Edward Snowden: hot potato

As you know, Edward Snowden is staying in the Moscow airport transit lounge, trying to find a place to take him so he can avoid being extradited back here. If he is eventually returned, he’ll be given a “fair trial” in Virginia. Why? That’s where our government likes to try people as the juries are very conservative and usually side with the government. He certainly won’t be tried in San Francisco.

Lawyers that specialize in federal civil class action suits routinely file them in any state and single county that is best for that type of suit. That’s where the juries routinely favor the plaintiffs over the defendants. It’s called jurisdiction shopping.

The trial will be a media entertainment frenzy, a tempest in a teacup. He’ll be found guilty, sentenced to life in prison and shipped off to SuperMax in Colorado where he’ll spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement.

He’ll be gone and utterly forgotten. It will be both punishment and a message to other people who would dare to release our government’s secrets. Do it, and you will spend your life in utter isolation.

Snowden’s attempt to shed light on our government’s illicit secret practices will be completely forgotten by a disinterested public. Considering that his revelations about our government collecting information on everyone, forever, doesn’t have any traction whatsoever bodes ill for Mr. Snowden and our society. The media ignoring the ongoing revelations on purpose doesn’t help either.

Unfortunately for him, the Ecuadorian government seems to be running scared and is insisting that he apply in person. Once there, they’ll probably deny it and ship him back to Miami. I’m not sure if they have an embassy in Moscow, but I doubt that he’ll apply there if there is one as he can sense the rejection ahead of time.

Simply put, he is a hot potato. Any country that takes him will incur the wrath of our government. There isn’t an upside. Huge Chavez is dead so Venezuela is out, and even Cuba doesn’t want him. He is a hot potato destined to burn the country that gives him asylum.

Russia’s president, Mr. Putin is also tired of Snowden and has told him, through channels, not to keep releasing secrets for his new application for asylum in Russia to be successful. As he has already released it all to newspapers that are publishing a few secrets at a time, he can’t stop them. So Putin doesn’t want him either and will use that as an excuse to get rid of him.

It’s strange that back in the Cold War days, people would seek asylum here after escaping the Soviets. Now the polarity has reversed.

Although the State Department has revoked his passport it’s still valid overseas, and won’t take effect until he returns to the U.S. That will be the last of his problems, so revoking it was theater.

It appears that Edward Snowden has fewer and fewer opportunities not to be shipped back. He may be losing the chess game. We’ll see.
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Editor’s note, July 6, 2013. Edward Snowden was granted asylum by Venezuela (to show solidarity with Bolivia) so they can rub our nose in it. The snag is that there aren’t any non-stop commercial flights from Russia to Caracas. His only chance is to fly non-stop from Moscow to Havana, Cuba and then to Venezuela. The problem is overflight permissions. It’s such a long trip that if a country denies overflight permission, the Aeroflot plane will have to land and refuel.

As you can see, the standard course is over Canada and here (less that 100 miles from the White House) so if there is any suspicion that he’s on board while over the U.S., the plane will be forced to land and he’ll be arrested. If this is how Mr. Snowden gets out, Aeroflot may reroute the airplane to keep it over the Atlantic once it passes over Scandinavia. From Cuba, a charter flight will deliver him direct to Caracas.

Unfortunately for him, even if the airplane doesn’t develop “mechanical problems” and is forced to land for repairs, the only scheduled refueling stops, other than here, are in Spain, France, Germany, and Canada.

All of these countries will remove Snowden from the plane, and extradite him irregardless of his one-way special travel papers or even if he is using his (still) valid passport.

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Editor’s note, July 26, 2013. This letter was sent to the Russian Federation in an attempt to stop them from granting Mr. Snowden asylum. It may be the excuse that Mr. Putin is looking for.

What it doesn’t say is how many additional charges will be levied against Snowden, and that while superficially a public trial, much we be held in secret (in-camera) due to the nature of the offenses and “national security.” Without a doubt, if returned, Mr. Snowden is heading for a lifetime of absolute isolation in solitary confinement at the SuperMax prison in Colorado.