JAY CARNEY MUST HAVE CHINA SHAKING IN ITS BOOTS

Putin calls U.S. attacks against China and Russia for aiding Edward Snowden ‘ravings and rubbish’

During a press briefing, White House spokesman Jay Carney delivered a blistering attack against China, accusing it of orchestrating Edward Snowden’s flight from Hong Kong to Russia. Carney said: “We find their decision to be particularly troubling. This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive, despite a valid arrest warrant. And that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship.”

I’m sure that Carney’s attack has Chinese officials shaking in their boots – just kidding.

Carney also said that our government expects Russia to act on the arrest warrant issued for Snowden and have him shipped off to the U.S. But the Obama administration’s expectations ran into a solid Russian brick wall.

Vladimir Putin told a press conference in Sweden that he’d just as soon not deal with the Snowden issue because "It’s like shearing a piglet: there's a lot of squealing, but there's little wool." He said that Snowden “committed no crimes on the territory of the Russian Federation" and was free to leave Russia to any destination he wants. Putin said Snowden was in a transition facility at Moscow’s airport. "He has not crossed the state's border, and therefore does not need a visa. And any accusations against Russia [of aiding him] are ravings and rubbish,"

Meanwhile, Philip Mudd, a former CIA deputy director of counterterrorism and former FBI deputy of director of national security, told Tuesday’s NBC Today that China and Russia have probably looked at and obtained whatever information Snowden’s electronic gear contained. “The likelihood that there’s either been no conversation with him or they haven’t downloaded stuff from his electronic gear is about zero.”

Mudd told Today’s Matt Lauer that our intelligence agents would do the same thing if they had someone similar available for questioning. “You telling me that we’re not going to look at his cellphone and his laptop and take him off to a room to talk to him? I’m not talking interrogation; I’m just saying, ‘Why (are) you here? What do you want to do? Is there something you want to tell us?’”

Despite all the huffing and puffing by the Obama administration, as of now it doesn’t look like we are going to get our hands on Snowden anytime soon. If we want him real bad, we’re going to have to do what Israel’s Mossad did to capture Adolf Eichmann after he fled to Argentina – send a secret CIA squad to where he ends up and kidnap him back to the U.S.