Consider the power of Edward Snowden.
Six weeks after Obama declared, “I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” he’s canceled a summit because of him. Obama won’t be meeting with Vladimir Putin because Putin extended temporary asylum to Edward Snowden. Some news accounts say it’s a new Cold War.
White House press secretary Jay Carney sought to deny that Snowden was the only factor yesterday, but he wasn’t entirely convincing:
Now, when it comes to the decision to cancel the summit, as I think has been well reported, there were a variety of challenges that led to the assessment that this was not the right time to have a summit. Obviously, Mr. Snowden was a factor, but he was far from the only factor…
Carney was also on the defensive about the government spying program that Snowden revealed, and some of what he said sounded like Big Brother explaining himself:
the metadata collection represented by [program] 215 is not content, it is telephone numbers and call times…. we have made clear that under FAA 702, the NSA may not intentionally target a U.S. person[‘s emails].
Carney was only too happy to talk about Russia’s human rights record. He said the president condemns a Russian law that bars LGBT people from “propaganda.”
The President was very clear about his views on the issues of gay rights, LGBT rights, and concerns that have been raised internationally about laws in Russia,
Again: consider the power of Edward Snowden. A summit between superpowers has been cancelled and the human rights records of both countries are being scrutinized, thanks to a 30-year-old former government data analyst.
I’m sure there’s a price for the cancellation of a meeting of Putin and Obama– maybe even progress on the Iranian nuclear issue. But the benefits are already clear. The Russians and Americans are quarreling openly over human rights and Americans are discussing government actions we have a right to know about, a right that was nullified and that Snowden gave up his job, his comfort and some large portion of his liberty to revive.
Carney’s defensiveness yesterday extended to fundamental character questions about the goodness of the American executive branch and of Edward Snowden’s idealism. Notice how he puts him down:
He’s not a dissident. He’s not a whistleblower. He is wanted on charges for the unauthorized public release of classified information.
Carney does so because Edward Snowden is speaking to Obama’s own base– liberals who believed in change– and he is more believable than a president who seems like an extension of George W. Bush.
Carney knows how inspiring Edward Snowden has been to millions of us. He has stood up for a principle, government’s accountability to its citizens. And he reminds us of the most basic ideal in democracy, that government is by the people. That an ordinary citizen, acting in conscience, can exercise power over a president.
You got that right.
Snowden is just wonderful, and Americans who cannot see that he’s the real thing, a courageous defender of the best US and World values, should keep getting their lives and pockets picked by the status quo US government while they wrap themselves in the flag, both Old Glory and Israel’s. Problem is, they will gladly do this, and put their kids in the front ranks of those who want to die for big banking and Israel.
a president who seems like an extension of George W. Bush.
he is both a natural extension of Bush, and worse than Bush.
btw, in the realm of spookery, there have been significant developments in the case of the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), so often used here as evidence of Iranian intentions towards Israel and jews in general, mostly covered, from what I’ve seen, in the Spanish language press.
apparently much of the evidence of Iranian involvement originally came from MEK sources. also, see the following (much more in Spanish press but don’t have time to clean up crap google translations.)
Carlos Corach, who served as interior minister of Argentina under President Carlos Menem and who is Jewish, is to be investigated for his ties to one of the suspects in the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing. The Buenos Aires Federal Appeals Court last week ordered the probe of Corach, 78, in connection with an illegal payment of US$ 400,000 to Carlos Telleldin, an auto mechanic who was among those charged in the 1994 attack that left 85 dead and hundreds wounded. Telleldin allegedly provided the car bomb that blew up the Jewish center but has not been indicted.
The three Appeals Court justices called on Federal Judge Ariel Lijo to investigate “the existence of concrete allegations involving Carlos Vladimiro Corach, which have not been investigated until now” regarding the illegal payment to Telleldin.
Corach was responsible for obtaining the building for the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires and was the main speaker at its inauguration, JTA reports.
Last year, Menem – who served as president of Argentina from 1989 to 1999 – was ordered to stand trial on charges of obstruction of justice in the AMIA bombing investigation. Da date for the trial has still not be set, and two weeks ago Menem asked for it to be postponed until the findings of the International Truth Commission, which is to be set up jointly by Argentina and Iran, are known.
corach is also the scumbag who took millions in bribes from siemens while interior minister of argentina under scumbag president carlos menam, and whose brother (supposedly) blew his brains out in a public suicide. (from what I can tell from what little I’ve read, his body was discovered by a passerby, but there were no witnesses to the shooting itself.)
Great piece.
It’s interesting that the Obots are using the some of the same justification that the bush supporters did to defend bush. Then when more leaks come out showing President Obama lies they revert to the Jay Carney/WH Script or the “Hey Look over there” diversion. Also the obot attack Snowden for being in Russia yet always fail to mention the fact it because of U.S. bullying of other countries that Snowden is stuck in Russia. While attacking Russia for not handing Snowden over the media and his supporters often leave out the U.S. harbors actual criminals that murdered massive amounts of people or stolen great sums of money and have yet to return such people to countries the U.S. has treaties with. Also notice the Gay Rights and the Olympics only became big and wide reporting after Russia snuffed the U.S.?
Right on, Phil.
Snowden isn’t an ordinary citizen. He was a subcontractor in the Military-Industrial Complex that had access to enormous amounts of data. His power was in his job, not in his citizenship.
But yes, I’m glad to see Obama hoisted on his own petard.