Interesting comments so far ... I'm more incensed that Obama called him a hacker. There was absolutely no hacking as he had a security clearance to work with (and apparently copy) the data he was responsible for.
While he might not be a hacker in our minds, whether he was permitted to access the documents he did is still up for debate. If he accessed them without permission, that would be enough to qualify him as a hacker under some definitions.
Just having security clearance doesn't mean that he absolutely didn't necessarily do any 'hacking' to get the data - he may well not have had direct access to the data in question, clearance or not.
The corrolary to your argument would seem to be that Obama is negotiating with Russia for Snowden's release. It strikes me as more likely that he is not. The whole issue is a domestic nightmare, having turned Obama from "good guy" to "bad guy" in the eyes of many (notably the primary demographic of this site).
He doesn't want a trial for this guy. He just wants the issue to go away. The security damage has already been done, if you believe the bit about Snowden having distribute d encrypted copies of the documents, etc...
The cat is out of the bag, really catching snowden at this point is just to serve as an example for others, not in strategic value of its own...
China already has whatever they wanted from snowden,
Russia already has whatever they wanted from snowden,
Encrypted copies of his data are in the hands of probably dozens of journalists and ambasadors,
and the story is already on the news...
"What's more, Ecuador offers the United States economic aid of $23 million annually, similar to what we received with the trade benefits, with the intention of providing education about human rights" well played, Ecuador.
>>it took two months for the country to make a decision in the case of Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblowing website Wikileaks, and that Snowden's case would take at least as long from the time the request was filed.<<
The headline should be "Obama says he refuses to barter over Snowden". And every time a politician says something, that's just PR. What matters is what politicians do.
[+] [-] smoyer|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Bosence|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slg|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tekacs|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beat|12 years ago|reply
More likely, this is Obama's equivalent of Reagan's "We do not negotiate with terrorists"... just a lie for the cameras.
[+] [-] ajross|12 years ago|reply
He doesn't want a trial for this guy. He just wants the issue to go away. The security damage has already been done, if you believe the bit about Snowden having distribute d encrypted copies of the documents, etc...
[+] [-] apalmer|12 years ago|reply
China already has whatever they wanted from snowden, Russia already has whatever they wanted from snowden, Encrypted copies of his data are in the hands of probably dozens of journalists and ambasadors, and the story is already on the news...
[+] [-] dmix|12 years ago|reply
Fighting with Russia for him would just draw more attention to it.
[+] [-] lukashed|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vog|12 years ago|reply
However, at least here in Germany this is unthinkable, given the number of human rights violations we still have to fix here in our own country.
[+] [-] deletes|12 years ago|reply
Snowden might be in Russia for some time.
[+] [-] gasull|12 years ago|reply