador officials. Thoughts on the topic welcome!
I think what he did was right and follow the idea of that governments should be led by the people and not the other way around where the government becomes an autonomous entity. Either way he's unfortunately screwed regardless what happens, due to the fact that they even forced the Ecuadoran ambassador's plane down over France(?) I think
Well wish there was another option of a *shrug* Who cares. It is life at the end of the day. Your fault for not having enough security or stages to keep things settled and sorted with information with in your country. Also be amazed how certian peoples mind can be tricked or tortured. It is amazed how certian peoples lives can be put in theses situations. Just glad I am just enjoying computer games and not booking airport flights around the world. Then again how the heck does he feel he is having 'fun' out of doing what he has done.
Should the US prosecute? Yeah probably, letting a major data leaker just walk free just isn't american, and the precedent that if you flee from the country after you commit treason will erase whatever you did beforehand isn't a good one to follow. Was Snowden right for leaking the data? Yeah probably, He saw a violation of the constitution and wanted the people to know that the government doesn't give a shit about your fourth amendment. Although nobody is seeming to care so much as to riot like other countries (yet) so the effort is going to waste. It's pretty funny how you non-american seem to have more interest than us.
We have more interest because some of the content he's released shows that your agencies have been specifically spying on Europe, and in many parts in cahoots with our own agencies. The man shouldn't be prosecuted because he's brought to light that all governments are purposely infringing upon our rights. If we can't trust them (which we shouldn't anyhow), why should we punish those that show that there is bad behaviour?
Well the man "shouldn't be prosecuted" but the government controls the punishment and the government doesn't care about our rights so he's gonna be in a world of hurt no matter what.
That's true, and there's pressure being put on countries to not grant him asylum, however this shouldn't be the case. The only thing I believe is a bit dickish is he went in there (apparently) with the motive of doing all this anyways, but that was reported more by the big media stations than the smaller ones which could just be a fabrication.
I actually argued this with my mother over the phone last week, and I suppose I do find her arguments somewhat true. She thinks the primary reason people aren't seemingly caring all that much is that not too many people have data that they care about the government "seeing" through all the rest of every other person in the world's data. Safety in numbers, I suppose. Techy people (read: many of the people on this forum) are certainly the minority. I care heavily about my data not being spied upon and whatnot (thus I encrypt all my shit, and use Tor whenever applicable [I don't care all that much, because if someone wants to try that hard to see me browsing 4chan/2chan/porn, I suppose they can see it]). So, I suppose it all boils down to, yes, I definitely don't want the government spying on me, knowing what I ate for dinner last night, that I just got dumped, and that I'm fighting with a friend (in example), but there's also safety in numbers. If everyone else is being kept tabs on too, there's not too much time to pick favourites. As to the lack of riots and all, I suppose people just don't care that much, like my mother. And I think Snowden did a good thing, but there's a large possibility that he will end up an actual martyr :S
The Right of Asylum (sometimes called political asylum, from the Greek: ἄσυλον)[1] is an ancient juridical concept, under which a person persecuted by his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries (as in medieval times) Guess where I found that. Anyway I don't think he should get in trouble for what he did, people should know what goes on and he was just letting people know, why should he get life in prison for that.