The Spy Who Came in On the Redeye: Putin Rears His Head Over Extradition

Today was a busy news day with breaking news stating that Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, announced that he had no intention of turning over the fugitive Edward Snowden to the United States. Putin issued a formal statement during a press conference in which he made the firm claim that, "We can extradite foreign nationals only to those countries with which we have relevant international agreements on the extradition of criminals." This press release in particular was in direct response to Secretary of State John Kerry's claim that Russia should lead by example and turn over Mr. Snowden to face charges of espionage and treason. Mr. Putin's response today served as a reminder of the international hostility that many countries hold towards the US, despite efforts to maintain friendly relations between Russian and the States. Washington responded in turn by asserting that the US had no desire to create tension between the two nations but hoped rather that Russia would continue to provide information about Mr. Snowden's whereabouts. This news comes a few short weeks after initial reports out of China that Edward Snowden; an IT contractor for the NSA had revealed sensitive material about the capabilities of US intelligence and had violated various laws that prohibit the leaking of details surrounding mass surveillance programs. As with most instances of disgruntled employees leaking information to the press, this recent development appears to be no different in its ability to incite national debate over surveillance techniques, which as of late is a much talked about issue that has no foreseeable end in sight. 

The question remains however: Was Russia too bold in it's chastising of the US for making such demands? Or was it a reasonable denial that illustrates the growing resentment towards the US manner of asking for help only when it affects us? It would appear after combing through many of the political blogs on the web, that Putin issued a powerful statement that served to highlight Washington's failure to quell an issue that only exacerbated its controversial stance on government spying and invasion surveillance techniques. Looking at this from an international point of few, I can't blame Putin for not wanting to 'play nice' with the US, due in part to the fact that the US likes to play the victim when it comes to issues of national security. And it's even more difficult considering that the US is now in full panic mode now that it knows that its NSA has been caught with its pants down and nowhere to hide. Say what you want about the Media when it comes to sensationalizing reality, but when it has information about the US looking stupid it really knows how to turn on the heat. However, I am in agreement that being an employee of any intelligence agency comes with a laundry list of responsibility and to reveal any sort of sensitive information is treason. Period. Do I mean to say that Snowden deserves to disappear into a black bag and never seen again for what he did? No. I think that the issue at hand shouldn't be national security, it should be that the US needs to formally address why it feels the need to set up various programs that invade the privacy of its citizens. I believe that any nation has the right to monitor its populace to a point but there's a fine line between abusing power and using power in a just and right manner. In the wake of the drone program, wire tapping, snatching up of records from the internet such as Google and Facebook by PRISM, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened on a grand scale. 

I encourage everyone to read the NYTimes article about today's press release and I hope that even those of you who disagree with me seek knowledge on the matter at hand, even if it means doing a little bit of research. I will post the link to the video I discussed briefly this morning but for now I really wanted to discuss the latest developments out of Washington. 

As always any questions or comments are welcome and encouraged!