Sunday, June 23, 2013

Ed Snowden Has Left the Building

Edward Snowden reportedly landed in Moscow on Sunday after Hong Kong let the former US intelligence technician leave its territory, despite Washington's efforts to extradite him to face espionage charges.

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Snowden was heading for a "democratic nation" which it did not name.

  alJazeera
But we’re guessing Iceland, aren’t we? I mean, he mentioned it in his interviews with Glenn Greenwald, and then there was a report that a wealthy man in Iceland had a private plane ready and awaiting the Icelandic government’s acceptance of Snowden.
Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that Snowden had applied for asylum in his country. WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange is currently living in Ecuador's embassy in London as he fights extradition to Sweden on sex assault charges.

The Ecuadorean ambassador in Moscow was also reported to be preparing to meet Snowden in the Russian capital.
Or Ecuador.
"Snowden today voluntarily left Hong Kong for a third country through legal and normal means," a Hong Kong government spokesman said in a press statement earlier.
Making the authorities in Hong Kong and China both relieved, I imagine.
The statement added that Hong Kong had "not obtained adequate information" to handle a provisional arrest warrant for Snowden issued by the US.
Oooh. Slightly dicey move, but probably won’t garner even any real saber rattling. And, besides, it should have been expected. Considering what Snowden told them about just how friendly the US really is toward them.
The government statement said Hong Kong had written to the US "requesting clarification" of earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies.
The South China Morning Post reported on Sunday that Snowden had left Hong Kong on a commercial flight to Moscow. From there, he is expected to travel to Cuba and then Venezuela, a Russian airline source said.

  Raw Story
Oh, SNAP!
Update (12:55 p.m. ET): AFP reports that Snowden has requested asylum from the government of Ecuador.
Or Ecuador.

Hong Kong Government statement

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