Obama "Disappointed" Over Snowden Asylum

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 1, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

             Springing 30-year-old National Security Agency leaker Eric Snowden from so-called “transit” area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, Russia granted the U.S. fugitive one-year temporary asylum.  Snowden agreed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s one condition of not divulging more U.S. secrets, at least in public.  Granting Snowden temporary asylum no doubt involved a Russian Federal Security Bureau [formerly the KGB] debriefing, handing Russia whatever “classified” materials were carried on Snowden’s computers.  Reacting to Snowden’s temporary asylum, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney expressed President Barack Obama’s “deep disappointment,” hinting that the White House might cancel a Sept. 5-6 G20 Summit in St. Petersberg.  Carney’s warning mirrored the outrage in GOP circles, especially with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), on Capitol Hill.

             Allowing the Snowden interfere with U.S.-Russian relations goes beyond the pale.  Whatever happened to Snowden, the White House and Congress have no one to blame but themselves for souring U.S.-Russian relations.  Told that the U.S. would arm Syrian rebels June 14 against the pleadings of Putin and other Russian authorities set the stage for the current impasse.  After Obama rebuffed Putin’s requests to stay clear of Syria, Putin acted accordingly.  Yet in many ways the Snowden affair goes beyond U.S.-Russian relations but to the nature of today’s spy business in which U.S. national security has been farmed out to untrustworthy contractors, like Snowden’s employer Booz Allen Hamilton.  Handing the unvetted twenty-something classified information proved a bad idea.  No one knows how much Snowden was paid for the “classified” data he passed along to U.K’s Guardian Newspaper.

             Threatening to boycott the G20 Summit hosted in St. Petersberg harks back when former President Jimmy Carter prevented U.S. Olympic athletes from participating in the 1980 Moscow Summer Games.  Boycotting St. Petersberg hurts no one other than U.S. credibility.  “He’s [Snowden] not a dissident.  He’s not a whistleblower.  He’s been charged with a crime,” Carney said of Snowden.  “We are evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this and other issues, but I have no announcement today on that,” said Carney, reflecting the knee-jerk foreign policy that places petty political spats over significant world events.  If there’s any value to economic summits, the U.S. should participate like any other responsible world power.  Boycotting the meeting politicizes—but more importantly cheapens—the G20, slapping other world powers in the face for a petty dispute with Russia.

             Worldwide geopolitical and economic issues should take more precedence than embarrassment over a renegade U.S. citizen.  Had Snowden stolen classified information from the Kremlin, he would have already faced a firing squad or be rotting in a Siberian prison.  Anyone that believes that believe the “transit” area of an international airport is off-limits to domestic or foreign agents should consider buying the Brooklyn Bridge from a New York street hustler.  “There is no question that there is a range of issues—setting aside the disposition of Mr. Snowden—on which we are currently in a disagreement with Russia,” said Carney, admitting there’s more at stake at the G20 than a 30-year-old fugitive U.S. citizen.  “Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia,” said hothead McCain and his echo chamber, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.S.C.).  

             When Snowden exposed NSA secrets June 20 in the U.K’s Guardian, no one asked how much he was paid.  Media reports promoted the narrative that the former CIA and Booz Allen Hamilton contractor was a Good Samaritan.  U.S. officials couldn’t react fast enough before Snowden fled to Hong Kong, then pivoted quickly to Russia when U.S. authorities were breathing down his neck.  Whatever happened for over a month while Snowden grandstanded in Moscow, it’s not Putin’s problem to make up for egregious lapses in the U.S. security system.  It’s not Vladimir’s fault that CIA personnel couldn’t pluck Snowden off his flight or out of the Hong Kong airport.  “Today’s action by Putin’s Russia should finally strip away the illusions that many Americans have had about Russia in the past few years,” said McCain and Graham, making a mountain out of a molehill.

             U.S. officials have no one to blame but themselves for Snowden’s plight.  He shouldn’t have worked for the CIA or Booz Allen Hamilton or been given any security clearance.  If McCain and Graham want better relations with Russia, they shouldn’t ignore Putin’s warnings and request to not intervene in Syria’s civil war.  If the U.S. had a better on-the-ground system of spies—like they once had—Snowden would have been plucked out of Hong Kong before he fled to Moscow.  Boycotting the G20 in St. Petersberg only hurts U.S. credibility by exposing the world’s top 20 economic powers to petty spats with Moscow.  If there’s any reason to have sour relations, Putin should be holding a grudge for U.S. backing Osama bin Laden in Russia’s 1980-89 fiasco in Afghanistan.  Meeting Putin in Moscow and attending the G20 should help put U.S.-Russian relations back on the right track. 

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.