Obama Very Much Wants Snowden

If you were to listen to President Obama you would think that he did not care about Edward Snowden. However, it looks like he is far from unconcerned. When the Bolivian President's plane was diverted because "Snowden was on the plane" it started an international diplomatic mess when the story turned out to be inaccurate.

There was no confirmation that it was the US government who passed along the bad information, however, who else would be so interested in getting Snowden.  Should it turn out to be true (and we suspect it is), this is just another example of the current US Administration's  ham handed handling of foreign affairs. It is embarrassing.

If we as a country can be made to look stupid by a young, inexperienced novice computer technician, what could an organized and skilled foreign nation do to us.  This should scare all of us.  What secrets have other countries obtained and what damage has been done that our government has not told us?

Also is a concern is the apparent deception, the lies to the American people and the immense pressure being placed on our allies.  We are indeed a bully, pushing and intimidating the world to get what we want, unsuccessfully.  Do we really think that this is the best way to get Snowden back?

The longer this goes on the more impotent we appear. Is Snowden really worth this effort?

Conservative Tom

Spain: We were told Snowden was on Bolivia plane

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Aymara women hold a posters of Bolivia's President Evo Morales during a welcome ceremony for presidents attending an extraordinary meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Thursday, July 4, 2013. Leaders of Uruguay, Ecuador, Surinam, Argentina and Venezuela are meeting in Bolivia Thursday in support of Morales, who said Thursday that the rerouting of his plane in Europe, over suspicions that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden was on board was a plot by the U.S. to intimidate him and other Latin American leaders. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

July 5, 2013PoliticsBarack Obama

MADRID (AP) — Spain on Friday said it had been warned along with other European countries that former U.S. intelligence worker Edward Snowden was aboard the Bolivian presidential plane this week, an acknowledgement that the manhunt for the fugitive leaker had something to do with the plane's unexpected diversion to Austria.

It is unclear whether the United States, which has told its European allies that it wants Snowden back, warned Madrid about the Bolivian president's plane. U.S. officials will not detail their conversations with European countries, except to say that they have stated the U.S.'s general position that it wants Snowden back.

President Barack Obama has publicly displayed a relaxed attitude toward Snowden's movements, saying last month that he wouldn't be "scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker."

But the drama surrounding the flight of Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose plane was abruptly rerouted to Vienna after apparently being denied permission to fly over France, suggests that pressure is being applied behind the scenes.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo told Spanish National Television that "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside."

He did not identify who "they" were and declined to say whether he had been in contact with the U.S. But he said that European countries' decisions were based on the tip. France has since sent a letter of apology to the Bolivian government.

Meanwhile, secret-spilling website WikiLeaks said that Snowden, who is still believed to be stuck in a Moscow airport's transit area, had put in asylum applications to six new countries.

The organization said in a message posted to Twitter on Friday that it wouldn't be identifying the countries involved "due to attempted U.S. interference."

A number of countries have already rejected asylum applications from Snowden