America, the punching bag

Edward Snowden’s case turns out not just to be about our government’s snooping operations. It’s about various countries getting a free shot at dissing the United States.

As the State Department tells it, that business about China not having the proper documents to keep Snowden from leaving Hong Kong…

“We’re just not buying that this is a technical decision by the Hong Kong immigration official. This was a deliberate choice of the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant.”

There was some definite passive/aggressive behavior going on there. But that’s not all. At a news conference held during a visit to Hanoi, the Ecuadorian Foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, took the opportunity to bring up Iraq, saying that the United States could have used a few good whistleblowers (*) back then.

“Maybe it would have been better to avoid so much suffering if some information, for example the invasion of Iraq, which was based in completely false information, had been revealed,” said Patino.

And as for Secretary of State John Kerry and others accusing Snowden of treason for revealing the extent of the government’s snooping operations, Patino said, “Do we commit treason against the crimes of humanity or do we commit treason against the interests of some elites in some country.”

I do think he means us! I have to say, it kind of stings.

Related:

Rooting for Snowden, against my better judgement