Monday July 1, 21:40 UTC
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
source: Wikileaks
well looks like Putin does not want Snowden… but at the same time, condition of not being involved in politics is usually part and parcel of asylum conditions… What irked me was Putin calling the US its partner… maybe I’m missing something here, would appreciate some feedback.
Correa appears to have been appropriately threatened nicely by Biden… (Ecuador uses the US $ as its currency, so really they can only go so far…) . I think now we’re left with Bolivia’s and Venezuela’s offer… and if any of the Euro countries have the guts… Iceland seems like the best option.
A partner in Russian is someone whom one has to deal with but who is not considered a friend, or an enemy.
As for Putin setting forth conditions for Snowden to stop publishing further revelations if he wants to stay in Russia – it’s just the price that Snowden has to pay to buy safety in Russia. Putin just wants to have an exclusive right to decide what and when is going to go public. He wants to have a few jokers in a sleeve when dealing with the States in the future. Looks like Snowden has something of Russian interest in his data, and the Russians want to be the only ones who decide when and how to use it