Edward Snowden elected as rector of Glasgow University
Source: BBC News
Intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden has been elected to the post of student rector at Glasgow University.
The former US National Security Agency contractor fled from his homeland last May after revealing extensive details of internet and phone surveillance.
He is currently staying in Russia where he has temporary asylum.
The rector is the students' elected representative. Mr Snowden succeeds the Liberal Democrat's former leader Charles Kennedy.
Read more: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-26243567
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)I like the fact that he is trying to learn the language and assimilate in Russia. He probably is going to do even better then he was in America and he was doing pretty darn good here.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,234 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)Divernan
(15,480 posts)Mr Snowden beat three other candidates to the post - cyclist Graeme Obree, author Alan Bissett and Scottish Episcopal clergyman Kelvin Holdsworth. Previous rectors at the university include Winnie Mandela and Mordechai Vanunu.
Among the post-holder's key duties are to attend the university court, which administers resources, work with the students' representative council, and to bring student concerns to the attention of university management. Snowden supporter Lubna Nowak said the election was a statement against surveillance Nowak, one of the representatives from the group which nominated Mr Snowden, told BBC Scotland: "I am incredibly happy and I believe that he deserved it from the beginning. Of course I'm honoured as a Glasgow University student to be able to say now Edward Snowden is our rector - I think that's pretty amazing.
"I think we've shown that we oppose mass surveillance and intrusion to our private lives and that also we stand in solidarity - that we believe whistleblowers should be honoured and they're heroes rather than traitors."
In response to concerns over electing an absent rector, Ms Nowak stressed that there were student representatives on the university court and said the vote followed in a "proud tradition" of selecting Mrs Mandela and Mr Vanunu.
Divernan
(15,480 posts)Mordechai Vanunu (Hebrew: מרדכי ואנונו?; born 14 October 1954), also known as John Crossman,[2][3] is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986.[4][5] He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was drugged and abducted by Israeli intelligence agents.[4] He was transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors.[4]
Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 in solitary confinement. Released from prison in 2004, he became subject to a broad array of restrictions on his speech and movement. Since then he has been arrested several times for violations of those restrictions, including giving various interviews to foreign journalists and attempting to leave Israel. He says he suffered "cruel and barbaric treatment" at the hands of Israeli authorities while imprisoned, and suggests that his treatment would have been different if he had not converted to Christianity from Judaism.[6]
In 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to six months in prison for violating terms of his parole. The sentence was considered unusual even by the prosecution who expected a suspended sentence. In response, Amnesty International issued a press release on 2 July 2007, stating that "The organisation considers Mordechai Vanunu to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release."[7] In May 2010, Vanunu was arrested and sentenced to three months in jail on suspicion that he met foreigners in violation of conditions of his 2004 release from jail.
Vanunu has been characterized internationally as a whistleblower[8][9] and by Israel as a traitor.[10][11][12][13] Daniel Ellsberg has referred to him as "the preeminent hero of the nuclear era".[14]
(wikipedia)