Tag "Edward Snowden"
Plenty more good news this Friday. First, all the members of the MERCOSUR trading alliance have decided to recall their ambassadors from the European countries involved in the grounding of the Bolivian president’s plane. I am particularly happy to see that Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff supported the decision and did not cave in to Anglo pressures. Of course, a similar decision by UNASUR would have been even better, but with
The LA Times reports:Seeking to make a political point, a group of Russian lawmakers is initiating a request to seek extradition from the United States of a Russian intelligence officer, Col. Alexander Poteyev, who escaped to America in 2010 after betraying a major network of Russian spies in the U.S. The lawmakers are comparing the case of Poteyev to that of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who remains holed up in
Just on Monday I called the entire European political class “the worst hypocrites on the planet” along with a few other less-than-complimentary things. And this morning I learn this: ‘Imperial Skyjacking’: Bolivian presidential plane grounded in Austria over Snowden stowaway suspicions: not only did the governments of France, Portugal, Spain and Italy illegally close their airspace to President Morales’ presidential plane, the Austrians actually had the nerve to search it
According to Wikileaks and the BBC, Snowden has submitted a request for political asylum to 21 countries: Austria Bolivia Brazil China Cuba Ecuador Finland France Germany Iceland India Italy Ireland Netherlands Nicaragua Norway Poland Russia (withdrawn) Spain Switzerland Venezuela I reproduce the full list here as I think that this shows something very important: Snowden does not appear to have had a clear plan for his flight or, if he
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
When I hear the corporate media and even most of the blogosphere say that Edward Snowden was a “CIA agent” or “NSA agent” with access to some super dooper secret information I smile: this is mostly likely not the case at all. Yes, sure, Uncle Sam AND those who dislike the US Empire all have a stake in presenting Snowden as a real hot potato, but in real life he
Having just shared some fun speculations with you, I will now tell you what I think Snowden will do: I think that he will pick Iceland. Why? Iceland does have a tradition of granting asylum to good people persecuted by Uncle Sam, like Bobby Fischer. Iceland has a powerful political movement which supports civil rights and an open society. Iceland is not associated in the mind of the typical American
So, as predicted, Snowden was not on the Aeroflot Su150 flight to Havana yesterday. So let’ indulge into some totally baseless but entertaining speculations: were could he be?Until this morning I had this “Jamesbondesque” vision of the FSB whisking Snowden away into a Tu-95MS which would then fly a very long range track over the Atlantic (or even Pacific) to bring Snowden to Ecuador or Havana. While rather uncomfortable (the
A couple of small points about Edward Snowden’s flight from Hong Kong:1) US politicians are making all sorts of threats against China, Russia and anybody else who would help Snowden. This is the pinnacle of hypocrisy. Even if the US considers Snowden is a common spy – does anybody remember the long list of spies, including Russian ones, who found refuge in the USA (think Poteev here)?2) It is most
