Whatever one may think of hero, whistle-blower, traitor, spy or villain Edward Snowden, he sure has been able to arouse some very strange “bedfellowships.”
Nations, governments, politicians, pundits and individuals have crossed all kinds of political, philosophical and ideological lines and aligned themselves pro- or anti-Snowden and, by extension pro- or anti-NSA surveillance programs — or vice-versa.
Take for example Russian Prime Minister and former KGB officer Vladimir Putin who suddenly is very concerned that Snowden may divulge information that is damaging to his “American partners.”
Take Venezuela’s president Maduro who is suddenly interested that “the truth” be told about the evil United States, who touchingly calls Snowden a “valiant rebel,” who has praised Snowden for unmasking U.S. espionage efforts at home and abroad and a man who wants to protect Snowden “from the persecution that has been unleashed on him from the most powerful empire in the world.
And there are many other foreign leaders — not necessarily friendly to the United States — who have spoken glowingly of Mr. Snowden and who would love to host him — and “talk to him” — in their countries.
But perhaps, the strangest of all bedfellows are the Russians.
A recent article in Foreign Policy (FP) aptly titled — you guessed it — “Talk About Strange Bedfellows” perhaps illustrates this best.
In the article we learn that freedom-loving Russians of all persuasions “have argued that Snowden should be allowed to stay and work in Russia rather than ending up behind bars in his home country,” but also that some Duma deputies say, “Snowden ought to share all of his secret data with the Russian intelligence services.” Such evidence that Americans spy not only on American citizens, but also on their European allies, would surely be of interest to them, according to FP.
Also according to FP, Robert Shlegel, “a young and energetic politician from the ruling United Russia Party, would very much like to meet with Snowden with whom he feels a “certain camaraderie” and would like to chat with him about the “’bizarre reality’ that the NSA has tried to create, an updated version of Orwell’s 1984 in which the U.S. intelligence agencies aspire to know everything that’s going on in the world.”
But this strange bedfellow also strangely says that he does not necessarily approve of Snowden’s urge to speak “the truth”:
As someone who’s close to the Kremlin, Shlegel says, he believes in loyalty to the state: “Even if he has such evidence on hand, an official should never betray his own government, under no circumstances, especially if he worked for a security agency.”
When the FP reporter asks Shlegel “What if the true story was even more complicated…what if Snowden was originally recruited by Russian intelligence?” Shlegel laughs and says “I wish Snowden was our project. If he was one of ours, we’d have to build a monument to the men who recruited him.”
Another Duma deputy posted on his Twitter feed “Snowden was the second one after Bush who struck a powerful blow to the image of the U.S. Bush lied to the entire world about Iraq, and Snowden told the truth about international espionage,” and in another tweet the Duma deputy noted, “Total surveillance … is the essence of American democracy.”
Russia’s normally squabbling politicians, says the FP, “have found a rare unanimity as they’ve rushed to condemn America’s efforts to eavesdrop on the world.” (It should of course be noted that the Russian government would never stoop so low.)
But it is not only Kremlin sympathizers who are expressing solidarity with Snowden. Oppositionists, human rights activists and a majority of liberal Russians sympathize with Snowden and his agenda.
The government has clearly picked up on the fact that so many of its erstwhile critics are finding common ground with Putin’s position, says FP.
The FP asks, “How will [the government] take it into account?” and says:
Russian TV, which is now largely under the control of the state, offers some clues. Recent broadcasts have hailed Snowden as a hero, comparing him in one case to the American communist spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, in another to Max Otto von Stirlitz, a legendary figure who spied on the Nazis for Stalin during World War II. On one show he was described as “the man who declared war on Big Brother and got stuck in the transit zone,” and as “a soldier in the information war, who fights, of course, on the side of Russia, or maybe the side of China.”
However, in all this oneness, there is still one area that the Russians do not agree on: “[w]ho should be allowed to exploit Snowden’s computers, the actual proof of U.S. sins, in case he decides to stay in Russia.”
The FP says:
Deputy Shlegel had no doubts on this score: “He should share the data with Russian intelligence and help us improve the technical side of our security system.”
Read more here
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The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.