6/30/2015

Headline June 30, 2015/ ''' !A HERO OR A TRAITOR? "' | EDWARD J. SNOWDEN


''' !A HERO OR A TRAITOR? "' 

| EDWARD J. SNOWDEN




GIVEN SUCH ASSESSMENTS,  prosecutors have shown no inclination to offer Mr- Snowden a plea bargain, he would accept-

The Russian government granted him a three-year residency last summer, and he has no obvious prospect of leaving time anytime soon. Even if Mr.Snowden acquired some kind of a travel document:

The United States has revoked his passport, and he is not a citizen of Russia, and he has no Russian passport   -he would face a very high risk of arrest in any other country and a return to the United States for trial.

Mr.Snowden's main source of his income, his lawyer said, is speaking fees, which have sometimes exceeded $10,000 for an appearance.

His American girlfriend , Lindsay Mills, who represented him at the Academy Awards ceremony in February, has joined  him in Moscow. 

But Mr. Snowden's standing, if complicated, is still a far cry from what it was after he first went public from  Hong Kong in June 2013, as the source of the leaked N.S.A. archive.

In Congress and on cable television at that time, there was much talk of treason, suggestions that Mr. Snowden must be an agent of Russia or China and even calls for killing him with a drone strike.

To date, there has been no evidence that Mr. Snowden took the  N.S.A. data on behalf of any other country or shared it except with the journalists. [Mr. Morell, the former C.I.A official, says, he believes:

That Mr.Snowden would have rebuffed any offers from Russia or China, "given his mind-set and his clear dislike for intelligence services of any stripe."]

And he has proved a far more lasting draw than many predicted. His gaunt image with a shaggy haircut, stylish glasses and thin beard, has appeared on T-shorts and posters worldwide. 

At Princeton that month, the director of the university's program in  law-and-public affirs,  Kim Lane Scheppele,  introduced  Mr. Snowden to a crowd that filled a large auditorium and two over overflow rooms.

She acknowledged that it was unusual for a program on law to feature as a speaker someone facing serious criminal charges.

***''But the very size of this audience today," she said  "indicates that Edward Snowden has done something very important by disclosing information that alerted the public to what was being done in our name."***

Then the huge, projected image of Mr. Snowden himself loomed over the stage. He laughed  sheepishly, muttering about looking like  Big Brother.

The next week, he spoke to the  Nordic Media Festival in Bergen, Norway, a day after the court ruled against the  N.S.A's phone data program.

Over a month ago, on a Friday, at Stanford he fielded the inevitable question:
"Is he a hero or a traitor?''

"It's not about me," he insisted. "It's about us. I'm not a hero. I'm not a traitor. I'm an ordinary American like anyone else in this room."

But he was not in that room in California, state the authors, and he spoke a little wistfully about that.

"If the opportunity was presented, I would of course come home,"he said."Because that's where I live. 

That's where my family is."

In the meantime, all Mr Edward J. Snowden can do, is see his victories from a distance of many thousands of  miles.

Yes, of course, the verdict of history would be very interesting, indeed! Till then...........! 


With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the World. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:


''' In Your Words '''

'''Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

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