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Stoned Me

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I guess it shouldn't come as much surprise that Oliver Stone will be bringing Eric Snowden to the big screen at some point in time.  He bought the rights to Luke Harding's book on the NSA whistleblower, whom The Guardian befriended and has been pretty much plugging his story since day one.  It won't be a documentary like his previous effort with Showtime on the pernicious "untold history" of the United States.  Seems Ollie wants a little more room to expand the story into a thriller, which will take some doing as it has pretty much played out as a soap opera since The Guardian first broke the news in June 2013.

Hard to believe it has only been a year.  It feels like this story has drug on as long as the Julian Assange trial. It is hard to know what to think of these whistleblowers since opinions are extreme on both sides.   But, no doubt Stone thinks the world of Snowden, calling him a "hero."

To read The Guardian, Snowden is a "committed Republican" of the Libertarian persuasion, who saw the opportunity to blow the lid on the National Security Agency when he felt it had gone too far in its surveillance efforts.  This was something the Obama administration conceded when the juicy tabloid stories broke of all the folks the NSA had been spying on, including world leaders like Angela Merkel.  But, the Obama administration wants Snowden brought to trial for releasing what was largely classified information.

Russia is expected to extend his temporary visa this summer until he finds a permanent home for asylum.  Several countries have extended invitations, but it seems Snowden badly wants to go to Brazil, which to this point has been noncommittal.  Too many things on President Dilma Rousseff's plate right now, although she too was notably miffed to be spied on.  Meanwhile, Dr. Ron Paul, everyone's favorite Libertarian and pediatrician, has launched a clemency petition for Snowden.

Of course, there isn't a conspiracy theory Ollie doesn't like, and he certainly has a lot of mileage in this story.  One can expect him to pull out all the stops, especially since he was none too favorable of the Obama administration in his Showtime "documentary."

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