Edward Snowden's Predicament - Man Without Asylum? ( not yet )

Date: Jul 2, 2013 9:46 AM
Subject: Edward Snowden's Predicament - Man Without Asylum? ( not yet )
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Edward Snowden's Predicament - Man Without Asylum? ( not yet )


Statement from Edward Snowden in Moscow

Monday July 1, 2013
Wikileaks

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.

On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.

This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.

For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Edward Joseph Snowden

http://wikileaks.org/Statement-from-Edward-Snowden-in.html?snow

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Edward Snowden's letter to the president of Ecuador

The NSA whistleblower, who is currently in Moscow, has written to Rafael Correa regarding his request for political asylum

Press Association
guardian uk,
Monday 1 July 2013

There are few world leaders who would risk standing for the human rights of an individual against the most powerful government on earth, and the bravery of Ecuador and its people is an example to the world.

I must express my deep respect for your principles and sincere thanks for your government's action in considering my request for political asylum.

The government of the United States of America has built the world's largest system of surveillance. This global system affects every human life touched by technology; recording, analysing, and passing secret judgment over each member of the international public.

It is a grave violation of our universal human rights when a political system perpetuates automatic, pervasive and unwarranted spying against innocent people.

In accordance with this belief, I revealed this programme to my country and the world. While the public has cried out support of my shining a light on this secret system of injustice, the government of the United States of America responded with an extrajudicial man-hunt costing me my family, my freedom to travel and my right to live peacefully without fear of illegal aggression.

As I face this persecution, there has been silence from governments afraid of the United States government and their threats. Ecuador however, rose to stand and defend the human right to seek asylum.

The decisive action of your consul in London, Fidel Narvaez, guaranteed my rights would be protected upon departing Hong Kong – I could never have risked travel without that. Now, as a result, and through the continued support of your government, I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest.

No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world. If any of those days ahead realise a contribution to the common good, the world will have the principles of Ecuador to thank.

Please accept my gratitude on behalf of your government and the people of the Republic of Ecuador, as well as my great personal admiration of your commitment to doing what is right rather than what is rewarding.

Edward Joseph Snowden.

(This statement was made even as Equador has withdrawn its invitation after U.S. Vice President Biden visited Equador's President Rafael Correa with economic threats ...Vin)

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/07/edward-snowdens-letter-to-president-of.html

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Assange stands by Edward Snowden as Ecuador's Correa reprimands consul

WikiLeaks founder says 'there is no stopping the publishing process' as NSA leaker remains stuck in Moscow airport

Ed Pilkington in New York
The Guardian,
Sunday 30 June 2013

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has warned the US government that no matter what it does to try and apprehend Edward Snowden, the revelations he has unearthed on secret digital surveillance of American citizens will see the light of day.

Assange stated pointedly that steps had been taken to foil any US attempt to block publication. "There is no stopping the publishing process at this stage," he said.

Speaking to This Week on ABC news from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he is fighting extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations, Assange would not go into details. But he added: "Great care has been taken to make sure Mr Snowden cannot be pressured by any state to stop the publishing process."

Snowden is believed to be holed up in the transit area of a Moscow airport, as he seeks asylum in another country, possibly Ecuador. The former contractor for the National Security Agency has been charged under the 1917 Espionage Act, having leaked classified information on the US government's digital surveillance of phone records, emails and internet communications to the Guardian and the Washington Post.

WikiLeaks has been assisting Snowden in his attempt to avoid capture, providing the 30-year-old with travel expenses and legal counsel and sending advisers to accompany him on his journey from Hong Kong to Moscow earlier this month. Assange said he had offered to help because "we've had some experience in the past with dealing with attacks from the US, with asylum and so on, and I have some personal sympathy for Mr Snowden".

But WikiLeaks has come under criticism from Snowden's father, Lonnie Snowden, who through his lawyer has accused the anti-secrecy organization of using his son to raise money for itself and to prevent Edward Snowden "from doing the right thing" by returning to the US to face charges. Assange told This Week that he had contacted the lawyer to try to "put some of his concerns to rest".

Snowden's predicament, trapped in a legal no man's land between countries, shows no sign of any early resolution. The US government has revoked his passport, making it almost impossible for him to travel on from Russia to any possible final destination. Countries such as Iceland, which Snowden has mentioned as a desired potential safe haven, have made clear that he has to be on their soil before he can claim asylum, creating a legal Catch-22.

The Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa, told the Associated Press on Sunday that Snowden was "in the care of the Russian authorities" and would not be able to leave Moscow's international airport without his US passport. In a comment that indicated the cautious response of Ecuador to the case, Correa reprimanded Ecuador's consul for issuing Snowden with a letter of safe passage that he is believed to have used to travel from Hong Kong to Russia......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/30/assange-snowden-ecuador-reprimands-consul

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Snowden applies for political asylum in Russia – and 20 other countries

Vladmir Putin says US whistleblower can stay if he stops 'bringing harm to our American partners'

Miriam Elder in Moscow
The Guardian
Monday 1 July 2013

Vladimir Putin has for the first time floated the idea of the US whistleblower Edward Snowden remaining in Russia, hours after the fugitive applied for political asylum in the country.

Snowden applied for asylum at the consular office at Moscow's Sheremtyevo airport at 10.30pm on Sunday through his WikiLeaks handler, Sarah Harrison, a consular official said.

A statement on the WikiLeaks website later said Snowden had applied for asylum in a further 20 countries, including France, Germany, Ireland, China and Cuba.

"The UK citizen Sarah Harrison passed on a request by Edward Snowden to be granted political asylum," said Kim Shevchenko, a staff member at the airport's consular department. He said he then called the Russian foreign ministry, who sent a courier one hour later to pick up the request.

He declined to say where Harrison or Snowden, who have not been seen since landing in Sheremtyevo last week, were staying. "She didn't say and I didn't ask," he said.

In a move likely to enrage the US, Putin said on Monday: "If he wants to go somewhere and someone will take him, go ahead. If he wants to stay here, there is one condition – he must stop his work aimed at bringing harm to our American partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my mouth."

Snowden has been trapped in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since 23 June after flying in from Hong Kong, from where he leaked top secret documents detailing NSA surveillance programmes.

Stripped of his US passport, he has been stuck in limbo since. His attempts to gain political asylum in Ecuador, whose London embassy is currently sheltering the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, appear to have dried up amid intense US lobbying and reported disagreements within the Ecuadorian government.

Snowden met Russian diplomats on Monday morning and handed them a list of 15 countries where he would like to apply for political asylum, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing an unnamed source in the foreign ministry.

Putin appeared to leave himself some latitude, noting that Snowden would be unlikely to meet his conditions for staying in Russia.

"Considering that he considers himself a human rights activist and a fighter for human rights, he probably doesn't plan to stop this work, so he should choose a host country and head there," Putin said. "When this will happen I, unfortunately, do not know."

Putin, speaking at a press conference after a meeting of gas exporting countries, reiterated that Russia would not extradite Snowden to the US. "Russia never gives anyone up and doesn't plan to give anyone up. And no one has ever given us anyone."......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/01/putin-snowden-remain-russia-offer

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Latin America is ready to defy the US over Snowden and other issues

Latin America has long lived in the US shadow, but the fact that some countries might take Snowden shows how that's changed

Stephen Kinzer
guardian uk,
Tuesday 25 June 2013

No offense to Iceland, but Latin America is where the fugitive leaker Edward Snowden should settle.

He apparently has the same idea. News reports suggest that he is in Moscow awaiting transport to Cuba, Venezuela, and/or Ecuador. A Facebook post suggests Bolivia may have granted Snowden asylum. Nothing has been heard from Nicaragua, Peru, Brazil, or Argentina, but any or all might also welcome him.

Any country that grants asylum to Snowden risks retaliation from the United States, including diplomatic isolation and costly trade sanctions. Several don't seem to care. The fact that Latin America has become the favored refuge for a United States citizen accused of treason and espionage is an eye-popping reminder of how fully the continent has emerged from Washington's shadow.

"Latin America is not gone, and we want to keep it," President Richard Nixon told aides as he was pressing the covert operation that brought down the Chilean government in 1973. A decade later, the Reagan administration was fighting proxy wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. In the 1980s the US Army invaded two Caribbean countries, Grenada and Panama, to depose leaders who had defied Washington.

During the 1990s the United States sought to impose the "Washington Consensus" on Latin American governments. It embodied what Latin Americans call "neo-liberal" principles: budget cuts, privatization, deregulation of business, and incentives for foreign companies. This campaign sparked bitter resistance and ultimately collapsed.

In spite of these military, political, and economic assaults – or perhaps because of them – much of Latin America has become profoundly dissatisfied with the made-in-USA model. Some of the continent's most popular leaders rose to power by denouncing the "Washington Consensus" and pledging to pull their countries out of the United States orbit.

Because President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was the most flamboyant of these defiant leaders, some outsiders may have expected that following his death, the region would return to its traditional state of submission. In fact, not just a handful of leaders but huge populations in Latin America have decided that they wish for more independence from Washington.

This is vital for Snowden because it reduces the chances that a sudden change of government could mean his extradition. If he can make it to Latin America, he will never lack for friends or supporters.....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/25/edward-snowden-ecuador-defy-united-states