Edward Snowden Heightens Tensions Between US, Other Countries

[struggle4progress]

Edward Snowden’s escape from the United States has heightened tensions between the US, China, and Russia. While China and Russia seem to have no issues with each other, the United States appears to be upset with both ...

http://www.inquisitr.com/813599/edward-snowden-heightens-tensions-between-us-other-countries/

[struggle4progress]

1. Germany demands explanation over UK surveillance programme

Last Updated: Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 12:05

Berlin: Germany has demanded an explanation from the British government over reports that its intelligence agency had systematically snooped into Internet and telephone data of millions of users in the country by tapping transatlantic undersea cables ...

"The German government is taking the allegations quite seriously" and asked the British government to explain the dimension of the data interception and on what legal basis if was carried out, a government spokesman said in Berlin on Monday.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said personal data of millions of Internet users in Germany have been intercepted and it has no legal basis in this country.

"As a member of the European Union, EU data protection laws are applicable also to Britain," she said in a TV interview ...

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/germany-demands-explanation-over-uk-surveillance-programme_857573.html

[Jesus Malverde]

5. Since they are all member states of the EU.

It's a bit like Texas spying on California.

[struggle4progress]

2. China's state newspaper praises Edward Snowden for 'tearing off Washington's sanctimonious mask'

State-run People's Daily says whistleblower has exposed US hypocrisy after Washington blamed Beijing for his escape
Jonathan Kaiman in Beijing and agencies
Tuesday 25 June 2013 02.56 EDT

China's top state newspaper has praised the fugitive US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden for "tearing off Washington's sanctimonious mask" and rejected accusations Beijing had facilitated his departure from Hong Kong.

The strongly worded front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist party, responded to harsh criticism of China from the US for allowing Snowden to flee.

The Chinese government has said it was gravely concerned by Snowden's allegations that the US had hacked into many networks in Hong Kong and China, including Tsinghua University, which hosts one of the country's internet hubs, and Chinese mobile network companies. It said it had taken the issue up with Washington.

"Not only did the US authorities not give us an explanation and apology, it instead expressed dissatisfaction at the Hong Kong special administrative region for handling things in accordance with law," wrote Wang Xinjun, a researcher at the Academy of Military Science in the People's Daily commentary ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/25/peoples-daily-savages-us-over-snowden

[okaawhatever]

9. The official Communist Party newspaper says, "Not only did the US authorities not

give us an explanation and apology, it instead expressed dissatisfaction at the Hong Kong SAR for handling things in accordance with law". --According to them Hong Kong "handled things"

According to Hong Kong — The Chinese government made the final decision to allow Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, to leave Hong Kong on Sunday,

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/world/asia/china-said-to-have-made-call-to-let-leaker-depart.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

I think Bejing may be throwing Hong Kong under the bus. Diplomacy, gotta love it.

[peacebird]

3. No, the exposure of the NSA program sucking up *everyones* electronic data caused heightened tension

That and the fact the US is bullying countries in its attempt to get Snowden into one of our fine gulags so they can give him the Bradley Manning treatment.

[merrily]

4. LOL. Snowden is not responsible for how the US and other nations behave and bloviate to each other.

[Skidmore]

7. No, he's not responsible for anything he says or does.

[merrily]

8. He is, but Snowden has no power to direct how sovereign nations behave toward each other.

That is what my Reply 4 said.

[Skidmore]

11. What he did and said is responsible for blowing up international interactions.

Do people really believe that the world will just be a happy contented place if you just put everything all out there? This magic lamp approach to international relations is on the naive side. What is the goal in creating chaos? What if the world doesn't reform to fit the ideal? What is the ideal being sought? In some ways, this is no different than dispensationalists and religious fundamentalists trying to force Middle Eastern events toward their ideal--the Rapture followed by the return of a Messiah.

I would be more on board with this if there were some demonstrated forethought into potential goals and outcomes. Creating chaos for chaos' sake is tool of a frustrated adolescent. I speak from the experience of having raised adolescents, and I'm not referring to Snowden specifically but to the collective triune entity of which he just happens to be one of the blurry moving parts at the moment.

[merrily]

12. Absolutely not. Snowden did what he did. How nations reacted to that is on them, not him.

That is the basic tenet of Personal Responsiblity 101.

[Skidmore]

13. So then his goal is to just create chaos and

walk away? No biggy? He still has personal responsibility as well for creating the dynamics.

[merrily]

14. So, you choose not to grasp the concept of personal responsiblity.

And the idea that he just walked away ignores reality, but that is a different issue from who is responsible for what how the U.S., China and Russia behave toward each other.

ETA: Hint. Heads of State are responsible for how their nations behave.

The notion that his goal was to create chaos also may ignore reality, but I am not a mind reader, so I can't speak to his intentions. Then again, you're not a mind reader either.

Whatever his goal, I am just grateful that we know more than we did.

[Skidmore]

15. No, I'm saying that there is a concerted amount of effort being

put toward negating his role in the current state of world affairs. He was not a passive bystander. He chose to be an actor.

[merrily]

16. We're going in a circle.

He is responsible for his own actions. He was prepared to live his life as he knew it in order to make that information public and that is on him.

How the U.S. reacts to that is on Obama. Ditto the heads of state of China and Russia.

When I am saying in the fourth or fifth post the same thing I said in the first post, further discussion on my part does not seem sensible.

[Fumesucker]

6. Snowden hasn't heightened tensions between the US and other countries

The massive US spying did that.

Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead, it was inevitable that the secret spying would eventually become known. Any government that expects to keep a secret in perpetuity that tens of thousands of people know about is operating on a basis of sheerest fantasy.

[KurtNYC]

10. Yes. Any strategy which relies on long term secrecy is flawed by design.

Also, the spying is only step one. The action step is blackmail:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/17154-bushs-foiled-nsa-blackmail-scheme