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Original poster

Do you think Edward Snowden is regretting it all?

23 replies

VivaLeBeaver · 02/07/2013 19:19

I know he said the other week he had no regrets but I can't help wonder if he thought it would kick off like this.

He's going to spend the rest of his life as a fugitive, certainly never able to go back to America by the sounds of it.

So he'll either get asylum somewhere like Ecudor or he'll give up/Russia will kick him out and the Americans will get him and he'll spend 50 years in prison.

If he gets asylum what does he do for the rest of his life in somewhere like Ecuador - will their govt support him financially or will he be expected to get a job?

OP posts:

Bowlersarm · 02/07/2013 19:20

Surely, surely he knew what the consequences would be. The US always seem to be unforgiving in these circumstance.

Original poster

VivaLeBeaver · 02/07/2013 19:42

I just can't imagine never been able to go back to my home country, never seeing friends and family again. He does seem to be more of a whistle blower than a traitor IMO.

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lalalonglegs · 02/07/2013 19:55

I think he thought support would be more unambiguous, that he would be declared a freedom fighter and there would be an outcry over the way he is being treated... and that hasn't really happened. I admire the stand he took but his options are definitely getting very narrow.

PseudoBadger · 02/07/2013 19:57

I haven't taken much notice of this over the last day or two, is he still in the airport, like that Tom Hanks film?

FreckledLeopard · 02/07/2013 20:02

He's a total twit and I have no sympathy for him. What on earth did he think would happen, that the world would welcome him with open arms?

lalalonglegs · 02/07/2013 20:04

Yes, still in the airport. Ecuador and Russia have both said that he's not getting asylum in their countries - various other countries have also said no. Bolivia and Venezuela seem the only places willing to host him (I'd take Bolivia, if I were him).

Crumbledwalnuts · 02/07/2013 20:04

I don't think he does actually - turned down Russia so he could keep leaking.

Snazzywaitingforsummer · 02/07/2013 20:05

I feel very sorry for him. He knew whatever else happened he would never be able to go back to the USA and still felt he had to do this. I am hoping one of the countries on his list will be brave enough to offer him asylum. Withdrawing his application for asylum in Russia indicates that he doesn't want to be seen as a traitor and that's how the US will paint him if he stays there.

To my knowledge he's still in the airport. That is the official story, anyway.

Original poster

VivaLeBeaver · 02/07/2013 20:07

Yes, Russia said he could have asylum as long as he stopped leaking so he withdrew his application. To be fair I don't think I'd want to spend the rest of my life in Russia either. Cuba I could maybe cope with.

I do wonder if he'll spend months/years in the airport and be the next Assange.

OP posts:

GibberTheMonkey · 02/07/2013 20:08

He's not the next Assange though is he. Assange is a coward, Snowden has been very brave

Original poster

VivaLeBeaver · 02/07/2013 20:08

I wouldn't be surprised if he meets a sticky end sooner rather than later. The CIA have form for getting into countries such as Bolivia and finishing people off who they don't want alive anymore.

OP posts:

LesAnimaux · 02/07/2013 20:13

I think he has a strong sense of right and wrong, in the way that my apergers DS does...and did what he thought was right no matter what the consequences.

DH thinks if he had such a sense of right and wrong he wouldn't have done what he did as a living for so long....

motherinferior · 02/07/2013 20:13

He followed his conscience and is extremely brave.

scaevola · 02/07/2013 20:14

If he was following his conscience, then he would have no regrets.

StrawberryMojito · 02/07/2013 20:15

The way I understand it, Russia and the US have held 'high level talks' and suddenly Putin is not so welcoming after all. He says Snowden would have to stop leaking to be allowed to stay there. Snowdens legal team are the Wikileaks bunch so I doubt they were happy with that so they had withdrawn his asylum application.

I have no idea how his long term future will pan out. I'm fairly sure it will be grim though.

I think part of the problem is that nobody is really surprised that the US are involved in that scale of surveillance, or possibly even cares.

WouldBeHarrietVane · 02/07/2013 20:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ShadeofViolet · 02/07/2013 20:23

Assange managed to glory hunt off someone elses bravery and is a huge knob

Snazzywaitingforsummer · 02/07/2013 20:53

Harriet yes, I've seen a lot of 'yawn, as if anyone is surprised by this' type comments elsewhere. When even if it isn't surprising, it is till a different ball game to have evidence of the scale of it. And it still isn't right.

As I've also seen said, if he'd come from China or Iran with comparable evidence he would be being hailed as a hero championing freedom and treated like royalty - even though, again, such surveillance would not be surprising in those regimes. As it is, no-one seems willing to help him. It is a great shame.

yamsareyammy · 02/07/2013 20:56

I think whistleblowers are some of the most courageous people on the planet.

FreckledLeopard · 02/07/2013 22:15

I'm just astounded that he thinks he's whistle blowing to any degree. Perhaps I'm hugely cynical but I can't say that any of his 'revelations' strike me with any surprise. I suppose I always assumed that governments undertook that level of surveillance.

yamsareyammy · 02/07/2013 22:25

Yes. It wasnt a huge surprise, but good to know.

I think, if I remember correctly, that he and his lawyers thought they had got things worked out.
But now they dont seem to have.
Not sure what has gone wrong.
I probably have missed some news about it somewhere along the way.

TSSDNCOP · 02/07/2013 22:48

It seems to me that he's one person up against a formidable opponent.

Whilst there cannot be a person alive that doesn't believe we are all being spied upon to a greater or lesser extent, and the Patriot Act facilitates that, the Government will spin whatever he says.

Going to Russia was a very big mistake, he surely cannot win domestic sympathy having done that. Likewise Cuba, China etc.

I read that one of his list is Ireland. Countries like that are in no financial position to harbour a whistleblower against a customer like the US.

So, whilst I have to admire his conscience, I fear he is comprehensively screwed.

Solopower1 · 04/07/2013 08:23

I'm very grateful to him for bringing it all out into the open and think he is very brave. At least now all the papers are full of it and it's being talked about.

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