News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on What Happened to the Snowden Archive. Parent comment

Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by firesteelrain on Sunday September 20, 2026 @10:06PM (#49782247)
He wasn’t stateless. Stateless means no country recognizes you as a citizen. He just faced arrest if he returned. Same as any other fugitive. People seeking asylum still have a country and citizenship. Also he wasn’t facing treason charges. He was charged under the Espionage Act and with theft of government property. There were others in similar situations that faced up to 45 months in prison and Eric Holder was willing to make a deal in 2015.

He basically is on self imposed exile in Russia.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by BLKNSLVR on Sunday September 20, 2026 @10:26PM (#49782368)
> He just faced arrest if he returned

You seem to continue to minimise the seriousness of the situation.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by firesteelrain on Sunday September 20, 2026 @10:51PM (#49782527)
Oh it was very serious what he did. But it was odd he went to Hong Kong then to Russia on his was to Ecuador. It wasn’t well thought out
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by pydry on Monday September 21, 2026 @02:35AM (#49783739)
It wasn't odd at all the list of places he could flee to was very limited because of his job.

It's more odd that some people don't give him the same benefit of the doubt they would a whistleblower from Russia or China.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by firesteelrain on Monday September 21, 2026 @05:16AM (#49784951)
He didn’t have to flee at all
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by kelnos on Monday September 21, 2026 @05:34AM (#49785074)
What a weird argument. Sure, he didn't "have" to, but I don't blame him for not wanting to spend years (decades? life?) in prison for doing something he believed was morally right.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by firesteelrain on Tuesday September 22, 2026 @03:25AM (#49797717)
What about leaking secrets of the United States has anything to do with morals? He might as well been a foreign adversary
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by pydry on Tuesday September 22, 2026 @05:42AM (#49798645)
when the secret being leaked is that the united states is spying on its own citizens and violating the 4th amendment.

i find it weird how many Russians, Chinese and Americans are weirdly protective of their own government's oppressive behaviours in the name of patriotism.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by firesteelrain on Tuesday September 22, 2026 @07:22AM (#49799498)
Again you are missing the point. Nothing was proven in violation of the 4th amendment. Ninth Circuit didn’t even latch on that argument nor express it. Courts agreed that the metadata collection program went beyond what was approved by the FISA courts. But he leaked a whole host of foreign spying programs that had nothing to do with Americans.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What Happened to the Snowden Archive by pydry on Monday September 21, 2026 @07:55AM (#49786112)
Just as some Chinese people want Ai Weiwei to rot in prison, some Russians wanted Navalny to rot in prison and some Americans wanted or still want Snowden and Assange to rot in prison.
[ Parent | on HN ]