Shorter Obama: Civil Liberties Я Us

This is where we have sunk to: We have to assure the Russians that we don't torture people:

In a letter sent this week, US attorney general Eric Holder told his Russian counterpart that the charges faced by Snowden do not carry the death penalty. Holder added that the US "would not seek the death penalty even if Mr Snowden were charged with additional, death penalty-eligible crimes".

Holder said he had sent the letter, addressed to Alexander Vladimirovich, Russia's minister of justice, in response to reports that Snowden had applied for temporary asylum in Russia "on the grounds that if he were returned to the United States, he would be tortured and would face the death penalty".

"These claims are entirely without merit," Holder said. In addition to his assurance that Snowden would not face capital punishment, the attorney general wrote: "Torture is unlawful in the United States."

What the AG failed to mention, of course, is that if Snowden were snatched by the CIA, that he could be "renditioned" to a country that does torture people, or held in a "black site" prison or on a prison ship.

For that's how this country now rolls. MTAHNS would try to assert the same sort of plausible deniability that S-CHIP did. This Administration, just like its predecessor, has had no problems with keeping people it doesn't like in long-term pre-trial detention in conditions that are tantamount to torture. Snowden is right to conclude that even living in Russia would be preferable to trusting in the Federal justice system.

On another note, it's a pretty sad commentary on the state of journalism in this country that the most extensive coverage of the NSA's snooping apparently is on a foreign newspaper's website, with the possible exception of McClatchy.

UPDATE: I probably should have read the Guardian article a bit closer, for they really fucked up the name of the Russian Justice Minster. His name is Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov. The error should have been blindingly obvious to me, as Vladimirovich is a Russian patronym, not a surname. My apologies.*
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* Same thing for Susan Ivanova, actually.