Why hasn’t the US government snatched Ed Snowden yet?
By Jon Rappoport
June 26, 2013
Is the NSA a leaking sieve?
Well, Ed Snowden proved it, didn’t he?
He strolled into work with a thumb drive, plugged in, and stole the holy of holies.
This is the vaunted NSA we’re talking about. They can reach out and spy on anybody in the world, but they just didn’t remember to put safeguards in place, in their own offices.
They forgot. For years.
You know, just an oops.
And people nod and shrug when they hear about it.
The NSA says, “Now that we’re aware of the problem, we’re going to install new procedures to tighten security.”
Sure.
And then there is this. The NSA can spy on anyone in the world, but they can’t find Ed Snowden now.
So… to sum up: we’re supposed to believe NSA can’t protect their own files, and they can’t find the most wanted man in the world.
People actually accept this nonsense.
So the question arises: if the NSA really does know where Snowden is right now, why hasn’t the Pentagon dispatched a team to snatch him and bring him home? Or why hasn’t the team killed him?
Two reasons. If Snowden really does have more damning information, and if, as Glenn Greenwald says, Snowden’s already sent it to multiple people in case anything happens to him, then capturing or killing him would trigger the release of that information.
And two, the groundswell of support for Snowden is growing at a rapid pace. Can you imagine what could happen if the government grabbed Snowden and brought him home to go on trial for treason?
The uproar would explode. The NSA would find itself under far greater attack. Politicians like Pelosi and Feinstein, who’ve come out against Snowden, could easily be swept away on the tide.
The current image of Snowden is sincere, honest, frank, and self-sacrificing. He doesn’t want to go after individual spies. He wants to change the system.
As we speak, government-contracted PR people and psyop specialists are burning the midnight oil, doing a risk-benefit analysis, trying to figure out how they could handle bringing Snowden home and placing him on trial. How they could change his image.
Is it worth it? What happens if they let Snowden roam free for a few more months? If they bring him home, can they spin media coverage to make him look bad? Worse than bad? Will that backfire? Do they have enough media ducks lined up?
Will Brian Williams, Scott Pelley, and Dianne Sawyer tune up just right on this issue? Will they be able to hypnotize enough of the public into believing Snowden is a traitor?
What about the “online community,” which is firmly on Snowden’s side after the revelations about nine tech giants cooperating fully with the NSA? How about 100,000 sites and bloggers going wild about the injustice of snatching Snowden and putting him on trial?
If, as I’ve argued in previous articles (see Spygate on this blog), Snowden is actually still working for his old employer, the CIA, and forwarding a turf war between the CIA and NSA, we’d have to say CIA has done a good job in positioning Snowden. The CIA might be crazy, but they aren’t (always) stupid.
Right out of the box, Snowden made a complete statement to the press about his intentions and motives. He just wants to expose the illegal spying on all US citizens so the public can decide what should be done, because after all, this is still a democracy.
Snowden says he doesn’t want praise. He’s not a hero. He just wants transparency. And the NSA is breaking the law over and over.
Snowden looks the part. Young, bright. A self-effacing yet steadfast nerd. Perfect. Nothing nasty about him. He doesn’t have that Julian Assange edge. He’s just a boy. Look at him. He obviously means well.
Honorable hero? CIA operative? Either way, the US government is in a pickle. It’s not going to be a slam-dunk with this guy.
In a related issue, it’s astonishing (to anyone who is awake) that the Congress hasn’t come down on NSA like a ton of bricks.
We should be hearing a grilling like this, directed at NSA head, Keith Alexander:
“Let me get this straight, General Alexander. Snowden captured and stole your most secret data. Anyone of his rank at NSA could have done the same, because you have no security protection against it. And now, with the most sophisticated spying system in the world, you can’t find Snowden. This makes the NSA the most bumbling stumbling trillion-dollar organization in the history of mankind. Can you give me a good reason why we shouldn’t move to de-fund NSA completely and start over from scratch? This is outrageous.”
And that would just be the beginning of the assault.
Yet, that’s not what we’re getting. Instead, so far, we’re hearing a few modest criticisms.
Why?
The most obvious answer is, Congress is afraid of the NSA. This bunch of legislators, these crooks and con men and perverts and felonious scum are scared that they’ve been under the NSA spying lens for a long time.
And what could come crawling out of NSA files is terrifying to them.
So they hold still. They take a deep breath. They pray for safety. They go on the attack against Snowden. They fall all over themselves calling Snowden a vile traitor who must be brought to justice.
Which tells you something about who’s running things in Washington.
It also tells you something about the level of resentment that’s built up over the years against the NSA. Not just in the Congress. In certain quarters of the CIA and the elite media, because NSA has been spying on reporters and editors and taking huge chunks of federal budget $$ away from the CIA.
Lots of important people have been hoping for a way to take down NSA a peg or two.
So this is the kind of Congressional-NSA conversation that’s going on right now, behind closed doors in Washington:
“Here’s the thing, General Alexander. We spoken about this before. Your NSA has been invading our lives with your snooping for far too long. Now we have a trump card. Ed Snowden. We’re playing it. I’m not admitting he’s our creature, I’m just saying he’s doing the kind of work we ourselves should have done years ago. So we want some give and take here.”
“What kind of give and take?”
“Get off our backs. We’ll go easy on you. We won’t turn all our guns on you. We’ll call Snowden a traitor. We’ll focus all the public attention on him. But give us our privacy back. Now.”
“Well, I suppose we might do that.”
“But we have to know you’re setting us free to do whatever the hell we want to do, without fear of being seen doing it. We need guarantees.”
“How might that work?”
“We need people we appoint to have oversight on NSA. Real oversight.”
The beginnings of an uneasy truce. A problematic truce, to be sure.
Oh, people might say, this sort of dealing never takes place.
Really? And you’re living in what world? The rainbow happy-happy goody-good sandbox planet just to the left of Oz?
The only question is, do the political enemies of NSA have enough juice yet, from the Snowden affair, to engage in this kind of conversation and come out with a win?
But that’s about tactics. The intention is clear. There are political players who want to take the NSA down a notch. Some of them may be honorable patriots; but some of them are definitely rank criminals in politicians’ clothing, who want to feel free from the Big Watching Eye.
Ed Snowden is their man of the hour. They will use him and what he symbolizes to make hay while the sun shines.
Why is all this important? And why does it matter who Snowden really represents?
It’s important because, the way this political game works, the NSA will escape the current scandal with its major spying programs intact, there will be dirty deals and compromises, and the NSA will still hold tremendous power.
No one in Washington imagines that NSA’s spying on private American citizens will significantly decline.
If people really understood that, if they understood that no savior is coming to unhook NSA’s computers, they might begin to view the Snowden affair differently. They might be willing to consider the real games that are being played.
They might admit that what we need is a nullification of Washington power that goes far beyond anything that Ed Snowden can provide.
Our real problem is the limited mind, or perhaps we should call it the literal mind.
The literal mind can’t conceive of the levels of deception and bent deal-making below the surface of events presented on the evening news.
The literal mind can’t, for example entertain the possibility that Snowden’s revealed some important (though hardly surprising) information, while at the same time, he has less than the purest of motives.
The literal mind is a programmed mind.
You present it with the image of the most competent and brilliant spying agency in the world, the NSA, and the “fact” that this agency can’t find its own ex-employee, Ed Snowden, and there is no perceived problem. No inconsistency.
The literal mind accepts all contradictions like hundred-dollar bills.
You could, for example, spend a year educating that mind about the US corporations that aided the Nazis in World War 2. You could spell out all the details. IBM, ITT, Standard Oil, etc.
And then, you could ask, “Do you think there is any chance the War was manipulated?”
And that mind would say, “Of course not. It was us versus them.”
You could say, “The science on manmade global warming is settled,” and the literal mind would never think of replying, “Explain what you mean by ‘settled.’ Who settled it? Exactly how?”
You could say, “Every year in the US, pharmaceutical drugs kill a minimum of 106,000 people. Nutritional supplements kill no one. But the FDA, which permits those drugs to enter the marketplace, relentlessly attacks supplements. It does nothing to stem the tide of deaths owing to the medical drugs.”
The literal mind would reply, “Yes? And? So?”
Some preposterous doofus on the news says, “Ed Snowden is walking around with three laptops that contain the deepest secrets of the NSA. Chinese or Russian hackers could have already gained access to all that information.”
The literal mind would never wonder why, then, the NSA can’t accomplish the same feat and discover what Snowden has pilfered.
The literal mind, under guidance from elite media anchors, will connect the dots directly in front of it, but it will avoid, at all costs, imagination. It will never posit alternative realities or explanations which then make those dots take on different meaning, fuller and deeper and truer meaning.
The literal mind is full of fear and protection. It wants to protect itself and it is afraid that something novel might swim into view and shatter it to pieces.
The literal mind is a clog in the bloodstream of life. It’s a believer in the extreme fairy tale of ordinary reality.
The literal mind imports, wholesale, images of ordinary reality and clings to them like a leech.
The literal mind, when it accidentally rubs up against creative life, retreats into a corner and mutters and curses.
The literal mind lives a second-hand existence through the news, which is the only food it can eat.
When the literal mind reaches the end of its tether, it seeks out codified religious blather invented by a priest class for the purpose of cutting people off from their own authentic spiritual energies and insights and connections.
The literal mind is a coward. It only asks for other cowards with which it can commune.
The day is too long, the night is too long, the fear is too great. The literal mind must therefore play out the string of a shrunken number of days and wither away, hoping it can deceive the void it feels at the center of its own experience.
The literal mind crawls around on a bed in the Universal Hospital. It dreams of extinction, while knowing it is already extinct.
Do not hold out a helping hand to the literal mind. It will try to snap your finger off. That gesture is all it has left.
In the end, the literal mind turns out to be the most fictional thing in the world.
Jon Rappoport
The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com
Reblogged this on Jericho777's Blog.
In my opinion, Edward Snowden is not even a real person, so all the stuff about NSA vs CIA is moot. This was about getting all this “spying” stuff out for discussion, then LEADING the sheeple to decide that, all things considered, they support the surveillance state. Then that topic is closed for further examination because we’ve already been there, done that. It’s like the travesty that is the Affordable Care Act, which will be a horrible failure. Its horrible-ness will close the door on any further exploration of universal health care.
Mission accomplished- and we’ll think it was our decision.
@Jon, it’s good to see that you turned and that you realise that Edward Snoden is for real and not a make-up, as you said before …
[…] Jon Rappoport June 26 2013 […]
Very Very Good Analysis of not only Snowden, but so much of the behind the scenes activity going on throughout history. The Analysis of the Limited/Literal Mind of the Brain-Dead Sheeple/Ostriches could not have been described any better. I salute you and will follow you as my #1 Analyzer. Thanks Jon.
Many good questions Jon – proudly re-posted on The All-Seeing Eyebama!
link: http://eyebama.onehumanbeing.com/2013/06/26/why-hasnt-the-us-government-snatched-ed-snowden-yet/
John, I like your thinking. You are so right on. I don’t think I’ve ever met another like you. But if we could get together, I would have to pull out a “literal” reality right now and imagine that it would come to no good after all, as we probably would not like one another up close and personal. I have that problem with human beings. I have never met a human being that did not deteriorate in some kind of monstrous mathematical consistency, including exponents of power, as a function of our proximity to one another. I’m afraid that I can only get close enough to dogs to have a great in and out of concepts. And you know, dogs are very, very wise. They don’t argue endlessly with me over which of us is the greatest, they just want to trick me into being a nice guy toward them so that they can teach me the wonderful ways of nature and enrich me beyond all measure. They only want to give me heaven. Who could argue with somebody like that? I surely can’t. Ha, ha, ha.
But back to you: you are one hell of a thinker. I mean, boy, where did you get all that stuff? Ha, ha, ha. I’d like to tell you, but it is frightfully too time-consuming to imagine being able to do so, as to how I have, and have had, the most amazing existence ever created. which is how I know what I know, and yet, you are able to get right in there with me and tweak me like this. I seriously doubt that you have gone through what I did in this place, and yet, you know so closely to what I know. I am so like you are (or vice-versa), that humanity has concocted a special erection around me like they did around Klatu in “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” in the form of a block of see-through material that humanity hoped would somehow contain the creature standing on the deck of the space ship that had landed during the Fifties. And that beam that comes out of my forehead is beginning to melt the block from around me.
For a lot of years I have known that humanity very carefully chooses people that interact with me, especially on any spiritual planes, and I am surrounded by those “literals” you describe so well. Are you aware that you, too, are under the same kind of surveillance/manipulation efforts that I am? The gubmit doesn’t care about the literals you are describing, as the literals are just a big gang of boobs pooting their way along; it cares about us.
That I am who/what I am is probably THE most guarded secret in the whole world. This government even tried to keep it from me! And they/it are/is still trying to keep it from me by surrounding me with people whose job it is to counter my every word, thought, or assertion that wiggles anything. Ha, ha, ha. They are still trying to keep me hypnotized as they did when I was just a baby. But hypnosis only worked during my first few years here, like, when I was 1-1/2. I can’t be hypnotized now because I know so well what hypnosis is. But the gubmit is still blindly working at it. I’d bet you can’t be hypnotized, either, John. I mean, surely that’s obvious. You are always looking for the “other shoe to drop” because you know the sco’. Ha, ha, ha. If the head of the CIA visited a normal mortal just to have lunch or something, that mortal would be thrown into ecstasy, but if said head asked you for an audience of a month or so, it would probably blow your mind just trying to figure out what all manner of skullduggery the CIA intended you. Same with me. The first thing I would know is that skullduggery was afoot. I would know, for example, that the truth would be the last thing I could expect out of the man. But the normal mortal couldn’t see skullduggery if it actually bit him on the butt.
Are you aware that hypnosis is a very bad mental/spiritual disease? You are writing about hypnotized subjects here. And you are revealing the worst of the disease. The earth is an outpost for lunatics and I sometimes wonder what I am doing here. What are you doing here, John, you’re not a lunatic. Ha, ha, ha. Could it be that somebody expects us to play “psychiatrist?”
The pathetic thing about these guys is that they eventually ‘eat each other’. I’m guessing that’s what this manifestation of ‘daylight’ is on this dark, obscure world. Sorry, I’m a woman, but I find this extremely sad. What a waste of creativity and talent to be burdened with this nonsense. I wish those people would ‘cut free’ and enjoy.
Why hasn’t the US government snatched Ed Snowden yet?
One reason could be because the “US government” isn’t the omnipotent Manichean Devil some might imagine it to be.
As far as supposition this essay has a lot of good reasoning to it. As usual very well written. But it is in the final analysis; ‘supposition’.
I have read some counter analysis that is equally compelling.
But I don’t think there is a need to cite a counter argument, because from this pedestrian distance, almost all of this will remain supposition and hypothesis.
\\][//
Regarding the seemingly-inexplicable existence and inexcusable practices of government agencies in general and the NSA in particular:
Sheeple (weak-minded and otherwise insecure people) expect the government to protect the citizens from the inevitable disastrous effects on society that result from criminal-minded governmental policies orchestrated by the criminal-minded people in the shadows (e.g. banksters, CEOs, PACs, think tanks, etc.) who run the government. The implied question: Can’t sheeple understand how insane that is? The answer of course is No. And the corollary to that is: It’s not even relevant whether or not sheeple are aware of their insanity, because they simply refuse to accept (or even acknowledge) any personal responsibility for their own lives anyway.
“The greatest danger to the citizens of any nation is from their own government, which purports to serve them.” Philosonator, 1986
Let’s face the 800 lb gorilla in the room everyone seems to be ignoring.
If the PTB, didn’t want this all over the news, they wouldn’t have allowed it. Why has everyone seemingly forgotten this FACT. Ask Sibel Edmonds what kind of publicity her MASSIVE story ever received.
Wether Snowden means well or not isn’t even the issue. The issue is that NSA spying has been made public, and gotten the sheeple stamp of approval.
Now, every possible whistle blower and journalist KNOWS they are being monitored and could end up like Micheal Hastings.
Please stop being naive. The ONLY reason this story is out there is because THE PTB WANT IT TO BE OUT THERE.
[…] Jun26by Jon […]
[…] http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/why-hasnt-the-us-government-snatched-ed-snowden-yet/ […]
Why has US government not snatched Ed? Could be because he is at Moscow Airport. US agents think they can just jet into Russia and take him out? Putin does have quite a lot of nuclear weapons and the Russian Navy are in the Mediterranean, waiting for the West’s next move on Syria.
Jon, I reblogged your article and would like to thank you for your great writing, your open and intelligent mind. You may like this lecture below, it´s very good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zAFhbIg6WEo
Besides, here in Germany it is said that Ecuador is being hesitant to take Snowden, but that Venezuela is showing itself interested, which brings to mind that Venezuela has oil… 😉 Just a thought. This whole thing is more than weird and personally I am expecting this to trigger a war.
Would you believe me if I was to tell you anti gov types and conspiracy theorists are being prodded with these stories to classify themselves what level of threat they might be to this New World Order?
Its real easy
It gets everyone to express their thoughts electronically and where a record of it will be kept for when prosecution begins. Consider it a rough draft of Precog
Criminal Just-Us(justice) System simply means (the ones who write the laws and are very influential and rich enough are exempt from the laws they make for the civilians
Remember it says
Anything…..you do or say will be held against you in a court of law.
Doesn’t say some things…it says “anything” Doesn’t say “in your behalf or for you”…its says “against” you.
For a bunch of folks that consider themselves as gods, enlightened beings, rulers, high priests, and kings…they definitely aren’t the brightest bulbs on the Xmas tree.
No mystery what they are up to. They have to make it safe for their Kingdom,,,not your kingdom.
This is the best analysis of the case I’ve yet read. Astonishing brilliance.
The US didn’t learn much from the Gary McKinnon hack. The use of a reporter from The Guardian newspaper tells me that this is a staged event. Don’t be fooled people, there is a BIG secret out there, and all the top players are in on it.
The NSA is not infallible and so far Snowden has managed to escape detection by using double secured encryption and other tricks.
The author asks “Is the NSA a leaking sieve?”
If the NSA security is so watertight why did its Director Gen. Alexander complain about Chinese cyberattacks under questioning by Rep. Mike Rogers, Michigan Republican and committee chairman?
Rep MR : “Would you argue that they engage in cyberactivities to steal both military and intelligence secrets of the United States?”
Gen Alexander: “Yes.”
“It was the first time the director, who is also commander of the U.S. Cyber Command, directly accused China of engaging in cyber espionage and cyber attacks.” Washington Post.
Well if the NSA can spy on the whole world, why complain when someone returns the compliments?
When the members of congress are not keen on attacking the NSA for their evil spying on the good people of the world; it is not just that they are afraid of what the NSA might know about them. Organisations like the NSA are also very well versed in creating false information; and distorting information; in order to annihilate whoever stands in their way. The goal is total control on all individuals in the world, (equals complete slavery turning all humans -except the oligocracy- into individual robots without any rights); and it seems that starts with total control of the politicians. Lately 100 % of the senators present voted unanimously. They are controlled by the carrot and the stick, and it is probably a very big and heavy stick.
[…] Why hasn’t the US government snatched Ed Snowden yet? […]
The USA should be called the USSA: United Surveillance States of America.
The reason why they haven’t abducted Snowden yet is because they are incompetent. This is fortunate for civilization. Also, Snowden switched his phone off so they don’t know where he is. DUH!
The CIA couldn’t find Osama Bin Laden for years because they relied on torture for “confessions” and signals intelligence (sigint) instead of human-powered intelligence (humint). Read “The Fist of God” novel by Frederick Forsyth to understand the difference.
Good article points very well made…, and I enjoyed it a lot… until he gets to the end and goes off the rails on an arrogantly elitist rant about something called the “literal” mind…What ever the heck that is I have no idea, except it’s literally quite apparent that he considers himself literally superior to it and that’s literally not a good sign now, is it? Or…on second thought…Perhaps it is!
Fellow readers… you can’t have things both ways… either the NSA is ingesting enormous amounts of data, processing that data, and presumably knowd all. OR… a more likely scenario, they ingest quite a bit of data, not nearly as much as has been published…. process a small portion of the information they ingest, and are for the most part impotent when it comes to having an up to the minute common operational picture of the world. Just look at how many things catch the United States entirely off guard. How is that possible with an evil uber-brain behind the scenes?
In a country that can’t field a healthcare website, does the prudent person believe there is one shining beacon of sinister knowledge, or is it more likely that there is yet another government agency that is largely inept. I guess the former sales more papers and keeps more conspiracy theoretically centric journalist turning out rubbish.
Pretend for a moment that you have the technical acumen to make an educated guess at what’s real, and what is B.S. Is this a made for Hollywood story of an all knowing and at the same time utterly inept government agency even remotely plausible. isn’t there a tiny part of your brain screaming (though you drowned it out with rubbish) that this whole thing is overwrought?
[…] which I’ve covered in previous articles (see [ref1], [ref2], [ref3], [ref4], [ref5], [ref6], [ref7], and [ref8]), suggests the NSA-Snowden saga is more than it seems to […]
[…] which I’ve covered in previous articles (see [ref1], [ref2], [ref3], [ref4], [ref5], [ref6], [ref7], and [ref8]), suggests the NSA-Snowden saga is more than it seems to […]
Edward Snowden is the wrost traitor the US has had since the Rosenbergs. When it comes to national securuty there should’nt be any oversite now or ever. Whatever it takes to keep the American public safe at all costs.