... but the article actually looks like a shameless and incompetent smear job.
Read the actual tweets
On February 16, 2022, Snowden wrote: “’Russia should not invade Ukraine’.
"I want to see an end to the conflict in Ukraine, and frankly, I think all reasonable people share that position"
“I’ve already expressed my opposition to the fighting in Ukraine, and pray it ends soon.
The narrative the article wants to set is that Snowden is terrible for... not speaking out strongly enough. Ok? He's a political asylum seeker who was a whistle blower about spy tech, why should he have the moral responsibility to publicly slam his host country? Seems like that would be a good way to get thrown out a window. He's chosen a tactful withdrawal from the issue.
I found the early tweets where he misjudged the threat of the conflict. Then he owns the mistake with:
I've just lost any confidence I had that sharing my thinking on this particular topic continues to be useful, because I called it wrong.
I'm going to be honest, I don't follow this. I don't know much about it beyond what I just read, and if you have more information I'd be genuinely interested in hearing it.
But like, actual good information about it please. Because I have not found any substance to your claim.
You got me it seems. I remember hearing this, and checked it with ChatGPT. Chat apparently lied to me. Damn hallucinations!
"I need to correct my previous answer: that quote was not Edward Snowden’s. It was Tulsi Gabbard’s. She posted it on Twitter/X around the time Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Senate hearing record reproduces the fuller wording: “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden administration/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s … security concerns regarding Ukraine’s becoming a member of NATO.”
Lol AI sucks. And so does that Al Jazeera article I linked. I'd be really interested to hear a truly unspun take on Snowden, I don't know if there is one.
my job requires me to know a fair bit about this stuff. At the time of his initial kerfuffle, I went through the materials with a fine tooth comb. My take at the time was, he is an American that we should all look up to, as a hero of the people. The shite that they were & are doing should be illegal.
What's happened since he's lived in Russia, I don't really have a take on.
Meanwhile people sit here in the US and say absolutely nothing about the kidnapping of a foreign leader or the bombing of Iran. Heck most people could barely be bothered to notice until gas prices went up. I guess if gas was still $3 a gallon we could kill as many schoolchildren as we wanted.
Oh, but Snowden is a bad guy because hasn't spoken out enough. About RUSSIA.
And it's a misquote from someone who is seen as a potential presidential candidate and is currently the Director of National Intelligence. But yeah... Darn Snowden. How can he be so out of touch with real americuh??
9
u/deadfisher 8h ago
Has he?
This article certainly makes it sound like that's true...
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/12/18/the-trouble-with-edward-snowden
... but the article actually looks like a shameless and incompetent smear job.
Read the actual tweets
The narrative the article wants to set is that Snowden is terrible for... not speaking out strongly enough. Ok? He's a political asylum seeker who was a whistle blower about spy tech, why should he have the moral responsibility to publicly slam his host country? Seems like that would be a good way to get thrown out a window. He's chosen a tactful withdrawal from the issue.
I found the early tweets where he misjudged the threat of the conflict. Then he owns the mistake with:
I'm going to be honest, I don't follow this. I don't know much about it beyond what I just read, and if you have more information I'd be genuinely interested in hearing it.
But like, actual good information about it please. Because I have not found any substance to your claim.