Snowdon is a dummy

Germany's chancellor has used a major press conference to respond to reporters' questions about what her government knows about US spying activities in Germany.
[...]
However, as soon as the floor was opened up for questions from reporters, many of them focused on revelations about US surveillance activities in Europe made recently by former National Security Agency (NSA) subcontractor Edward Snowden.

Merkel told reporters that she simply could not answer all of their questions about the NSA surveillance program known as “Prism.”

"It is impossible for me to provide an analysis of Prism here," the chancellor said, adding that the process of gathering information was ongoing.

At the same time, though, she reiterated her demand that any American agencies operating in Germany do so in compliance with the laws of the land.

"On German territory, German law must be complied with," the chancellor said. She also noted that Germany was not a "surveillance state," saying. "Germany is a land of freedom."

The chancellor also conceded that because any friendship is based upon trust, the revelations of mass surveillance by the NSA had affected the relationship between Germany and one of its most important allies. At the same time though, she expressed optimism that the two countries would overcome the issue.

"If it is a good friendship, then it will survive a difficult situation," she said. At the same time though, she stressed that her government was expecting more information from the US about the spying allegations.

"Sweeping things under the carpet would do more damage than calling things by name," she said.

Does anyone else see a viable option besides those three?

So what do we do about Snowden? At this point he has a) not revealed anything that puts US agents in harm's way b) carefully screened his releases, c) embarrased the daylights out of the US government and d) lit a small fire under the US journalism community. If the US continues to hound him, it looks like he is in a position to do significant damage with far more detailed releases.

It seems to me that there are three options for the US government to take. It could continue to hound him to the far ends of the Earth, calling his bluff on the much greater information release, it could back off and allow someplace to grant him asylum or it could grant him pardon for past acts but make clear any further releases would result in option A: pursue to the ends of the Earth. Does anyone else see a viable option besides those three?

engineer wrote:

Does anyone else see a viable option besides those three?

Errrr... Repell the mass surveillance programmes because they are unconstitutional and damage ties with allies?
I dream too much, I know....

But they aren't unconstitutional, and they don't damage ties with allies.

Are new revelations from the NSA data trove going to drop in the next few days? Speaking on a political talk show on German public broadcaster ARD on Thursday night, Glenn Greenwald said he expected stories to appear in the coming days that would be even "more explosive" in Germany than reports previously published about cooperation between the National Security Agency and German intelligence authorities.

Greenwald is the journalist who broke the original story about former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden's data trove, revealing how the intelligence agency taps tech giants' user data to facilitate its mass-scale surveillance. Since then, additional reporting on the documents by SPIEGEL has exposed how the American intelligence agency spies on both the European Union and a half-billion communications connections in Germany each month. The reports sparked a massive political debate in Germany over how much the German government knew about the spying -- an egregious violation of the country's privacy laws -- and whether it was actively cooperating with the Americans.
He told host Reinhold Beckmann that he and journalist Laura Poitras had obtained full sets of the documents during a trip to Hong Kong, with around 9,000 to 10,000 top secret documents in total. Greenwald said they had been in possession of the data for around seven weeks and had not had a chance to analyze all the material, noting that some of the documents were extremely complicated. "We're working on it," he said.

Greenwald Carries Data with Him

Asked by the host about his own security, Greenwald said he felt "threatened in the sense that there are very prominent American politicians and even American journalists who have called for my arrest, who have called me a criminal." He added, "There's a very robust CIA presence where I work, in Rio de Janeiro," and when you have very secret documents from the world's most powerful government, "you definitely think about your security." He told Beckmann he carries the data with him at all times, but also that other copies have been stored on the Internet.

Greenwald said he maintains regular contact with Snowden using encrypted chat technologies. Snowden, he said, "knew that the choice he was making" when he leaked the data "would submit him to serious risks and would make him the most wanted man in the world." Still, he said Snowden is convinced "it was the right choice." Snowden is currently in the transit area of Moscow's international airport awaiting a decision on his application for temporary asylum in Russia.

Describing German intelligence cooperation with the NSA, he said that Germany wasn't partnering at the same level as Britain, Australia, Canada or New Zealand, but that it was "sort of in the next tier where they exchange information all the time."

Option 2 (in my opinion): Let him go have asylum wherever. Once he feels safe in his new home, DroneStrike him (thermobaric charges). Bonus points for causing collateral damage within the asylum-giving country.

All of them or just the U S of A ones.

This is another case in point that I distrust Obama to do the right thing.

NDAA Signed Into Law By Obama Despite Guantanamo Veto Threat, Indefinite Detention Provisions

(and why Obama can't be trusted to do the right thing).