Secret US flight flew over Scottish airspace to capture Snowden
If it weren&#x27;t for the mistreatment of Bradley Manning, I&#x27;d consider US Government attempts to capture Snowden somewhat reasonable.<p>If (in hindsight) there had been any high level response acknowledging the inappropriateness of any of the revealed programs, and attempting to fix or impose accountability measures on covert programs, I&#x27;d feel reassured that the bad behavior evidenced by the leaked information was an anomaly.<p>But since neither of those happened, it appears that the US secret police are simply out of control.<p>Why would a politician speak out against the programs when his&#x2F;her most private information is now known (by the leaked docs) to be vulnerable?  Now his&#x2F;her most private emails or correspondence could be used against him by those wishing to thwart accountability measures.<p>Why would a journalist spread awareness of the leaked information and question the legitimacy of the organizations found to be acting in extralegal fashion?<p>It&#x27;s chilling (and somewhat ironic) that the atmosphere of fear and suppression of dissent that is desired explicitly by governments that have run aggressive secret police regimes is exactly what we&#x27;ve now got in the US.<p>A principled president would have owned up to the misconduct and taken steps to regain the public trust.  A principled president would be ashamed of the chilling effect on journalists.<p>When you consider the utter silence from powerful people about the leaked information (with the exception of a few eccentric celebrities and billionaires) it&#x27;s clear what a profoundly chilling effect the revelations had.