Why US Is Being Humiliated by the Hunt for Snowden

US failure to nab a former National Security Agency contract employee who's spilling secrets has become a source of embarrassment for the government, Simon Tisdall writes for CNN. Stern demands from a range of US political leaders for immediate extradition of Snowden, along with attempts to extend US law across the world with vague warnings of consequences for Russia and China, seem counterproductive. The two did not listen: China let the computer systems administrator fly to Russia, and Russians seem to relish Washington’s frustration. US leaders insisted that the program only tracked foreigners, and there is little appetite left around the world to help a nation that scolds others about computer hacking yet is reported to do the same. US policies – including the prison at Guantanamo, drone strikes and hacking on a grand scale – are caught up in a swirl of global controversy. For many, security is about the powerful playing by the same rules as the less powerful, and Tisdall notes “the rest of the world is talking sovereignty, privacy and individual rights.” – YaleGlobal