Twilight zone for Snowden

What was it like for Edward Snowden,stuck in the no-mans land of an airports transit zone for 40 days

THE GUARDIAN

What was it like for Edward Snowden,stuck in the no-mans land of an airports transit zone for 40 days,not knowing what was to become of him and having to cope with a constant barrage of announcements and disturbance? Alec Luhn of The Guardian spoke to Snowdens lawyer,Anatoly Kucherena,who seems to marvel at the former intelligence analysts composure. I wouldnt have held out for 24 hours with him in the airport, he says. Snowden seems to have spent his time in the airport in anticipation of being granted asylum by Russia,preparing by learning the Russian alphabet and reading works by Dostoyevsky and Chekhov,and writings by historian Nikolai Karamzin.

THE HUFFINGTON POST

Birds are Israels new spies,or are they?

It happened in Iran. It happened in several of the Gulf States. And now it happened in Turkey. A bird with an Israeli tag was arrested for espionage. Micah D Halpern seems amused over the extremes that paranoia of Israel has led some Middle East countries to. These,he explains,are a symptom of the general distrust of the Israelisbut theres a silver lining. These far ranging ideas transform Israel into an enemy that is not of this world,an enemy that defies nature8230; And that just might be the force behind the status quo which prevents assaults and attacks. This kind of myth might be a major part of the deterrence that,in the end,will keep the region safe, he says.

THE NEW YORKER

Egypt and the rest of the world

Steve Coll attempts some rough notes on how the recent deposition of former Egypt President Mohammed Morsi could impact the region and the rest of the world. He draws a parallel between Egypts latest crisis and the 1991 Algerian elections in which the military-backed government refused to let the Islamists rule,leading to a decade-long civil war. In this case,what Coll foresees is a wave of anti-Islam protests as the rest of the Middle East sees the power of the Islamists weakening. In the Arab world,Nasserism and Baathism are long dead. The kings who rule from Kuwait to Jordan to Moroccoand keep the Islamists sidelinedlook shaky and anachronistic, he points out.

SLATE

Decoding the tortuous NSA-speak

When it comes to discussing government surveillance,US intelligence officials have been using a vocabulary of misdirectiona language that allows them to say one thing while meaning quite another. Dont worry,though,Jameel Jaffer and Brett Max Kaufman are here to help you penetrate this tortuous maze of smoke and mirrors. They list words that the NSA has used to mislead the publicwords such as minimisation procedures that actually allow it to hold and share innocent Americans information for up to five years,or tracking of relevant phone calls,a word so loosely defined that,as Jaffer and Kaufman point out,its concept is stretched far beyond the breaking point. And then,of course,theres no,which in the case of US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper speaking to a Senate hearing,actually meant yes.