The question is which drugs Thomas L. Friedman took before writing his Obama, Snowden and Putin article for the NY Times?
The first piece of madness he wrote referenced President Obama’s surveillance reforms:
Considering the breadth of reforms that President Obama is now proposing to prevent privacy abuses in intelligence gathering, in the wake of Snowden’s disclosures, Snowden deserves a chance to make a second impression — that he truly is a whistle-blower, not a traitor.
And his second dash of craziness, where he summons NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden to come back to the US:
To make a second impression, Snowden would need to come home, make his case and face his accusers.
First of all, what surveillance reforms did President Obama introduce that will safeguard us from abuse? The privacy invasion started from the very beginning of the Prism and XKeyscore programs and as long as the US government continues to collect and store billions of electronic records on innocent American as well as hoe-out those records to other government agencies, the abuse is going nowhere.
Second, “Come home”?? C’mon. I suppose Snowden would give this idea serious consideration if he didn’t hear about what happened to WikiLeaks enabler, Bradley Manning. Even Daniel Ellsberg, whose treatment after leaking the Pentagon Papers looks like Four Seasons Hotel service when compared to Manning’s experience is down with Snowden’s decision to get the hell out of the US.
Third, Whether you want to call Russia’s motives noble or despicable, the country is acting in accordance with international law, where it can grant asylum to Snowden if it believes Snowden’s story that he would be persecuted upon his return to the US. Now, I’ll refer you back to my second point…
Fourth, Wassup with Friedman? There are very few journalists who think Obama’s proposed surveillance reforms are worth much, especially since President Obama is merely calling for a transparent view into the ongoing privacy abuses that the President has no intention of stopping. Let’s see who else calls out Friedman for this…
song currently stuck in my head: “you’re all that matters” – denise williams
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