Don't worry
He'll be whisked away to the USA, or rather Cuba in the shape of Gitmo by an unmarked Lear Jet before anyone can stop then. As such this parliament ruling is not worth the fine velum it may by chance be written on in the blood of Moles.
The European Parliament has voted to grant Edward Snowden protection from prosecution – a move the NSA super-leaker hailed as a "game changer." In an unexpected vote, MEPs narrowly approved a measure that calls on EU member states to "drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection, and consequently …
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>This is a political move rather than a legal move, paving the way for future dealings with the US.
As a Yank I say about time. The only way this madness will stop is if the Euros grow a pair and punch the bully in the nose. The US has had about as liberal a leader (liberal haha only to us Americans) as we ever will for the last 7 years and a lot of good that has done. Even though I am in the US my personal interest is a lot more aligned with the Euros on this one than our supposed national interest which as always is mostly for the one percenters. The 1% give us two shitty choices and the difference is only the rhetoric so its going to take some outside help on this one.
It will continue to be a feather in Putin's hunting cap that he allowed Ed to have "safe harbor" in the land of bears. I do expect the rest of the civilized world (excepting the 5-Eyes) to protect the rights of whistle-blowers and other people of true conscience.
However, the agents of countries that may be upset at this do have means such as poisoned umbrellas and polonium to make anyone's life rather short and uncomfortable.
Now, Julian - do you have your bag packed?
"However, the agents of countries that may be upset at this do have means such as poisoned umbrellas and polonium to make anyone's life rather short and uncomfortable."
Rather bizarrely, the means that you mention - poisoned umbrellas and polonium - were used by the Soviet intelligence services, not the US.
It is easy to say you'll grant him protection... But how do they stop him being grabbed off the streets?
Anyway this puts Assange in an interesting position. If Assange was to have the same protection offered, he would then have no good reason to stop hiding from the Swedish law.
>If Assange was to have the same protection offered, he would then have no good reason to stop hiding from the Swedish law.
The same benefits... and the same drawbacks.
The benefit is that the presenting (Swedish) legal issues could be dealt with under the appropriate jurisdiction. The drawback - the US has a history of just snatching people and making them disappear to places with no due process.
Both Snowden and Assange would be taking a huge risk if they took advantage of even iron-clad legal protections.
I wonder how long the US has contemplated the fact that its quest for the freedom to do as it wishes in the world is actually impeding justice, because no-one feels safe anymore?
In metaphor, for showing evidence of Prince John's illegal taxation, the accountant who signed an NDA has a choice of being hanged or joining Robin in the Forrest. Sure he can go to the archery competition, but there are risks.
Because kidnapping high visibility people off the street of an ally with whom you have an extradition treaty is going to cause a huge international crisis. Which means that (for example) you would put at risk, at least in the short term, all of those nice information sharing agreements you have. And all those trade deals. You can't really send him to Gitmo because he's clearly a US citizen charged with a crime in the US, so you'll have to take him into the official system.
Because kidnapping high visibility people off the street of an ally with whom you have an extradition treaty is going to cause a huge international crisis.
I am pretty certain that the US (or in fact most nations) could make him disappear, or mysteriously suffer a tragic accident, without leaving enough evidence to cause such an international crisis. There may be strong suspicions, but no evidence.
These are steps in the correct direction! I'd say just cut off the US from your Internet and be done with our nonsense. What the hell does our Internet provide that you can't provide on your own Internet, from your own country, under your own rules? Facebook? Instagrandpa? Tweeters? Youporn? The US is not the Internet anymore. It ceased to be the Internet in 1992, but no one was paying attention, so let me clarify that: you don't need to get in bed with spies to have a nice web page. Stick to your principles and also stop spying on your own citizens in the same manner, GCHQ. Thanks. Pricks.
Reports of the death of "Safe[sic] Harbor[sic]" are, sadly, greatly exaggerated.
It's not dead, it's resting! Remarkable agreement, Safe Harbor, idn'it, ay? Beautiful opacity! ...probably pining for the hollow mountains of Utah.
Its total lack of movement is due to it bein' tired and shagged out following a prolonged slurp.
It will take some time, but this particular house of cards is beginning to shatter. We EU citizens should make clear to our politicians that we are finally aware of the issue, and that any move on their part to help the USA's snooping will cost said politicians many, many votes.
I consider it shameful that no European govt. has offered yet political refugee status to Mr. Snowden, but that seems due to change soon.
Thanks, Edward, and keep on fighting the good fight!
I have no problems understanding the for and against regarding Snowden, but we will always end up with the question if, we as humans, are allowed to expose our "lords" for wrong doing or not. In a perfect world our "lords" would be self-regulating themselves in the superb way our industry has done it too, he he. Then there is the question of humanity and decency regarding the law, especially regarding the US law.
Absolutely mad sentences for the small guys and nothing for the real big crooks. This difference between the US and Europe has become just too big to accept, (where does the US fit in regarding death sentences Saudi Arabia, Iran, China). even if the the big crooks probably get away as easily. What has made you so damned scared about the world and your own population.
Good for you MEPs, nice, but will you actually do something.
JeffyPoooh, presuming that Kieren used the phrase “all European countries” to mean “all EU member states”, given that the article is about a vote in the European Parliament, then it is precisely the longest-standing treaty which would be likeliest to be most advantageous to Snowden, since it would lack coverage of “modern crimes”. Among the EU member states, that would almost certainly be the extradition treaty with Croatia, which is one of the inheritors of the 1902 extradition treaty with the Kingdom of Serbia (via the post-WWI Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, then through Yugoslavia).
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The EU just burned a very important bridge as they will come to understand very soon.
To the US*? Good! Go fucking isolationist, the rest of the world would be entirely grateful.
BTW: We have the oil and the decent food, you have genetically modified (probably cancer causing) crap (of which the 1% will take 95%), fructose, overly expensive pharmaceutical drugs and Hollywood - to which you're welcome to keep.
@ Edward Snowden. If you can sneak into Holland they'd probably let you stay, and they're pretty cool.
*If you didn't mean the US, then apologies for the rant.
"...rant... ...rant... ...rant... ...rant... fructose ...rant... ...rant... ...rant... "
WTF?
Nothing wrong with fructose. That's a myth propagated by the sucrose industry. It's the (≈50%) glucose in "HF"CS* that fucks the gluttons' biochemistry up. Exactly the same ≈50/50% glucose/fructose composition as honey, sucrose, etc.. as it happens.. somewhat ironically.
Otherwise, total agreement. Rant on...
*It's "high fructose" in comparison with ordinary "corn syrup" which is overwhelmingly glucose.
Nothing wrong with fructose. That's a myth propagated by the sucrose industry. It's the (≈50%) glucose in "HF"CS* that fucks the gluttons' biochemistry up.
Most HFCS used in the US, at least, is HFCS-55, which is rated at 55% fructose. Some studies claim analysis shows levels up to 65% fructose are common in actual commercial samples.
In any case, the evidence is mixed. It's true that serious methodological concerns have been raised about both the 2004 Bray et al study (which mostly showed a historical correlation between HFCS use and obesity, for which there just might be some other explanation), which kicked off the whole thing, and the 2013 Page et al study (which looked at signalling pathways in rodents but used unrealistic feeding patterns).
However, we now have 2015 Ruff et al, which used a much more reasonable feeding schedule and showed a significantly (p = 0.012) elevated mortality rate for female mice on the high-fructose diet (compared to sucrose). No difference was seen for male mice, and presumably most Reg readers are not mice;1 but the claim (most famously endorsed by Klurfeld, Rippe, and their co-authors) that fructose and sucrose are metabolically indistinguishable is suspect. As is, even more so, your claim that it's all a conspiracy by Big Sucrose.
As for "it's the ... glucose ... that fucks the gluttons' biochemistry up": that's not even supported by the papers published by the HFCS defenders. They claim that either high monosaccharide levels don't cause endocrine issues in the first place,2 or that any problems are due to both fructose and glucose, not fructose alone.
My guess is that the problem is too much damn sugar, particularly in SSBs (sugar-sweetened beverages), combined with insufficient exercise, and a host of inherited and environmental factors. But this isn't my field. Personally, I rarely drink SSBs, but that's as much because I don't care for them as for any other reason.
1Industry demographics suggest most aren't female, either, though more study is needed in this area.
2"a number of research trials have demonstrated no short-term differences between HFCS and sucrose in any metabolic parameter or health related effect measured in human beings including blood glucose, insulin, leptin, ghrelin and appetite" (Klurfeld et al 2013).
"The EU just burned a very important bridge as they will come to understand very soon."
Yes we just burned one that US regard for Human Rights was trying to hide behind. It was presumably a very small bridge.
"I'll give you the beer for your party, free of charge"
As we say, once you drink British beer, it then becomes American beer...