Originally Posted by Joe Obenberger

Guessing that the whole Ecuador thing is false bait. Probably misdirection. But not a bad country in which to live a very rich life.

The Russians have made their point, Putin is enjoying a laugh, and now, I think, they want him out of their hair. The problem is negotiating a final destination. It's looking like the Wikileaks people have developed some real sophistication at international diplomacy, and it looks from here that they are driving events.

Venezuela, Iceland, Switzerland.

The US government now seems so furious as to verge on being out of control on the issue of this man. The language they are using - concerning a man under federal indictment and supposedly in line to have a trial some day - is simply unprecedented. President Obama didn't hesitate to address it in his press conferences - the tradition, even with Nixon, was not to comment on pending criminal cases. (That seems to have gone out the window about the time that the Patriot Act became law.) They thought it was all figured out, to nail him in the wee hours of Sunday, but he'd been tipped off and flew the coop. They simply aren't used to this and they aren't used to being made to look like fools for all the world to see. There may be some desperate missteps, but one thing seems certain - that Mr. Snowden has sharply reduced the risk that he will be assassinated - he's just too high visibility for that now. Seldom in history does so much hinge on just one man.

Meanwhile, what's going on with Bradley Manning's court martial? My hunch is that what the government did to Manning is an important part of the backstory on Snowden's actions. You will recall that some of the charges against Manning were dismissed by a courageous military judge because of improper "command influence" - namely, the President commenting on this trial. That's entirely unprecedented in US military history - you will recall I served in the JAG Corps for four years.

The whole thing really is spinning out of the power of the administration to control. The usual media partners are not enough to contain the story and assassinate Snowden's character, and now they appear to be trying too hard; the criticism has become vitriolic. The expected casualty of all of this is most likely big chunks of the Patriot Act itself. I won't mourn for it!