Edward Snowden, hoist by Julian Assange's petard, now used as a tool by Greenwald et al

Unless you're living under an international geopolitical rock, you know that, earlier today, Merikkkan time, Vladimir Putin offered Edward Snowden Russian citizenship. That said, while Putin granted it today to maximize leverage, don't forget that Snowden applied on his own rather than remain de facto stateless, though he was NOT de jure stateless.

Hence this post.

Hoist by Julian Assange's petard?

Yes. Per an update of my original review of Snowden's "Permanent Record," 'twas Assange who convinced Snowden to change his original flight path, which wound up with him being screwed and stranded in Russia. There's other lies and half-truths from Snowden about everything that happened from the time he set foot in Hong Kong on (and lies and half-truths about his thievery), so read all of it. Oh, while I'm here, there's lies and half-truths even more galore in Glenn Greenwald's book about Snowden, "No Place to Hide," which is fitting because Greenwald has no place to hide from its lies — and the many other lies he's told over many years.

Glennwald's Twitter thread is full of Overton window tweets, talking about the US trapping Snowden in Russia.

So, why did Snowden change his original plans, and instead, listen to Assange so he could get trapped in Russia in the first place? And, why won't Glenn Greenwald talk about that? (None of this shocks me; Glennwald has a whole factory of Overton Windows) https://t.co/msc9XVCmEO https://t.co/zkXd7bCx3O

— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) September 26, 2022

One other thing missing? This:

While we're here, Glenn Greenwald, amidst all your Snowden blather, why don't you talk about the 95 percent of whatever of the Snowden material that you never published but handed over to Omidyar??? You don't really care about Snowden; he's a useful tool for you & that's about it https://t.co/hwH2buN35J

— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) September 26, 2022

That's our Glennwald! Also "our Glennwald" is blocking people on Twitter when, per Jack Nicholson, he can't handle the truth.

Next: Is Snowden a Russian asset? Possibly today. Likely not at the time. Yeah, Ken Silverstein thinks he might have been trapped by a Russian honeypot, but I don't see it. I still see him as hoist by Assange's petard. Sorry, Xeni Jardin and others. Not buying it. On the third hand, could Assange have been paid to entrap him, even if Snowden wasn't yet a Russian agent? Yes.

Assange? He almost surely knew, early on, the source of his DNC material in 2016. And, yes, it was the Russians. Fuck off if you claim otherwise. And, the fact that he never started a Russian version of Wikileaks, nor did anything to nurture domestic Russian versions already extant, looks more and more suspicious. And that lack of effort, and his being called out on it, go back long before the 2016 election.

Let's also not forget the bullshit of Mark Ames, Yasha Levine et al. Fellow Exiler Matt Taibbi is, like Glennwald, bullshitting on Twitter as I type. OTOH, Ames once noted, as I blogged, that whistle-blowers don't always have patriotic motives.

Finally, let's get back to current geopolitics. Did Snowden trade Russian citizenship being granted for info he didn't originally give Putin?

Update, Sept. 21, 2023: Bruce Schneier talks about his experience of working with Greenwald, how both Greenwald and Barton Gellman held back files from their initial reporting and more.