Edward Snowden Asking 15 Countries for Asylum, Russian Official Says

[JDPriestly]

25. We wish.

But there are a number of countries in which the government would be quite happy to entertain the idea that the US holds political prisoners and enforces laws to silence legitimate dissenters.

It's all in your point of view. I could see Russia and Putin laughing all the way to signing the papers on an asylum claim. We constantly accuse other countries of civil rights violations like surveillance and punishment of journalists -- and here we are caught red-handed keeping metadata on everybody including journalists.

And remember, the tape that was released in Wikileaks in which our military in Iraq killed a journalist?

This is looking like we are not as keen on the right to a free press as we claim. We are looking a bit hypocritical.

Freedom of information? Not so much if it is embarrassing to our NSA.

And as I realized this morning, it is so stupid for the US to be assembling this treasure trove of detailed information on the social networks, religious, familial, business affiliations (and conflicts) of Americans. Because if some hostile group or nation ever managed to get into that database, It would be a disaster.