Oh my, oh my, oh my ...
The Edward Snowden story has gone hyper-nutbar.
But something even crazier happened on Feb. 25, 1986, when U.S. Army helicopters showed up in the middle of the night at the certain tropical family compound to transport Filipino strongman Ferdinand Marcos -- accused of disappearing, torturing and executing thousands of Philippine citizens for political activities -- and flew him away first to Clark Air Base and then on to Hawaii for a comfortable asylum in the U.S.
Forget the torture ...
Forget the corruption ...
Forget the assassination of Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, whose widow took the reins of government in Manila after this despicable mass murderer was given a safe haven on our shores.
Why did the U.S. government do it?
Because Ronald Reagan liked and approved of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, and he believed it was in the best interest of the U.S. to protect them.
So, when you start applying all sorts of standards about asylum, extradictions, law-breaking and the like on Ecuador or Bolivia or Russia or China, keep in mind that we hardly keep to those standards ourselves. We give shelter to foreign criminals, thieves and murderers where it suits our interests. We might expect other countries to do the same.