Edward Snowden asking 15 countries for asylum, Russian official says

Edward Snowden asking 15 countries for asylum, Russian official says

www.latimes.com

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked U.S. security secrets and is now a fugitive, met Monday morning with Russian diplomatic officials and handed them an appeal to 15 countries for political asylum, a Russian Foreign Ministry official told The Times.

(visit the link for the full news article)

“It was a desperate measure on his part after Ecuador disavowed his political protection credentials,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official didn’t disclose the countries that were on the list. The meeting took place at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, where Snowden has apparently holed up in a transit lounge since fleeing from Hong Kong while seeking a route to Ecuador or somewhere else that might grant him asylum.

An unsurprising update in the Snowden story. No doubt one of the 15 countries of which Snowden applied to would be Russia...i would do it. Even Kirill Kabanov, a member of the Presidential Council on Human Rights even stated something similar:

“In the given circumstances, Russia has two workable options: Firstly is to provide Snowden with some refugee-status papers so that he could buy a ticket and leave for some other country, or secondly to grant him political asylum"

www.latimes.com (visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by daaskapital
If Snowden is really requesting asylum in 15 different countries that tells me that he is having a very difficult time finding anyone to give him sanctuary. My guess is that the US is calling in IOUs to keep other countries from granting asylum and who knows what sort of leverage they might stoop to using. I mean really, if China and Russia didn't immediately offer up sanctuary for Snowden that means the US is pulling out all the stops because that is normally something either of them would be jumping at the opportunity to do- poke a finger in the eye of the US. If China or Russia isn't all over it, I doubt many less powerful nations would touch Snowden with a ten foot pole!

reply to post by littled16


Or maybe they are saying this to give America a false sense of security on the pull they actually have and he's having no problems at all, just a different perspective to think about

reply to post by daaskapital


I really don't understand why Snowden is being treated like a criminal and not a hero. All this man did is defend the Constitution and the 5th amendment. He should be rewarded.

This guys is no hero by far. This guy knew what he was getting into when he signed up for the agency and now he must have done something very wrong and now he needs to cover his butt on something that we don't know!. Whatever he really did, its not going to go well for him here soon. He knew the consequences when he premeditated this mess, now he needs to take responsibility and stop wasting the worlds time.

reply to post by Trigger82
I doubt it. When the Wikileaks guy was granted asylum the world press was all over it, so I'm pretty certain if Snowden gets granted official asylum anywhere in the world we will absolutely hear about it. If none of the press at home report it at first they will have no choice but to report it soon after because it will be front page news in the rest of the world. Foreign press just loves to stick it to the US.

Originally posted by Trigger82
reply to post by littled16

 

Or maybe they are saying this to give America a false sense of security on the pull they actually have and he's having no problems at all, just a different perspective to think about

I tend to agree here, Trigger. If it's announced that there are 15 unspecified countries Snowden is seeking political asylum from. That really dilutes the task force in place, looking for him. The political peanut shell game, just got a lot more complex....

Des

Originally posted by sylent6
This guys is no hero by far. This guy knew what he was getting into when he signed up for the agency and now he must have done something very wrong and now he needs to cover his butt on something that we don't know!. Whatever he really did, its not going to go well for him here soon. He knew the consequences when he premeditated this mess, now he needs to take responsibility and stop wasting the worlds time.

There is a very good reason not one person saw fit to issue a star to this rubbish.

reply to post by sylent6


Oh the irony of your signature in light of this post.

I think Putin is going to step up to bat to give the dude asylum. He's already starting to "zig". The "zag" will come later.

ca.news.yahoo.com...;_ylt=AsWKsthfiVTs36kRh7u3JkkcssB_;_ylu=X3o'___'RxcGgyaG1xBGN jb2RlA3ZzaGFyZWFnMnVwcmVzdARtaXQDTmV3cyBmb3IgeW91IGNoYXNlIHRlc3QEcGtnA2Y2ZGU4MDk4LTdhMmEtM2QwOS05ZGZlLTkxYjY5ZDY1MWJlOQRwb3MDNQRzZWMDbmV3c19mb3JfeW91B HZlcgM5Nzk4MDM4My1lMjcxLTExZTItOWU3Ny03NjFhMjllYTBiMzU-;_ylg=X3o'___'BhdnVpNmo3BGxhbmcDZW4tQ0E-;_ylv=3

"If he wants to stay here, there is one condition: He must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my lips," Putin told reporters after a gas exporters' conference in Moscow.

The FSB is going to admit him into the "Lee Harvey Oswald Club of Famous American Double Agent/Defector/Patsies".

So far everyone in the ballet is right on point. It's comical to watch.

reply to post by citizenx1


Sorry, its not about stars or glitters its a matter of opinion.

There is many side of looking at this. If you were employed by the Agency and you knew the job you're were assigned to was wrong from the start, why go down the hole and then want to dig yourself back out? He knew there was risk involved, he knew the Agency was breaking many laws.

Don't like my comment because you see a different angle to it..well tough!

reply to post by MsAphrodite


Thanks for the chuckle. I know right.

I think the CIA has been maneuvering this cue ball (Snowdon), very carefully.

Let's pretend that the CIA was actually interested in arresting Snowdon.

Surely the right move in the chess game is not to twist Ecuador's arm with threatened trade sanctions in order to prevent him from going to Ecuador. The right move is to make ineffectual noises and flap a lame wing or two and protest indignantly so as to make Ecuador look like a giant among bananas, and then after Snowdon settles in Ecuador, hire some banditos to kidnap him.

But no. America is, slowly but surely, making sure that the only alternative open to Snowdon is Russia. Putin is already developing a case of split personality in order to make this happen. (See above.)

What's Snowdon's middle name by the way? To me he seems naked without it.

reply to post by ipsedixit


This sorta answers my question in another thread. So then you think he is getting help?

(Reply: I think he's being steered.)

Just to make this point a little clearer, one might remember that during the administration of George H.W. Bush, it was decided to arrest President Manuel Noriega of Panama. President Noriega was residing in Panama at the time (where else?).

The United States went to a considerable amount of trouble in the Noriega case to arrest a man, who, despite his considerable flaws, was after all the president of a sovereign state. People know the story. Panama was invaded to get this one fugitive and tens of thousands of people died as a direct result of US military action. This, to arrest one man.

Kidnapping Edward Snowdon out of Ecuador wouldn't require a full invasion. Dog the Bounty Hunter would probably give the government a special rate on the job, if he could film it for his TV show.

Let's suppose America had thundered from "Olympus" that Noriega must be delivered bound and gagged to Washington and dumped on the White House lawn by a certain date.

What would happen?

Noriega would immediately decamp to Cuba, effectively a US "no go" zone. If that happened, one would be justified, I think in coming to the conclusion that the US didn't really want Noriega, for whatever reason.

When they really want someone, they will move mountains to get him, as they did with Noriega in Panama, but with certain exceptions, Russia being one of them.

Driving Snowdon into the arms of the Russians means that the US doesn't really want him, or, that they really want him in Russia. I know that's far fetched and I admit I can't think why anyone would want this utterly transparent person anywhere. I just know that if the US really wanted Snowdon, it would be much better to have him on a perch in South America.

They wouldn't block him from going there.

Originally posted by sylent6
This guys is no hero by far. This guy knew what he was getting into when he signed up for the agency and now he must have done something very wrong and now he needs to cover his butt on something that we don't know!. Whatever he really did, its not going to go well for him here soon. He knew the consequences when he premeditated this mess, now he needs to take responsibility and stop wasting the worlds time.

I'm sure a few priests would like for some choir boys to keep their mouth shut also. The Government lackeys are not our kings and absolute rulers. They are our f'ing "SERVANTS" goddammit!!! And as our servants they have more than proven they are not good, loyal, honest. Pretty much they ain't worth a damn and we have let rot enter into our house. Defend them if you must but man's desire to preserve himself (by being an apologist or otherwise) leads him into bondage again and again.

As we all know, espionage is a very dangerous business. Real serious espionage is carried on by highly trained operatives working for clandestine services run by national governments.

What they do is handled with the utmost care. It's done quietly and with extreme stealth. It depends on assets in place in a foreign land, people who run the gamut from soup to nuts and whose only common denominator is that they are well placed to provide information.

Nobody hears about these activities until they are discovered by the counter intelligence services of the target nations.

That's real, serious espionage.

There is another kind of espionage that is related to covert operations carried on in the disguise of some overt activity.

In recent times this sort of activity has been in the news in relation to alleged activities carried on in Russia by operatives working for the United States. One kind of activity involves Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) acting in Russia, ostensibly doing some innocuous activity overtly, while being seeded with operatives working for the CIA and acting on a totally different agenda, covertly.

Russia has reacted by watching these NGOs carefully and kicking selected ones out of the country.

In addition, the CIA is alleged to have been caught red handed trying to acquire "assets" in Russia through the good offices of a young operative wearing a Harpo Marx (?) wig. This fellow may have been deported already or may be in custody in Russia awaiting some development that will send him home again. I haven't really followed his case.

This is low level stuff.

I think it is possible that Edward Snowdon might have a role to play along these lines.

He is already a Russian celebrity. If he winds up being let loose into Russian society, he might develop contacts that are useful to the United States. He could wind up being a "talent spotter" who does nothing more than point the guys in the Harpo Marx wigs at potential Russian human "assets".

The Americans appear to have been unsuccessful at that sort of thing recently, as noted above, and may be trying a whole new approach to the problem using Snowdon.

But you will say,

"Ippy, that can't possibly be happening. Edward Snowdon is a sincere Gen Xer. He isn't bright enough to be trying to pull off something like that and besides, Russian intelligence, the "Fuzzbuh" would interrogate him, wouldn't they? He's a nice young guy. He's not the kind of toughie who doesn't crack. He's the kind of toughie who cracks immediately."

You would be right. Snowdon is a computer geek. He is a clown. He thinks America is run by crooks. He also thinks people who leak security information should be shot in the unmentionables, or used to think that. He's a knucklehead. He's the kind of guy who thinks a six pack is a party. He's a jackass.

To sum it all up, he's perfect.

He's a perfect insertion agent.

You will say,

"But Ippy, perfection isn't everything, you still have to fool the FSB."

Once again, you're right. And that is where the rubber hits the road in this operation. This is the beauty of it. This is why some boffin at Langley gets the big bucks. He figured out how to fool the FSB with Snowdon.

Is there any possibility that Snowdon could have been manipulated into going AWOL by some carefully contrived fiction fed to him by professionals who wanted to try an interesting intelligence experiment?

It's possible. If that's what happened, Snowdon will pass his interrogation, even if they use scopolamine on him, because he hasn't a clue what is going on.

I think he is similar to James Holmes in that respect. He's the dumbest kind of dupe there is, the brainy dupe.

To cut a long story short, I think that when he is established in Russia, he will realize that Russia is run by crooks too. At some point, when "Russian reality" sinks in, he will meet a real espionage agent or "asset" working for a NATO country and after some conversations that are very convincing he will be "recruited" for the first time into the service of an agency he's been working for, unknown to himself, for months, if not years.

He will start giving information on his milieu, the freedom activists, the computer geeks, the locals with espionage potential.

Or . . . he could simply be what he purports to be, a crusader for privacy, and the United States could sincerely want him apprehended at the earliest moment and brought to trial. That's probably it. Forget all the other stuff I wrote. It's too far fetched.

All this noise is actually working for the US as there seems to be a mass distraction from the things he revealed.

Perhaps he should give himself in and have his day in court, if he has undercovered direct breaches of the American Constitution then the courts will decide his fate, at least his accusations will be washed in public in the glare of the world.

The clock is ticking for this guy anyway and no doubt the drones are circling....

Dont see to many countries volunteering.Only a fool would risk our revenge.