"Believer in Obama's promises" is the NSA whistleblower

Can you hear me now?

The NSA scandal just got a lot worse for Obama because the whisteblower, former CIA agent and NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, doesn't seem to be in it for the fame like Wikileaks Julian Assange, or someone who is mentally unstable like his supplier of data Bradley Manning.

While he didn't vote for the president, Snowden said that he "believed in Obama's promises."

Snowden is someone who knows the risks of his actions and he's prepared for the worst.

The Guardian, a British newspaper that is left-wing even on UK standards--which makes it obviously one of my least favorite news sources--is now sitting on one one of the biggest scoops ever, one that rivals the New York Times and Washington Post's publication of Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon Papers in 1971.

Snowden is now in Hong Kong.

From the Guardian:

"All my options are bad," he said. The US could begin extradition proceedings against him, a potentially problematic, lengthy and unpredictable course for Washington. Or the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, viewing him as a useful source of information. Or he might end up being grabbed and bundled into a plane bound for US territory.

"Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets," he said.

"We have got a CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong – and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be."

Having watched the Obama administration prosecute whistleblowers at a historically unprecedented rate, he fully expects the US government to attempt to use all its weight to punish him. "I am not afraid," he said calmly, "because this is the choice I've made."

Snowden gave up a $200,000-a-year job and a girlfriend in Hawaii when he made his decision to become a whistleblower.

And Ellsberg has a tie to this story.

As for Obama, who lamely defended the surveillance program on Friday, now has his fourth scandal to cope with. Will it be his last? I have doubts.

Goodbye to "Hope and Change" forever.

And do you know what else? That guy on the bus who mutters that the government knows all of your thoughts might be closer to the truth than we realized.

Technorati tags: politics Obama Barack Obamagovernment democrat newsDemocrats

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