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Comment by hueving | Hacker News Reader

What is the "extraordinary threat" to his personal safety at this point? Any assassination attempt at this point would create such a political backlash in the US that he is essentially untouchable.

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The threat doesn't need to be as extreme (or binary) as assassination, presumably you mean by a government? Incarceration in a Federal prison and/or torture under questioning are imho personal threats to safety. And cynically I believe any "backlash" would last about as long as the media cycle at the time.

Hah, I personally don't really believe this. There are so many things in US politics that are obviously corrupt (e.g. NSA and RSI deleting files before congress hearings). None of them generated a backlash significant enough to change anything.

What he faces if caught is being brutally caged in solitary confinement for the rest of his life. I think that is an "extraordinary threat" and actually probably worse than being assassinated.

>Any assassination attempt at this point would create such a political backlash in the US that he is essentially untouchable

I'm not so sure about this. If he was assassinated, it would be reported as a suicide or an accident, and there would be a concerted effort online to label anything that questioned this narrative as being in the same realm as conspiracies about lizard people.

Assassination is not the worst thing that someone can do to you.

Living within the DC area, I've met a bunch of people who work at the 'state department' and who seem to be active agents in the discrediting of Snowden. And, it's this discrediting (similar to what has been done with Assange) that is more effective.

"had" - I was referring to when he first blew the whistle, not conducting this interview.

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