Comment on Do you think that Edward Snowden is a hero?

stoy@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

I consider him a true American patriot.

Nothing is more patriotic than wanting your country to do better.

Implementing drag net surveillance was a terrible decision, and exposing it was truly heroic.

Sadly, Snowden is now in the clutches of Russia who can and does use him as their pawn.

It is easy to say that this is where the EU should have stepped up and given him sanctuary, but that would have been less than ideal for him.

  1. Europe and the US have close ties with police and law enforcement, while no EU nation would hand their own citizens over to the US, they would absolutely hand over a US citizen to the US if requested.
  2. During the war on terror, Europe was complicit in plenty of illegal renditions of their own citizens to the CIA, they were then sent to illegal black sites and tortured, plenty of these persons have since been proven innocent.

Given the high profile of Snowden’s leak, the US still want’s him back, and back then even more so, had Snowden gone to the EU, he most likely would have been extradited, kidnapped or even assassinated.

By staying in Russia that was a far lower risk to him.

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