Edward Snowden can hide where he likes

There’s a very annoying, vacuous argument going round that whatever his merits he shouldn’t be seeking sanctuary with “dictatorial regimes”.

a) when you’re fighting for your life some things are more important than liberal sensibilities. If you expect him to care more about how it looks to you than whether he survives you are *fairly* evil.

b) he’s been to Hong Kong and Russia – both of which have nominal democracies and democratic freedoms. Likewise Ecuador, that he was publicly seeking a flight to. Hardly a tour of the world’s hell holes – two places, one of which is just the airport.

c) when you leave aside press speculation about going to Cuba etc. the fairly short list of possible destinations he has released includes France, Switzerland and Germany. Those countries now have an opportunity to demonstrate their civilised, democratic credentials.

d) It’s hardly surprising that he hasn’t sought sanctuary with the closest allies of the U.S.A., so faux shock that he’s not putting his feet up in Canada or Cardiff are displays of willful ignorance that regard Snowden’s desire to survive as some sort of distasteful personal inconvenience or grandstanding when, in truth, his flight has very little to do with how you feel he should behave and everything to do with the desire to survive.

 

Best of luck to him