Edward Snowden -- from hero whistleblower to stateless pariah

Edward Snowden’s plight is becoming a harsh lesson for his admirers and a source of satisfaction for those who see him as a traitor.

Bounced out of a Hong Kong hotel to the bowels of a Moscow airport, the 30-year-old thief of security secrets must be realizing that the best years of his life are behind him. His dreamy quest for whistleblower glory has hit the police-state wall of reality.

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Milked as a naive novelty by our adversaries for the damage he did to America, he now has a choice of four unappealing and repressive nations. He can get asylum in Russia if he shuts up, or in Bolivia, Venezuela or Nicaragua — if he can get there. He doesn’t have a passport, and there are no direct flights from Moscow to those countries.

The U.S. bid to bring him back has made Snowden a stateless pariah. It’s not perfect justice, but it will suffice until the day he lands in an American prison for espionage.

To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post, click here.