*The South China Morning Post is reporting that the U.S. government hasn’t made any official outreach to Hong Kong about Edward Snowden, according to “a source familiar with the situation.”
*A New York Times profile of Snowden published today should put to bed all the fuss over his status as a high ranking “dropout.”
From Mr. Snowden’s friends and his own voluminous Web postings emerges a portrait of a talented young man who did not finish high school but bragged online that employers “fight over me.”
*Twitter and Google executives criticized Facebook for disclosing National Security Letters. Not because they disapprove of the disclosures in principle, but because they believe Facebook’s disclosures muddy the waters.
“We already publish criminal requests separately from National Security Letters. Lumping the two categories together would be a step back for users. Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately,” the company said in a statement. [ht: The Atlantic Wire]
*Meanwhile, in non-NSA/Snowden news, moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani has been declared the winner of Iran’s presidential election after just one round of voting.
The Observer (the Guardian’s sister newspaper) described Rouhani as “a moderate figure favouring political openness and re-establishing relations with the west” and said his election will “likely to soothe international tensions.”
Enjoy the rest of your Saturday afternoon. I will be posting stories again tomorrow morning.
