American Officials Want to Kill NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden': He's Safe In Moscow - So They Decided To Assassinate His Character Instead

Illustration by Ronald David Jackson
(Adapted from Photos by Marshall Astor and mw238)

By Ronald David Jackson
It was recently revealed that individuals within the NSA and Pentagon want NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden dead, one pentagon official going so far as to say he'd "love to put a bullet in his head."  Similarly, an NSA official was quoted saying, "I personally would go and kill him myself." These are not just idle threats, but more like a "fatwah": a "wink-and-a-nod" edict giving a license to kill to anyone with a gun or bomb and the wherewithal to get to Snowden.

But since America's assassins can't get to Snowden while he is safe in his Moscow sanctuary, they have decided to do the next best thing: they have decided to assassinate his character instead.

Mike Rogers, Republican from Michigan and chairman of the House Intelligence committee, went on a major TV talkshow to float the idea that Snowden may have been working with the Russians. Rogers argued that it was not just "gee-whiz luck" that Snowden was able to escape Hong Kong and make it to Moscow. Rogers claim was immediately backed up by Republican from Texas Michael McCaul, the chairman of House committee on Homeland Security, who said Snowden couldn't have did what he did all by himself and must have been "helped by others."  We can expect the right-wing noise machine headed by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to spend the next few days screaming "Snowden is a Russian spy!"

It's a coordinated propaganda operation for sure, geared toward countering the idea that Edward Snowden should be granted clemency, which was recently suggested in editorials in both the New York Times and The Guardian newspapers.