{"id":44987,"date":"2013-06-25T08:40:37","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T07:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/can-wikileaks-save-snowden\/44987\/"},"modified":"2013-06-25T08:40:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T07:40:37","slug":"can-wikileaks-save-snowden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/can-wikileaks-save-snowden\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Wikileaks Save Snowden?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, June 23 Edward Snowden left Hong Kong on a commercial flight to Moscow.\u00a0\u00a0He was thought to be planning to leave Russia for Cuba on Monday, June 24, however Snowden never appeared for his flight. Snowden\u2019s current whereabouts are unknown, but Julian Assange\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0that Snowden is \u201csafe and healthy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government\u2019s\u00a0pouting<\/a>\u00a0over Hong Kong and Russia\u2019s disobedience of Washington\u2019s orders vividly demonstrates the U.S. government\u2019s attitude that the U.S. owns the world. Somehow U.S. officials can\u2019t understand why these nations wouldn\u2019t respect \u201cthe rule of law\u201d. This despite the fact that it\u2019s Obama who should be tried at the International Criminal Court for the conduct of his \u201cWar on Terror\u201d.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government had increased their pressure on Hong Kong to arrest Snowden after formally charging him with espionage on June 14.\u00a0\u00a0Yet in the end the Hong Kong authorities\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the request the U.S. made for Snowden\u2019s capture didn\u2019t fully comply with legal requirements under the law and legally Hong Kong could not stop him from boarding the flight.<\/p>\n

Snowden\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0asked the Hong Kong government if he would be able to leave the city freely, if he wanted. An individual identifying himself as a representative of the Hong Kong government told Snowden that he was free to leave and he should leave.<\/p>\n

Allowing Snowden to leave was the best choice for Hong Kong.\u00a0Snowden\u2019s extradition battle would have put Hong Kong authorities in a difficult position: Snowden\u2019s disclosures that the NSA hacked Chinese computers, Chinese cell companies (gaining access to millions of text messages), Chinese Universities, and Chinese network\u201cbackbones\u201d<\/a>\u00a0helped earn him the sympathy of\u00a0some<\/a>\u00a0in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Popular support would have forced Hong Kong officials not to overtly bow to U.S. pressure for Snowden\u2019s extradition. Yet the entanglement of the U.S. and Chinese economies would make it impossible for the Chinese government to risk seriously damaging their relations with the U.S. For this reason Hong Kong wouldn\u2019t have been able to ignore the request to extradite Snowden indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Had Snowden stayed in Hong Kong he would have faced a lengthy court battle and eventually a\u00a0likely<\/a>\u00a0extradition back to the U.S. Remember that Snowden originally stated\u201cMy intention is to ask the\u00a0court\u00a0and\u00a0people\u00a0of\u00a0Hong Kong\u00a0to decide my fate.\u201d\u00a0So why did Snowden suddenly lose what he previously called his \u201cfaith<\/a>\u00a0in Hong Kong\u2019s rule of law\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0He started talking with people from Wikileaks and realized he\u00a0wouldn\u2019t<\/a>\u00a0be safe in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

My colleague and I have been\u00a0writing<\/a>\u00a0for weeks about how Snowden should have \u201cnot chosen Hong Kong\u201d, that instead \u2018Ecuador<\/a>\u00a0would have been a much better choice\u2019, and that Snowden \u201cshould\u2019ve worked with Wikileaks\u201d rather than Glenn Greenwald.\u00a0\u00a0It seems Snowden has finally figured out whom he can trust.<\/p>\n

A perfect example of the difference between Wikileaks and other media outlets is a story which came out on June 21 about how an Icelandic businessman who formerly ran DataCell, which handles donations for Wikileaks, had\u00a0chartered<\/a>\u00a0a private jet for Snowden at a cost of $240,000.<\/p>\n

Well one question one might ask is why didn\u2019t\u00a0The Guardian<\/i>\u00a0offer to pay for the jet?\u00a0How much money did the paper make off this story? How much did Glenn Greenwald personally benefit from this story of a lifetime falling into his lap despite his best efforts to\u00a0fumble<\/a>\u00a0it?\u00a0\u00a0His June 9th<\/sup>\u00a0article<\/a>, which names Snowden as the NSA leaker, was shared almost a quarter of a million times on Facebook.\u00a0\u00a0One would think both he andThe Guardian<\/i>\u00a0owe Snowden something for this colossal story.<\/p>\n

Sure, Greenwald goes on the\u00a0T.V. news<\/a>\u00a0shows and acts like a vicious guard dog for Snowden, but he doesn\u2019t actually do anything to protect him.\u00a0\u00a0He didn\u2019t persuade him not to go to Hong Kong, despite being a lawyer and it being relatively easy to look into Hong Kong\u2019s extradition record to the U.S. He didn\u2019t make sure his source was in a safe place before Snowden was named.<\/p>\n

To people who say Snowden is a \u201cbig boy\u201d and can make his own decisions, would you really allow someone to make a decision that has the very real possibility to unnecessarily destroy their lives without objecting?\u00a0\u00a0I certainly don\u2019t think it\u2019s an ethical thing to do.\u00a0\u00a0One must remember the isolation of someone who leaks government information.\u00a0\u00a0Snowden literally had no one to count on and he reached out to Greenwald, who just treated him as a footstool to allow him to grab greater name recognition.<\/p>\n

To those who state Greenwald could risk jail time for helping Snowden I simply point to Assange and the long line of activists that came before him. It should be obvious that doing the right thing sometimes means risking jail time.<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/i>\u00a0is as liberal as mainstream papers come, yet they hung Snowden out to dry. No one would put their ass on the line for Snowden who himself was willing to sacrifice everything for the people of the world for no personal gain. The traditional press should be dead to leakers.\u00a0\u00a0Leaking has become too dangerous and traditional papers are too firmly\u00a0embedded<\/a>\u00a0in the power structure.<\/p>\n

In direct contrast to\u00a0The Guardian,<\/i>\u00a0Baltazar Garzon, the legal director of Wikileaks, stated that\u00a0\u201cThe WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr. Snowden\u2019s rights and protecting him as a person.\u201d Kristinn Hrafnsson, Wikileaks spokesperson, stated, \u201c[Snowden\u2019s] revelations have been explosive and extremely important, and we\u2019ve offered our full help and assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The people behind Wikileaks actually care about their sources and are concerned about them as human beings because they care about making the world a better place.\u00a0\u00a0The organization is firmly committed to making the centers of power more transparent to ordinary people.<\/p>\n

The Wikileaks team was composed of trustworthy and knowledgeable people who Snowden could count on for good advice. They have powerful legal resources and are able to work with governments hostile to the U.S. in an attempt to provide the possibility of safety for leakers. Wikileaks investigated possible places for Snowden to gain asylum, they helped Snowden apply for asylum in Ecuador, they are attempting to negotiate his safe passage through countries outside the U.S. sphere, and Sarah Harrison (Wikileaks legal advisor) met Snowden in Hong Kong and accompanied him to Moscow.<\/p>\n

Another example of Greenwald\u2019s failure is his\u00a0admission<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthat we withheld the majority of the things [Snowden] gave us\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0What did Snowden risk his life for if\u00a0The Guardian\u00a0<\/i>won\u2019t even publish the leaks? It\u2019s true that Snowden wanted some secrets withheld to prevent harming U.S. \u201cnational interests\u201d, yet there is reason to believe Snowden wants more of the leak to get out. Julian Assange announced Wikileaks may\u00a0release<\/a>\u00a0more of Snowden\u2019s revelations.<\/p>\n

There is a powerful lesson here that Wikileaks, a non-profit organization composed of almost all volunteers and run entirely on donations can do things that a mainstream paper with enormous resources can\u2019t. (The company that owns\u00a0The Guardian<\/i>\u00a0is worth\u00a3254 million.)\u00a0\u00a0This is because Wikileaks is based on the values of justice and solidarity instead of simply making money for its owners.<\/p>\n

One should have no doubt about what a serious threat Wikileaks poses for those who wish to control the world by preventing information from reaching the public. Simply look at the ruthless attacks against the organization.<\/p>\n

There have been\u00a0threats<\/a>\u00a0by high level members of the Obama administration,assassination threats<\/a>\u00a0directed at Wikileaks staffers, and very serious\u00a0cyber attacks<\/a>, which may have been undertaken by a large\u00a0organization<\/a>\u2013possibly even the U.S. government.\u00a0\u00a0There has also been defection of key\u00a0service providers<\/a>, a serious economic\u00a0strangulation<\/a>\u00a0with Visa, Matercard, and Paypal all disallowing their services for donations to Wikileaks, and of course the prosecution of Assange and Snowden, as well as the torture of Bradley Manning.<\/p>\n

If Snowden makes it to a safe country and is granted asylum it will be despite Glenn Greenwald and\u00a0The Guardian.<\/i>\u00a0Wikileaks may save Snowden\u2019s life. But Snowden\u2019s asylum would also be a huge victory for international solidarity with Hong Kong, Russia, Wikileaks, and Latin American countries all possibly playing a role.\u00a0\u00a0All these players would have taken some risk by standing up to American power.<\/p>\n

And even more inspiring is the role that ordinary people would have played by donating to Wikileaks, by rallying for Snowden in Hong Kong, and through the powerful social movements of Latin America, which have driven numerous governments of the region leftward. These movements created an inspiring place where it\u2019s possible for people like Snowden to escape the violence of the U.S. government.\u00a0\u00a0Snowden\u2019s asylum will also be one more bit of evidence that the U.S. doesn\u2019t own the world, and that forces opposing U.S. power may be gathering strength.<\/p>\n

Paul Gottinger<\/strong>\u00a0is a writer from Madison, WI where he edits the left issues journal\u00a0whiterosereader.org<\/a>. He can be reached at\u00a0paul.gottinger@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: Counterpunch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, June 23 Edward Snowden left Hong Kong on a commercial flight to Moscow.\u00a0\u00a0He was thought to be planning to leave Russia for Cuba on Monday, June 24, however Snowden never appeared for his flight. Snowden\u2019s current whereabouts are unknown, but Julian Assange\u00a0stated\u00a0that Snowden is \u201csafe and healthy\u201d. The U.S. government\u2019s\u00a0pouting\u00a0over Hong Kong and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-44987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}