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In fact so odd, I wonder if the writer - a Swedish resident of the United States - is bucking for that new "ex-liberal turned darling of the right" background that gets FOX News assignments. He is from Sweden, went to Harvard - where he wrote about the European Radical Right, then worked for Politico and the Orange County Register (the reliably Republican paper of the Los Angeles suburbs for the last 50 years)..
But I digress, for young Mr. Groll to blame Snowden for Boeing's lose is asinine.
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First, the article itself is a sensationalistic rehash from a Reuters article that was much more balanced.
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Second, Brazil has no enemies, per say, and doesn't really need fighter jets, except that the Mirage ones they have now are a zillion years old. So buying a much cheaper plane, that is still better than all its neighbors seems fine. Particularly since they haven't been at war since the 1940s.
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Third, SAAB has agreed to transfer technology and build parts in Brazil. Anyone that knows Brazil knows this is critical to their purchase decision.
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Fourth, Snowden didn't spy on Brazil. The United States, who was unConstitutionally spying on Americans (LINK to that recent decision) and foreign heads of state "without the President's knowledge", that pissed everyone off. Snowden was a whistle blower, not the taker of the illegal action. Given Mr. Groll's logic the Guardian and the New York Times newspapers caused this (by publishing Snowden's revelations).
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Maybe this crap journalism flies at Politico, the Orange County Register and the Harvard Crimson, but it is still crap journalism.