Snowden, in Russia, Is Said to Seek Asylum in Ecuador
James Hill for The New York Times
A passenger from the Hong Kong flight on which Edward Snowden is believed to have arrived was besieged by journalists at Sheremetevo airport in Moscow.
By PETER BAKER
Published: June 23, 2013 1275 Comments
WASHINGTON — The American authorities scrambled Sunday to figure out how to catch Edward J. Snowden, the former national security contractor accused of espionage, as he led them on an international chase, frustrating the Obama administration and threatening to strain relations on three continents.
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Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr./Associated Press
A car from the embassy of Ecuador, one country where Edward J. Snowden is seeking asylum, outside the airport in Moscow.
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Diplomats and law enforcement officials from the United States warned countries in Latin America not to harbor Mr. Snowden or allow him to pass through to other destinations after he fled Hong Kong for Moscow, possibly en route to Ecuador or another nation where he could seek asylum.
Mr. Snowden managed to elude capture just as American officials were asking the Hong Kong authorities to detain and send him to the United States on charges that he illegally disclosed classified documents about global American surveillance programs. He was aided in his escape by WikiLeaks, the antisecrecy organization, whose founder said he helped arrange special refugee travel documents from Ecuador.
The foreign minister of Ecuador confirmed receiving an asylum request from Mr. Snowden. As of early Monday morning in Russia, Mr. Snowden was believed to be staying the night inside the transit zone of a Moscow airport where he was visited by an Ecuadorean diplomat. It was not clear whether he would be allowed to travel further or, if he were, whether Ecuador would indeed be his final destination.
Russian news services reported that Mr. Snowden would take a Monday afternoon flight to Cuba, prompting a late rush for tickets from the horde of journalists gathered at the airport. But others dismissed it as a ruse to put the news media and others off Mr. Snowden’s trail.
The turn of events opened a startling new chapter in a case that had already captivated many in the United States and around the world. Mr. Snowden’s transcontinental escape was seen as a fresh embarrassment for the Obama administration and raised questions about its tactics in the case, like its failure to immediately revoke Mr. Snowden’s passport.
It also further complicated Washington’s ties with Russia and China, where at least some officials take delight in tweaking what they call American double standards.
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, said in an interview from his own refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London that he had raised Mr. Snowden’s case with Ecuador’s government and that his group had helped arrange the travel documents. Baltasar Garzón, the renowned Spanish jurist who advises WikiLeaks, said in a statement that “what is being done to Mr. Snowden and to Mr. Julian Assange — for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest — is an assault against the people.”
Obama administration officials privately expressed frustration that Hong Kong allowed Mr. Snowden to board an Aeroflot plane bound for Moscow on Sunday despite the American request for his detention. But they did not revoke Mr. Snowden’s passport until Saturday and did not ask Interpol to issue a “red notice” seeking his arrest.
An administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said no red notice was requested because they are “most valuable when the whereabouts of a fugitive are unknown.” Mr. Snowden was known to be in Hong Kong, so his provisional arrest was sought under an existing American agreement with Hong Kong.
On Sunday, the Hong Kong authorities said that the American arrest request “did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law,” and therefore they could not legally stop Mr. Snowden from leaving. The Justice Department rejected this explanation and provided a timeline of interactions suggesting that the Hong Kong authorities first requested “additional information” on Friday.
“At no point, in all of our discussions through Friday, did the authorities in Hong Kong raise any issues regarding the sufficiency of the U.S.’s provisional arrest request,” a department official said. “In light of this, we find their decision to be particularly troubling.”
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2 comments:
So now the REAL treasonous bastards are threatening the world if they do the right thing to protect a real hero? Boy, the idea of investing into a rope making company looks better all the time and the time is coming. The universal laws that work with mathematical precision are definitely in motion.
How funny, Hong Kong turned arround and give Obama the finger, and there is nothing the USA can do about that because they are up to their eyeballs in debt to the Chinese, so,Obama needs to tread this very carefully, he does not want to upset the chinese, those people are not going to put up with any kind of insults coming from the White House, now, if The Snowman flies to Cuba he's going to be ok, but even in Russia or Iceland he will be fine. Let's hope he have more information to share with world leaders about what the lovely US of A is doing under closed doors, this is getting interesting!!! I am glad Wikileaks is involved on this, funny how tiny Ecuador is playing such big role in this drama.
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