[boi_v2]

I am starting to think that too many governments are pretty scared that if they help Snowden some kind of scandal against them would come out, at the end NSA has tones of data about any one. All these is making pretty clear which governments are really concerned and committed with human rights and democracy and which are just about business and profit.

Spain and Portugal are not a surprise, corruption and persecution of activists is all over the place.

[mark_l_watson]

+1 I think you are probably correct. The US government must have tons of blackmail worthy "dirt" on a very large number of positions in other countries.

If we can set morality aside and speak of practical matters: my country has some tough problems. We spend as much on our corporate military industrial complex as all other countries put together (or very close to it). This "investment" has paid off nicely for us in maintaining the $ as the world's reserve currency. Even though I spent a good part of my life working in the defense industry, it seems pretty obvious that this "investment" is doing little else but making special interests very wealthy. I have my own opinions on how we can make our country safer while spending much less money.

[malandrew]

Never thought of that as a reason for denying asylum, but it's quite obvious that if the NSA has tons of communications on your country and your politicians, you probably wouldn't want to piss them off by granting asylum to Snowden

This is almost exactly the blackmailing situation I described in this lively discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5960695

I imagine that the only way to grant him asylum is to do so very very very secretly.

[axus]

But really, what could be a bigger scandal than suspending the 4th amendment and recording all private communication information? What can they release that compares to that?

[VladRussian2]

>What can they release that compares to that?

offshore banking accounts, kickback/bribe money transfers, undeclared real estate and other property, visits of relaxation to Berlusconi villas staffed with underage maids, etc ... a bunch of stuff that a typical politician is usually involved in. Imagine how it compares in their mind to suspension of 4th (sounds like one after a 3rd, yes?) amendment in some other country across a big ocean.