BHO, l’artiste du blowback

BHO, l’artiste du blowback

Dans Strategic-culture.org, Wayne Madsen détaille, le 15 juillet 2013, l’historique de la “traque” de Edward Snowden par les USA du président Obama. D’une façon assez juste et révélatrice, il juge que cette “traque” est supérieure en intensité à celle d’Osama ben Laden, ce qui en dit long sur l’évolution libérale et progressiste de l’administration US passant de GW Bush à BHO, d’une part ; mais aussi, sur l’importance que le Système attache à la neutralisation, voire à l’élimination de Snowden, à la fois par rancoeur d’un hybris contrarié et par conviction qu’un exemple radical dans le chef de Snowden découragerait des apprentis-whistleblower...

«In many ways, National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden is more wanted by the U.S. government than was Osama Bin Laden just six months after the 9/11 attack on the United States. President George W. Bush said during a White House press conference, “Who knows if he’s [Bin Laden] hiding in some cave or not. We haven’t heard from him in a long time. The idea of focusing on one person really indicates to me people don’t understand the scope of the mission. Terror is bigger than one person. He’s just a person who’s been marginalized... I don’t know where he is. I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you”.»

Fort justement encore, Madsen observe que c’est l’acharnement US contre Snowden qui, finalement, après une première période où le même Snowden perdait de plus en plus d’appui et éventuellement de popularité, a modifié la situation générale et fait de Snowden une victime et un héros persécuté. Les dernières déclarations de Poutine à cet égard sont révélatrices. Elles sont notamment retranscrites le 15 juillet 2013 sur Russia Today. Le président russe estime que les conditions actuelles de Snowden ne sont pas très claires (par ailleurs, officiellement le gouvernement russe affirme qu’il n’a pas encore reçu de demande officielle d’asile), mais qu’il devrait quitter la Russie dès qu’il le pourra. Là-dessus, Poutine enchaîne en portant un jugement sévère sur “nos partenaires américains”, dont il affirme que c’est la politique de pression qui a conduit à la situation actuelle où Snowden est à Moscou (avec éventuel asile temporaire en Russie, ce que dénoncent les mêmes USA...).

«NSA-leaker Edward Snowden will leave Russia as soon as he gets such opportunity, but for now the situation is unclear, says Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He is familiar with the conditions of granting political asylum, and judging by the latest statements, is shifting his position. The situation is not clear now,” Putin said.

»The president stressed that the US basically trapped ex-CIA employee Snowden in Russia while he was in transit to other countries. “He arrived on our territory without an invitation, he was not flying to us – he was flying in transit to other countries. But as soon as he got in the air it became known, and our American partners, in fact, blocked his further flight,” Putin said, meaning that the US government revoked Snowden’s passport shortly after he arrived at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. “They scared other countries. No one wants to accept him,” he added...»

Madsen rapporte notamment, dans le texte cité, les diverses péripéties qui ont conduit à un rensersement de l’opinion générale sur Snowden, et qui ont donc paradoxalement conforté sa position dans la perception générale, malgré qu’il se trouve bloqué à l’aéroport de Moscou. On trouve notamment, dans son texte, des détails intéressants sur l’interception de l’avion du président bolivien Morales, qui est le point crucial, avec la suppression du passeport US de Snowden, qui a abouti à la situation actuelle où les USA font l’objet d’une réprobation générale. On y suit avec intérêt les évolutions des divers ambassadeurs US dans la partie européenne du bloc BAO, notamment de l'ambassadeur US en Autriche, homme à la qualification diplomatique établie puisque généreux donateur du candidat Obama. On y suit aussi la danse de Saint-Guy de l'ambassadeur à Moscou McFaul, Pussy Riot et FEMEN en sautoir, pour libérer Snowden des griffes des Russes et l'expédier vers la terre d'asile de tous les damnés de la terre.

«Just as thing began looking grim for Edward Snowden, the Obama administration delivered him an unexpected gift. Believing that Snowden was on board the executive Falcon jet of Bolivian President Evo Morales, who had just attended a natural gas exporting summit in Moscow and remarked that he might grant Snowden asylum in Bolivia, the United States, through its ambassadors in Paris, Madrid, Rome, and Lisbon, arranged for the four NATO allies to deny over flight privileges to Morales’s aircraft. The U.S. ambassador in Vienna, Obama political fundraiser William Eacho, conspired with the Austrian government and the Spanish ambassador in Vienna, Alberto Carnero, to force Morales’s plane to land in Vienna so Carnero could conduct an “inspection” of the plane in search of Snowden. Morales denied that Snowden was on board and the Austrians, French, Spanish, Italians, and Portuguese scrambled to explain their affront to the Bolivian head of state by coming up with various ridiculous explanations.

»The Morales plane incident came as more revelations from Snowden appeared in the press that NSA, along with Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), were collecting communications meta-data from the transatlantic 14 (TAT 14) cable at Bude in Cornwall. After it was revealed in the UK Observer that Germany and France, which were publicly complaining about the tap, were Third Party partners of NSA and GCHQ and conducted their own taps and provided the intelligence to NSA, a small group of right-wing activists tied to the NSA’s and Pentagon’s professional «sock puppet» brigade of cognitive dissonance cyber-propagandists, launched a Twitter, Facebook, and email campaign against The Observer, its sister paper The Guardian, and this author, who was quoted by both papers about the NSA Third Party story. The campaign succeeded in diverting attention away from the NSA Third Party relationships and on to the story, the source, The Observer reporter, and a London website that simultaneously revealed the Third Party story.

»However, for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the political damage was done. Her hypocrisy in complaining about NSA surveillance only to have the operations of her own intelligence service with the U.S. revealed caused her to sink in the opinion polls. Obama, who had been riding on high popularity in Europe, also saw his favorability plummet as more and more Europeans understood that Obama was bent on surveillance and coming down on whistleblowers like Snowden with an iron fist and a jackboot. There were calls by opposition politicians in Germany, France, Norway, Iceland, and Ireland to grant Snowden asylum in their countries. Politicians from the Belarusian Green Party to the Icelandic Pirate Party rallied to Snowden’s cause. A motion was introduced but then tabled in the Icelandic parliament that would have granted Snowden Icelandic citizenship. Ireland’s High Court ruled that Ireland would not accede to America’s international arrest warrant for Snowden.

»Latin America responded to the Morales plane incident by rallying to Snowden’s side. Offers of asylum came from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia and Brazilian legislators called for Brazil to reverse its original denial of asylum and grant it to Snowden.

»Weeks after China decided not to intervene on Washington’s behalf and permitted Snowden to fly from Hong Kong to China, Obama was still miffed when he met senior Chinese officials in Washington for trade talks. Revelations that NSA spied on Chinese and Hong Kong communications took the wind from Obama’s bellicosity over alleged Chinese state-sponsored computer hacking into American computers.

»Meanwhile, the Pussy Riot- and FEMEN-supporting U.S. to Moscow, Michael McFaul looked more and more foolish as he pressed Moscow to return Snowden to American soil. Instead, Snowden was permitted to meet human rights officials at Moscow’s airport and petition for temporary political asylum in Russia. Obama stated that he would not «scramble jets» to get Snowden, but a deviation in the course away from U.S. airspace, the day before, of a Moscow to Havana flight generated rumors, all unfounded, that Snowden was aboard the plane.

»America was once again being treated as the renegade country it was during the Bush administration. The only difference was that Obama was putting more resources into capturing Snowden than Bush did in apprehending Bin Laden.»

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