Guardian now reporting that it looks like Ecuador is Snowden's destination

[MineralMan]

88. Any damage Snowden may have done has been done.

Now, he's off to somewhere where he won't be extradited to face charges.

And there it is. This whole thing made me remember the brief period when I worked in the NSA building in Maryland while in the USAF. During that time, I signed a number of papers acknowledging legal restrictions that applied to me. I agreed to those restrictions and signed them. Each contained an oath, where I signed. Each contained information about penalties I might face if I didn't follow those restrictions. Each was a document I thought about carefully before signing.

Not everything I learned while working there was necessarily something I agreed with. That's why I didn't accept a job offer at the NSA when my USAF enlistment time ran out. That's why I left the DC area and decided to work for myself rather than to be an employee. I gave my word. I honored my word. Most of the restrictions were not time-limited, so I'll be honoring my agreements until I'm no longer alive. I thought about what I signed. Then I signed.

Edward Snowden, no doubt, signed many similar documents. They always came with briefings, classes, or explanations. It would have been impossible not to understand what was being agreed to. It was very clear. You agreed and signed, or you did not. It was that simple. Had I not signed, I'd have been assigned some other duty in the USAF back in the 1960s. I signed, and worked there.

For me, keeping the commitments I agree to and understand is important. Nothing I learned was heinous. Some of it would have been embarrassing, if disclosed. I simply kept my word, and then left that work as soon as that was possible.

Edward Snowden did differently. He did not keep his word. Some think what he released was worth that. In reality, I know that what he released was not actually high-level information. Rather, it was briefing documents and a court order. He disclosed what anyone who has been following the NSA and other agencies for many years already knew, by inference. Was it damaging to anything? No, probably not. The programs will, no doubt, continue, since there doesn't seem to be any will in Congress to stop doing and funding them.

So, Snowden will be somewhere in South America. Will our government seek him out and do something to him? Probably not. He's already revealed what he has to reveal. He won't get any more information to reveal. He's done.