Russia Says It Doesn't Know Of Any Plan By Edward Snowden To Seek Russian Citizenship

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NOVOGORSK, Russia, July 19 (Reuters) - The Kremlin is unaware of any plans by fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to seek Russian citizenship, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said on Friday.

Snowden, who is wanted in the United States on espionage charges, is holed up at a Moscow airport. A Russian lawyer who helped him file an application for temporary asylum in Russia this week said Snowden had not ruled out seeking citizenship.

"Citizenship? This is the first I've heard of it. It's news to me," Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in the town of Novogorsk outside Moscow where Putin was meeting athletes.

Snowden's presence in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since June 23 threatens to upset U.S.-Russian relations.

But Peskov said the United States had not informed Russia of any plan by President Barack Obama to pull out of a summit with Putin in Moscow in September.

Since Snowden arrived at Sheremetyevo, the White House has deliberately left it vague as to whether Obama will go ahead the meeting in Moscow, which is to precede a summit of G20 leaders hosted by Putin in St Petersburg. (Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; Writing by Steve Gutterman, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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Edward Snowden Asylum To Be Offered By Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro Says

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By Daniel Wallis and Deisy Buitrago

CARACAS, July 5 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offered asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on Friday in defiance of Washington, which is demanding his arrest for divulging details of secret U.S. spy programs.

"In the name of America's dignity ... I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden," Maduro told a military parade marking Venezuela's independence day.

"He is a young man who has told the truth, in the spirit of rebellion, about the United States spying on the whole world."

The 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor is believed to be holed up in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport.

Russian officials have kept Snowden at arm's length since he landed from Hong Kong on June 23, saying the transit area where passengers stay between flights is neutral territory and he will be on Russian soil only if he goes through passport control.

It was not immediately clear how Snowden would react to Maduro's offer, nor reach Venezuela if he accepted.

There are no direct commercial flights between Moscow and Caracas, and the usual route involves changing planes in Havana. It is not clear if the Cuban authorities would let him transit.

Given the dramatic grounding in Vienna of the Bolivian president's plane this week over suspicions that Snowden was onboard, using European airspace could prove problematic.

One alternative flight plan would involve an aircraft taking off from Moscow, refueling in Vladivostok, and then continuing east over the Pacific to South America.

Russia has shown signs of growing impatience over Snowden's stay in Moscow. Its deputy foreign minister said on Thursday that Snowden had not sought asylum in that country and needed to choose a place to go.

Moscow has made clear that the longer he stays, the greater the risk of the diplomatic standoff over his fate causing lasting damage to relations with Washington.

The White House declined to comment on Maduro's offer.

Raising the possibility of at least one other option, Nicaragua said it had received an asylum request from Snowden and could agree to it "if circumstances permit".

WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization, said on Friday that Snowden had asked six more nations for asylum, bringing to about 20 the number of countries he has appealed to for protection from U.S. espionage charges.

WikiLeaks said on Twitter it would not reveal which six new countries Snowden had applied to for asylum, due to "attempted U.S. interference".

Maduro said Venezuela was ready to offer him sanctuary, and that the details Snowden had revealed of U.S. spy programs had exposed the nefarious schemes of the U.S. "empire."

"Who is the guilty one? A young man ... who denounces war plans, or the U.S. government which launches bombs and arms the terrorist Syrian opposition against the people and legitimate President Bashar al-Assad?" he asked, to applause and cheers from ranks of military officers at the parade.

"Who is the terrorist? Who is the global delinquent?"

'COLONIES OF THE UNITED STATES'

Since narrowly winning a presidential election in April that followed the death of his mentor, Hugo Chavez, from cancer, Maduro has often lambasted the United States - even accusing the Pentagon and former U.S. officials of plotting to kill him.

But the former bus driver and union leader has at times also struck a much more conciliatory note, saying he is ready for better relations with Washington, based on mutual respect.

Already one of Snowden's most vocal supporters on the world stage, Maduro has sharpened his rhetoric in recent days.

It peaked after Bolivia said France, Portugal, Italy and Spain banned a plane carrying its president, Evo Morales, from using their airspace because of suspicions Snowden was aboard.

Latin America's most vocal leftist leaders denounced that as a disgrace and a serious breach of protocol, and Maduro said the CIA, the U.S. spy agency, was behind it all.

Snowden had revealed that the United States was spying on its European allies, Maduro said on Friday, and yet European leaders still caved under U.S. pressure to ground Morales' jet.

"The European people have seen the cowardice and the weakness of their governments, which now look like colonies of the United States," the Venezuelan president said.

Venezuela's opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, accused Maduro of making a fuss about Snowden to distract voters from a dismal economic picture at home, and a host of other problems including one of the highest murder rates in the world.

"Nicolas, you can't use asylum to cover up that you stole the election. That doesn't give you legitimacy, nor make the people forget," Capriles said on Twitter.

Speaking in Managua, President Daniel Ortega said he would gladly give Snowden asylum in Nicaragua "if circumstances permit". He did not say what those circumstances might be.

Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the Americas, has benefited greatly from financial support from Venezuela, and Ortega was a staunch ally of Chavez.

A bid by Snowden for Icelandic citizenship hit an impasse on Friday when the country's parliament voted not to debate the issue before its summer recess. (Additional reporting by Ivan Castro in Managua, Robert Robertsson in Reykjavik, and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Nicaragua: Snowden Asylum Offer Possible 'If Circumstances Permit'

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MANAGUA, July 5 (Reuters) - Nicaragua has received an asylum request from fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden and could accept the bid "if circumstances permit," President Daniel Ortega said on Friday.

"We are an open country, respectful of the right of asylum, and it's clear that if circumstances permit, we would gladly receive Snowden and give him asylum in Nicaragua," Ortega said during a speech in the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

Ortega, an ally of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, did not elaborate on the conditions that would allow him to offer asylum to Snowden, who has been at the eye of a diplomatic storm since leaking high-level U.S. intelligence data last month.

Options have been narrowing for Snowden - believed to be staying in a transit area at a Moscow airport - as he seeks a country to shelter him from U.S. espionage charges.

A one-time Cold War adversary of the United States, Ortega belongs to a bloc of leftist leaders in Latin America that have frequently taken up antagonistic positions with Washington.

Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the Americas, has benefited greatly from financial support from Venezuela, and Ortega was a staunch ally of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Chavez's successor Maduro voiced sympathy with Snowden and described him as a champion of human rights. That suggested Venezuela may help Snowden, who is stranded in Moscow after flying there from Hong Kong on June 23, to find a safe haven.

Snowden's bid for Icelandic citizenship hit an impasse earlier on Friday when the country's parliament voted not to debate it before the summer recess.

Afterwards, WikiLeaks announced that Snowden had applied to another six countries for asylum, adding to a list of more than a dozen countries which he has already asked for protection.

The anti-secrecy organization, which has been supporting Snowden's efforts to find a safe haven since his exit from Hong Kong 12 days ago, said on Twitter it could not reveal the names the countries due to "attempted U.S. interference". (Reporting by Ivan Castro; Editing by Philip Barbara)

Nikolas Kozloff: Snowden Affair Highlights Epic David and Goliath Struggle Between Quito and Washington

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If there was any doubt that Ecuador's pugnacious President Rafael Correa would back down in the rapidly escalating diplomatic spat over NSA leaker Edward Snowden, recent events will certainly put such notions to rest. Thumbing his nose once again at the Obama administration, Correa has just announced that his government will unilaterally give up special U.S. trade preferences under the so-called Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act or ATPA. Originally, the measure was designed to counteract drug-trafficking by providing export opportunities to poor Andean nations. Under the act, Ecuador exports billions in tax free goods every year to the U.S. including tropical fruits, flowers and petroleum.

After Correa audaciously offered to provide diplomatic asylum to Snowden, the mainstream media, legislators from both sides of the aisle as well as conservative think tanks called for Ecuador to be punished for its impudence and cut off from the ATPA. Correa, however, says Ecuador will not submit to such "blackmail" and threats. Hardly intimidated by the Beltway establishment, defiant Correa has announced for good measure that he will send the U.S. millions of dollars for use in human rights training. Taunting Washington, Ecuador's Minister of Communications declared that the money could be used to avoid "espionage, torture, extrajudicial killings and other acts that denigrate humanity."

For Ecuador, the Snowden affair has all the elements of an epic David and Goliath story pitting the Colossus of the North against a small and impoverished South American nation. While it's unclear how the Snowden imbroglio will play out in Ecuador itself, many will surely rally to Correa's defense. For decades, Ecuador has smarted under Washington's influence and ongoing CIA intervention [for a further accounting of such history, see my earlier article here]. As a result, fiery populism plays well here.

Nationalist Backlash Against the U.S.?

Furthermore, Ecuadorans have little regard for "neo-liberal" style economic austerity which exacted a heavy social toll on the country and contributed to chronic political instability. Indeed, it was precisely such political instability which propelled leftist Correa to power in 2006. Since that time, the maverick politician has challenged Washington in the military, diplomatic and economic spheres, and now seems poised to inherit the South American populist mantle from recently deceased Hugo Chávez.

To be sure, Correa hardly ingratiated himself with Washington when he harbored WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a man who has spent more than a year holed up at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London. However, unlike Snowden, Assange is not a U.S. national and has never been formally charged by the Department of Justice. By offering to shelter Snowden, Correa has signaled that he is willing to take an economic hit over ATPA and the President also risks further opposition from his country's powerful export elite. Just how did we get to this point?

U.S. Business Lobby vs. Correa

Correa's recent moves cap an action-packed year of diplomatic friction. Indeed, as early as last August I wrote that U.S. business groups had lobbied the Obama administration to cut off trade benefits to Ecuador. The indignant companies had been spurred to action after Correa tried to hold Chevron responsible for its oil damage in the Ecuadoran Amazon. However, Quito's harboring of Assange probably added ammunition to ongoing lobbying efforts. Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of Americas, a group representing U.S. companies doing business throughout the hemisphere, told Reuters that Correa's harboring of Assange was not "a move destined to win many new friends in Washington." Moreover, the President of the National Foreign Trade Council brazenly remarked that the Assange imbroglio "would provide the excuse (to suspend benefits) if the administration is looking for one to do it."

In Washington, the Ecuadoran Ambassador grew puzzled by the business lobbying. "Ecuador is the only country in the Andean region with zero coca cultivation," he said. While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Business Roundtable alleged that Ecuador had violated investor rights, there was no specific explanation for cutting off trade preferences. Ecuador, the Ambassador argued, had observed proper protocol in regard to all its pending investor disputes.

Back in Quito meanwhile, the Ecuadoran business sector was also growing jittery. A full 350,000 jobs depended on ATPA, including the flower industry, broccoli, tuna and other sectors. Fearful lest Ecuador lose its special trading privileges, businessmen alerted Correa to the risks of harboring Assange. Correa, however, was hardly impressed and remarked that if he were reelected in the upcoming presidential election he would never knuckle under to economic blackmail. "Let them have their ATPA," the feisty President declared, "and we'll give them a few million dollars for a course on ethics and human rights."

Emboldened Correa

In February of this year, Correa got his wish and cruised to electoral victory. Feeling emboldened by his new mandate, the President said that ATPA had turned into a "vulgar foreign policy instrument: if you behave well, we continue the agreement; if you behave badly, we take away the privileges. We can't continue to live like this." Preparing his countrymen for a possible cutoff, Correa remarked that regardless of ATPA Ecuador would continue to export its goods to the U.S.

The economic impact of an ATPA cutoff, Correa has argued, would be minimal and amount to less than $24 million in losses. What is more, Correa adds, the government is prepared to provide economic support to vulnerable industries such as fresh roses, canned tuna and broccoli. Not everyone, however, is reassured by the President's words. Indeed, the President of Ecuador's Agricultural Chamber told the Associated Press that loss of preferential trading provisions would exert a heavy toll. The flower industry, he said, "constitutes an escape valve from social pressure, unemployment and under-employment."

Beltway Backlash

Fast forward to the Snowden scandal, and it was not long before the Beltway establishment began to threaten Ecuador with retaliation. Take for example hawkish Florida Republican Senator Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who declared that Correa's conduct would not stand. Democrats, however, have proven equally bullish. Sandy Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said that if Correa offered asylum to Snowden there "would be no basis" for renewing trade preferences. Another Democrat, Senator Bob Menéndez of New Jersey, chimed in for good measure, declaring that Washington was ready to punish Ecuador if Correa chose to snub the colossus of the north. Joining in the fray, conservative Heritage foundation has also been leading the charge against Quito.

The Snowden affair has also generated a heated debate in the media, and predictably enough Fox News has weighed in against Correa. The Washington Post, too, has gone on the war path, remarking "when it comes to anti-American chutzpah, there's no beating Rafael Correa, the autocratic leader of tiny, impoverished Ecuador." Mincing no words, the Post adds, "as it happens, the preferences will expire next month unless renewed by Congress. If Mr. Correa welcomes Mr. Snowden, there will be an easy way to demonstrate that Yanqui-baiting has its price." It turns out the Post has long been on Correa's case: a year ago, the paper issued an almost identical threat when Correa was considering its asylum request for Julian Assange. Commenting on the Post's relentless Ecuador bashing, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting muses, "it's good that someone at the Post's editorial page knows how to copy and paste."

Hardly amused by the Post's ongoing campaign, Correa has taken to Twitter no less in an effort to counteract the mainstream media. Tweeting to his million followers, Correa said the media had put up a smokescreen and was doing its utmost to distract the public from Snowden's main disclosures. In Quito, members of Correa's own Aliaza País party have backed up the President while echoing his nationalist rhetoric. The political opposition, meanwhile, argues that Correa is hypocritical for offering asylum to Snowden while simultaneously cracking down on free expression at home.

Correa's Gamble

Having opened a veritable Pandora's box of trouble, can Correa thrive and ride a nationalist wave of indignation, or will he be brought down by domestic and international forces? Perhaps, Correa reasons that Ecuador had little chance of having its ATPA status renewed, and so Ecuador risked little by beating Washington to the punch. Nevertheless, Correa has galvanized the American establishment against him yet further, not to mention Ecuador's export elite.

The Guardian of London suggests that Correa is also putting great strains on his own political coalition, with some leftists embracing Snowden and other centrists fearing economic and diplomatic fallout. "Some in the government," the paper writes, "are believed to be annoyed that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who has sheltered at Ecuador's London embassy to avoid extradition, has seized the limelight in the Snowden saga." According to the paper, Assange caught Quito by surprise when he recently announced that Ecuador had provided Snowden with a safe-conduct pass to travel from Hong Kong to Moscow.

By offering shelter to first Assange and now Snowden, Correa has embarked on a high stakes game. The pugnacious president is constantly upping the ante, casting Ecuador's plight as a David and Goliath struggle against the odds. So far, playing the nationalist card has suited Correa well, though Ecuador's President may find that playing with fire carries significant risk.

Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left. Follow him on Twitter here.

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Lincoln Mitchell: Edward Snowden and the Story of American Weakness

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The NSA surveillance story is evolving from one of outrage-by many Americans upon learning that their government has, to cut to the chase, been spying on them, and by many in the political establishment because a mid-level contractor has told this to the world, to one of bad comedy. The story is now one of the U.S. trying to figure out where Snowden is, what flights he did or did not board and what countries are going to sympathize with the U.S. and turn Snowden over to the American authorities. It feels like a global game of where's Edward with the U.S. cast as the incompetent detective.

This entire episode has been bad for the U.S. for several reasons, but one that has been largely overlooked it the extent to which it makes the U.S. look weak. Spying on citizens, tracking their phone calls and other communications is what one expects from vulnerable authoritarian regimes, not from governments claiming to be the leaders of the free world. Strong countries have a functioning modern state that can assure secrecy and do not seek to cut fiscal corners by contracting out key functions to private companies who often enjoy useful ties to current and former government officials. Again, this kind of incompetence and weak state is not what the most powerful country in the world should be projecting.

If a similar thing had occurred in another country, particularly one that was not on good terms with the U.S., the news about surveillance would be described by the U.S. government and most of the American media as prima facie evidence of a non-democratic regime in that country. The role played by private contractors would be presented as evidence of a weak state, low accountability and a degree of cronyism or corruption. It is not surprising that the U.S. media has not focused on these issues with regards to Snowden, but these points are not lost on the rest of the world.

The U.S. is further projecting weakness by seeking to portray itself as a victim. Much of the world, including many in the U.S., look at these revelations and become very concerned about a superpower which apparently has been gathering information and tracking the behavior of millions of people both inside and outside its borders. For these people, the U.S. needs to be held accountable for its activities, or at least recognize what they have been doing. The U.S., however, and rather appallingly, appears to see itself as a country that has been betrayed by a rogue contractor perhaps in cahoots with Russia, China or somebody else.

More strikingly, the U.S. has proved unable to convince any of these countries to support its position and help bring Snowden back to the U.S. The U.S. looks weak when one rather obscure contractor can pose what the government presents as a serious security breach, and looks even weaker when it cannot even find that contractor or have him returned to the U.S. The efforts to apprehend Snowden, replete with unsuccessful efforts to determine in what country he is hiding or what flight he is boarding are beginning to make the NSA look like the Keystone Kops.

The U.S. is the most powerful country in the world and frequently presents itself as the arbiter, in one form or another, of what is just, legal and democratic, not just within our borders but globally. Portraying Snowden as a national security threat, traitor or criminal, and the U.S. as Snowden's victim, undermines U.S. credibility in these matters. Anybody who has listened to U.S. rhetoric on democracy and freedom can more or less plainly see that even, and perhaps particularly, by American standards, Snowden should not be considered a criminal. By insisting, with little success, that the rest of the world see him this way, the U.S. government isolates itself and stakes out a position defined by hypocrisy and an inability to admit its own wrongdoing.

The series of decisions that got the U.S. to this point is also troubling because it reflects poor judgment as well as a myopia and lack of perspective at almost every step along the way. Did the people who made the decisions to authorize the NSA surveillance program really think that such widespread surveillance was necessary, helpful or consistent with the values of a free society? Did the decision makers think this would remain secret, particularly when poorly vetted contractors were given access to important information? Did they think the rest of the world would hurry to cooperate with efforts to apprehend Snowden rather than be outraged about the surveillance itself? These poor decisions have damaged the U.S. image and credibility abroad more than Snowden could have.

Follow Lincoln Mitchell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LincolnMitchell

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Steve Wozniak: Edward Snowden Is A 'Hero'

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Steve Wozniak called whistleblower Edward Snowden a "hero," lauding the former National Security Agency contractor for exposing the government's classified Internet surveillance program.

“[Snowden's] a hero to my beliefs about how the Constitution should work," the Apple co-founder told The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove this week. "[He's] a hero because this came from his heart. And I really believe he was giving up his whole life because he just felt so deeply about honesty, about spying on Americans, and he wanted to tell us.”

The Woz went on to say that he's troubled by the idea that the technology he has helped develop is now being utilized to encroach on the privacy of ordinary citizens. "I don’t think the NSA has done one thing valuable for us, in this whole PRISM regard, that couldn’t have been done by following the Constitution and doing it the old way," he said, referring to the NSA program by its code name.

Visit The Daily Beast for the full interview.

Wozniak hasn't been shy about expressing his disappointment with the NSA and its surveillance programs. Just last week, he compared the agency with Cold War-era Russia, telling Spanish tech news site FayerWayer that the U.S. is getting "more and more" Big Brother-like.

"When I was brought up, we were told that Communist Russia was the ones that were going to kill us and bomb our country and all this," he said. "And Communist Russia was so bad because they followed their people, they snooped on them, they arrested them, they put them in secret prisons, they disappeared them. These kinds of things were part of Russia. We're getting more and more like that."

In an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan last week, the computer whiz added:

I actually feel a little guilty about [my role in developing technology that has allowed for widespread surveillance] but not totally. We created the computers to free the people up, give them instant communication anywhere in the world; any thought you had, you could share freely. That it was going to overcome a lot of the government restrictions.

We didn't realize that in the digital world there were a lot of ways to use the digital technology to control us, to snoop on us, to make things possible that weren't.

According to some reports, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs may have been as resistant to PRISM as Wozniak is now. “Steve Jobs would’ve rather died than give into that," a former co-worker of Jobs' told Cult of Mac earlier this month.

Edward Snowden has been on the run since he leaked documents describing U.S. surveillance and intelligence programs to the press earlier this month. At press time, he was believed to be hiding out in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. He may soon seek asylum in Ecuador, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

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David Wild: "Nowhere Man": A Playlist For Edward Snowden

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To some Edward Snowden is a traitor. To others, Edward Snowden is a hero. To me, Edward Snowden just seems like a narcissistic creep who wants to be a star on the global stage. But rest assured that would never stop me from making the man a playlist that's perfect for long trips from Moscow to Ecuador in the company of Wikileaks lawyers. So as always, please spill the beans and add your own Songs For Snowden.

NOWHERE MAN - Paul Westerberg
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW A SECRET? - The Beatles
DON'T YOU RUN AWAY - Shuggie Otis
TIME TO HIDE - Paul McCartney & The Wings
I'D RUN AWAY - The Jayhawks
LONG DISTANCE RUNNER - Buckingham Nicks
RUNNING TO STAND STILL - U2
HIDE AWAY - Freddie King
A LITTLE TRAVELING MUSIC, PLEASE - Barry Manilow
SECRET AGENT MAN - Johnny Rivers
HONESTY - Billy Joel
SECRETS - Van Halen
FOX ON THE RUN - The Sweet
TRAITOR - The Sugarcubes
RUN - Tin Machine
NEVER KEEPING SECRETS - Babyface
STORIES WE COULD TELL - John Sebastian
NOWHERE TO HIDE - Eric Carmen
DON'T RUN AND HIDE - The Everly Brothers
HIDEAWAY - Todd Rundgren
YOU CAN RUN (BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE) - Jerry Butler
HIDE IN YOUR SHELL - Roger Hodgson
ALWAYS ON THE RUN - Lenny Kravitz
BORN TO RUN - Bruce Springsteen
50 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR LOVER - Paul Simon
RUNNING CHILD RUNNING WILD - The Temptations

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Where is Edward Snowden? Ecuador Foreign Minister says he doesn't know

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QUITO, Ecuador -- Edward Snowden's stop-and-start flight across the globe appeared to stall in Moscow as the United States ratcheted up pressure to hand over the National Security Agency leaker who had seemed on his way to Ecuador to seek asylum.

In Ecuador's most extensive statement about the case, the foreign minister hailed Snowden on Monday as "a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone's fundamental liberties."

The decision whether to grant Snowden the asylum he has requested is a choice between "betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters while visiting Vietnam.

But what had been expected to be a straightforward journey to this South America nation dissolved into uncertainty by day's end. Snowden didn't use a reservation for a Havana-bound Russian airline flight that could have served as the first leg of a trip to safety in Ecuador, and his allies would not say where he was or what changed. Patino said Tuesday that he didn't know Snowden's exact whereabouts.

In Washington, the White House demanded that Ecuador and other countries deny Snowden asylum. It also sharply criticized China for letting him leave Hong Kong, and urged Russia to "do the right thing" and send him to the U.S. to face espionage charges.

A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, and the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Ecuadoreans debated whether accepting Snowden would be a step too far for leftist President Rafael Correa, who has won wide popularity with oil-funded social and infrastructure programs while picking public fights with his country's main export market, the U.S. Correa has expelled U.S. diplomats, shuttered an American military base and offered refuge at Ecuador's embassy in London to Julian Assange, praising the founder of Wikileaks for publishing reams of leaked secret U.S. documents. Assange has embraced Snowden and WikiLeaks experts are believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum.

With unprecedented international attention focused on Ecuador, many citizens said they felt giving asylum to Snowden would be courting trouble for no reason, particularly with a key U.S. trade agreement up for renewal in coming weeks.

"I think it's just being provocative," said Blanca Sanchez, 50, who sells cosmetics in the capital, Quito. "He needs to take responsibility for himself. This isn't our problem."

U.S and Ecuadorean officials said they believed Snowden was still in Russia, where he fled Sunday after weeks of hiding out in Hong Kong following his disclosure of the broad scope of two highly classified counterterror surveillance programs to two newspapers. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans' phone records and worldwide online data in the name of national security.

Assange declined to discuss where Snowden was but said he was safe. Assange said Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. had made demands to "a series of governments," including Ecuador, that Snowden be barred from any international travel other than to be returned to the U.S. The U.S has revoked Snowden's passport.

The White House said Hong Kong's refusal to detain Snowden had "unquestionably" hurt relations between the United States and China. While Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy from the rest of China, experts said Beijing probably orchestrated Snowden's exit in an effort to remove an irritant in Sino-U.S. relations.

Secretary of State John Kerry urged Moscow to "do the right thing" and turn over Snowden.

"We're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed," President Barack Obama told reporters when asked if he was confident that Russia would expel Snowden.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. was expecting the Russians "to look at the options available to them to expel Mr. Snowden back to the United States to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged."

Carney was tougher on China.

"The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust," he said. "And we think that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. ... This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship."

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said China had harmed its relationship with the U.S. by allowing Snowden to leave Hong Kong. China's move set a "bad precedent" that could unravel extradition treaties or other legal agreements between countries, she said Monday in Los Angeles.

Assange and attorneys for WikiLeaks assailed the U.S. as "bullying" foreign nations into refusing asylum to Snowden. WikiLeaks counsel Michael Ratner said Snowden is protected as a whistleblower by the same international treaties that the U.S. has in the past used to criticize policies in China and African nations.

Ecuadorean analysts said accepting Snowden could jeopardize tariff-free access to U.S. markets for Ecuador's fruit, seafood and flowers. U.S. trade, which also includes oil, accounts for half of Ecuador's exports and about 400,000 jobs in the nation of 14.6 million people.

The U.S. Andean Trade Preference Act requires congressional renewal soon and hosting Snowden "doesn't help Ecuador's efforts to extend it," said Ramiro Crespo, director of the Quito-based financial analysis firm Analytica Securities. "The United States is an important market for us, and treating a big client this way isn't appropriate from a commercial point of view."

At the same time, high oil prices, a growing mining industry and rising ties with China may give Correa a sense of protection from U.S. repercussions. Many of the Ecuadoreans who re-elected Correa in February with 57 percent of the vote see flouting the U.S. as a welcome expression of independence, particularly when it comes in the form of granting asylum.

"This person who's being pursued by the CIA, our policy is loving people like that, protecting them, perhaps giving them the rights that their own countries don't give them. I think this is a worthy effort by us," said office worker Juan Francisco Sambrano.

In April 2011, the Obama administration expelled the Ecuadorean ambassador to Washington after the U.S. envoy to Ecuador, Heather Hodges, was expelled for making corruption allegations about senior Ecuadorean police authorities in confidential documents disclosed by WikiLeaks.

American experts said the U.S. will have limited, if any, influence to persuade governments to turn over Snowden if he heads to Cuba or nations in South America that are seen as hostile to Washington.

"There's little chance Ecuador would give him back" if that country agreed to take him, said James F. Jeffrey, a former ambassador and career diplomat.

Snowden is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor for the NSA. In that job, he gained access to documents that he gave to The Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government.

Snowden also told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." He is believed to have more than 200 additional sensitive documents in laptops he is carrying.

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Julian Assange: Edward Snowden Is 'Safe And Healthy'

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Julian Assange said on Monday that Edward Snowden is "safe and healthy" and in high spirits, but refused to reveal further details about the National Security Agency leaker's current location.

Assange's conference call with reporters offered the clearest indication yet that Snowden's fate is bound up with the assistance he receives from WikiLeaks, the noted transparency organization that came to its greatest fame three years ago when it released a massive cache of documents from Army Pfc. Bradley Manning.

Assange said that WikiLeaks paid for Snowden's flight from Hong Kong to Russia on Sunday and that "there was no advanced communication with Russian officials prior to his departure from Hong Kong."

Claims that Snowden has been debriefed by Russian intelligence agencies are false, Assange said.

In general, Assange struck a mysterious tone that left open many questions about when Snowden and WikiLeaks first made contact and what Snowden's status might be now.

"In relation to the travel out of Hong Kong, that is a fascinating story that I'm sure will one day be told -- but today is not the day," Assange said.

According to WikiLeaks, Snowden has applied for asylum in both Iceland and Ecuador, and possibly other countries. Assange himself has been holed up for the past year in the London embassy of Ecuador, which has offered him asylum; he is wanted for questioning on allegations of sexual assault in Sweden and has said he also fears extradition to the U.S. in relation to the ongoing Manning case. Snowden appears to be attempting a somewhat similar maneuver to avoid U.S. prosecution, with stops along the way in Hong Kong, which is a part of China, and Russia. Assange said Snowden traveled from Hong Kong with a refugee document provided by the Ecuadorian government.

Asked if there was any disconnect between the human rights records of countries like China and Russia and the transparency for which Snowden has said he is fighting, Assange said no.

"I simply don't see the irony," Assange said. "Mr. Snowden has revealed information about mass, unlawful spying which has affected every single one of us. The U.S. administration has issued a series of bellicose, unilateral threats against him and against others who are attempting to support his rights. That is a very serious situation, and any country which assists in upholding his rights must be applauded for doing so."

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Lindsey Graham Urges Russia To Turn Over Edward Snowden

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WASHINGTON -- A U.S. senator has written the Russian ambassador urging Moscow to turn over former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said in a letter on Monday that if the U.S. and Russia are to have a constructive relationship, Russia must cooperate with American authorities and apprehend Snowden.

Graham said the case is a critical test of the reset in relations between the two countries.

Graham wrote to Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Snowden is facing espionage charges stemming from his disclosure of U.S. surveillance programs. He left Hong Kong on Sunday and traveled to Moscow though his whereabouts are unknown.

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EXCLUSIVE: Snowden sought Booz Allen work to gather evidence about the NSA surveillance | South China Morning Post

Edward Snowden says the Post, he took a job at Booz Allen Hamilton contractor to collect evidence of the NSA surveillance program.

Read the full story in the South China Morning Post

WikiLeaks defies U.S. To help Edward Snowden

By Peter Griffiths

London, June 23 (Reuters) - the decision by WikiLeaks to American intelligence Edward Snowden contractor Washington extradition attempts escape in Hong Kong has cemented the reputation of the Group grouping as a thorn in the side of Governments, American and British.

In comments that infuriate Washington, WikiLeaks said escorting Snowden to Ecuador and offered the support of its legal director, Baltasar Garzón, a former Spanish judge known around the world for ordering the arrest of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Ecuador, which is already home to the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange at their Embassy in London, confirmed that Snowden has sought political asylum, although Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño said if the request had been accepted.

"The legal team of WikiLeaks and I are interested in the preservation of the rights of Mr. Snowden and protect it as a person", Garzon said in a statement. "What is being done to Mr. Snowden and Mr. Julian Assange - to make or facilitate information disclosure in the public interest--is an attack against the people."

Frustrating U.S. attempts to extradite Snowden and put it on trial for the unauthorized release of secret surveillance files, WikiLeaks also sent one of its team of lawyers to join him on a flight from Hong Kong to Moscow.

WikiLeaks said British legal researcher Sarah Harrison, one of Assange's closest advisers had "courageously assisted Mr. Snowden with their legal departure of Hong Kong and... on their way to security".

The campaign group gave no details about how he had helped to organize the escape of one of the most wanted men in the United States.

Council came from Garzon, an activist of the human rights of high profile who investigated cases of corruption in Spain and opened an investigation into alleged crimes under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who died in 1975 right.

Since I started the Bank of Spain last year - when the Court found him guilty of illegal wiretapping in a case of political corruption - has spent most of his time outside Spain, advice on international law.

Garzon, who helped broker Assange asylum in the Embassy of Ecuador London, was the merchant with Ecuador in the case of Snowden, a source close to the legal team of WikiLeaks told Reuters.

Another prominent figure legal has represented to Julian Assange, the London lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, it was not directly involved in the case of Snowden, added the source.

SECRET FILES

Before helping the contractor of the Agency of the former spy, who leaked documents to a British newspaper national security agency - WikiLeaks was best known for the publication of secret documents, instead of giving direct support to them to escape them.

Assange has been in the Embassy of Ecuador in London since last June, trying to avoid his extradition to Sweden. It wants to question him about the allegations of sexual assault and rape, which he denies.

Secretary relations outside British William Hague held talks with his Ecuadorian counterpart Patiño last week in a failed attempt to find a breakthrough in a case that is becoming increasingly embarrassing for the Government in London.

Assange says he doesn't respond to the accusations in person because he believes that Sweden hand him over to US authorities, who would like to try for his role in the liberation of 700,000 secret documents of United States in one of the largest in American history leak.

In an interview with Reuters this month, Assange said he was encouraged by the actions of Snowden. "In the United States, the ideals that I have fought for for so long are now capture, being embodied in the extraordinary value of individuals such as Edward Snowden," said. (More information by Fiona Ortiz in Madrid and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by David Stamp)

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Nancy Pelosi Booed, Heckled Over Edward Snowden, NSA Comments At Netroots Nation 2013

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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) drew vocal backlash Saturday for her answers to questions about National Security Agency data surveillance and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Speaking at a gathering of progressive activists at Netroots Nation, Pelosi weighed in on recent controversy over domestic spying, claiming it was unfair to label this President George W. Bush's "fourth term." She argued that Democrats had brought increased oversight to the NSA programs by giving Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts -- or FISA courts -- a role in the process.

As she spoke about the need to "balance" privacy and security, a man stood and yelled, "it's not a balance, it makes us less safe." The man continued to decry "secret courts," and staffers began to escort him from the room.

Pelosi said it was fine for him to stay, but the man was eventually ejected. On the way out, some members of the audience began to shout at the staffers to "leave him alone."

The conversation then shifted to Snowden, who on Friday was charged with espionage over his leaking of classified documents to media outlets.

Pelosi said that Snowden "did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents," a remark that elicited boos and yells throughout the ballroom. One man screamed, "You suck!"

Earlier this month, Pelosi said she thought Snowden should be prosecuted for his role in the leaks.

As the discussion continued Saturday, Pelosi faced an impromptu question from an attendee who said we shouldn't be outsourcing national security. The California Democrat said she agreed, drawing applause.

While Pelosi eventually won the crowd over, she faced a number of aggressive questions on issues such as immigration reform and drones as she departed the venue.

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Geoffrey R. Stone: Edward Snowden: "hero or traitor"?

Edward H. Levi distinguished service Professor of law, University of Chicago

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Yo I fun tonight to check out show on CNN this question, as if any characterization is correct. In my opinion, based on what I know so far from the media, Snowden is a hero or a traitor, but is certainly a criminal who deserves severe punishment.

I say this as someone who firmly believes in the transparency of the Government, but even more strongly in the orderly rule of law. Snowden knowingly accepted a position of trust in relation to the Government. He did not have to accept their work, but it did. A clear condition of this work was its voluntary agreement not to disclose any classified information - i.e. the information whose disclosure could reasonably endanger the security of the nation.

The Government can not always linked the conditions of employment. For example, constitutionally it cannot require its employees to accept never to criticize the President or never to get an abortion or never to invoke their rights under the fourth amendment. But it's okay that the Government may require its employees to accept certain conditions, and one of them is not to reveal classified information.

As the Supreme Court held in Snepp v. United States in 1980, not only can employees of Government constitutionally will require that you agree not to disclose classified information, but may even be to agree, as a condition of employment, not to publish "any information or material above... the intelligence activities" even after leaving the service of Government without "prior specific approval." Underlined it how the Court, the disclosure of an employee's "material relating to intelligence activities can be harmful to the vital national interests".

But what happens if the employee decides to, in his own wisdom, which doesn't need any classified information classified or that would be good for the public know classified information? Should be allowed to the employee to make that judgement? Simply to the question of the State you must answer it. There is no reason on Earth why a single government employee should have the authority, in their own say, to annul the judgment of the elected representatives of the American people and decide the nation that classified information must be disclosed to friends and enemies alike. Such an act is a complete usurpation of the rule of law.

Now, this is not to say that there can be situations where it would be in the national interest information classified for certain to be disclosed to the public. It is easy to think of situations in that the decision to classify certain information is erroneous, corrupt and dangerous for the nation. In some situations the information can be classified not to protect national security, but to protect public servants from the exhibition. Perhaps they have acted foolishly, cruelly, illegally or unconstitutionally.
Maybe it's important for Americans to know what their representatives - are doing while the information is classified. Sometimes, the disclosure can be harmless for the national interest, sometimes the damage caused by the disclosure can be offset by the benefits of the revelation.

Do the problem and is a problem that must be taken seriously, is who is to decide when it is classified information should be public? Who's going to endanger national security? The solution must be the creation of a clearly defined and credible procedure through which the leaks can bring their concerns to an independent panel of experts that can make a determination that is formal and professional if the information in question must be declassified. The absence of such a procedure leaves the possible leakage, that they believe that they are acting heroically, with no recourse, but that they remain silent or plunge ahead in ignorance, with potentially serious consequences for the nation.

Do in the absence of such a procedure, what should Edward Snowden have done? Probably, if they have presented their concerns to senior, responsible members of Congress. But only what he certainly should not have done must decide on the basis of his own ill-informed judgment, arrogant and amateur that he knows better than anyone else in the Government in the best way to serve the national interest. Import the rule of law, and no one gave him the authority to make that decision for the nation Edward Snowden. His conduct is most unacceptable; It was criminal.

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Laura Poitras: Why Edward Snowden Didn't Approach NY Times

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Edward Snowden was skeptical of approaching the mainstream media, one of the journalists who was contacted by the former CIA agent said on Monday.

In an exclusive interview with Salon, documentary filmmaker and journalist Laura Poitras spoke out on how she, along with The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald and The Washington Post's Barton Gellman, broke the story about Prism, the NSA surveillance program that allows the government to collect data from some of the country's largest Internet companies (including AOL, HuffPost's parent company).

Greenwald and Gellman had already shared some details of their experiences. Poitras was last to speak out. From her Salon interview, it seems as though Snowden contacted Poitras first. The documentary filmmaker revealed that Snowden was skeptical of approaching the mainstream media:

I can say from conversations I had with him after that, I think he had a suspicion of mainstream media. And particularly what happened with the New York Times and the warrantless wiretapping story, which as we know was shelved for a year. So he expressed that to me but I think also in his choices of who he contacted. I didn’t know he was reaching out to Glenn at that point.

Poitras was referring to the 2005 New York Times story about the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program under President Bush, written by reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau. The Times reporters had uncovered the NSA program a year earlier, but the paper held publication till December 2005:

The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.

Risen and Lichblau won a 2006 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

Though Greenwald was first to come forward with the top-secret documents uncovering the NSA's program collecting millions of Verizon customers' phone data, The Washington Post raced The Guardian to break the story about Prism.

Poitras' byline appeared on the Post article about Prism with Gellman last week. On Sunday, Poitras' byline appeared alongside Greenwald's on The Guardian article Snowden used to identify himself as the NSA data leaker. She also made the video of Snowden, in which the source introduced himself to the public and candidly discussed his decision to leak data to the press. The video was posted to The Guardian's website.

(h/t Salon)

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What's next for Edward Snowden? NSA whistleblower disappears amid extradition calls

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NSA lost Edward Snowden has strong Maryland ties

Edward Snowden, the former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency and the national security agency contractor credited with the realization of the "fuga higher intelligence in a generation" has a series of ties important, and narrow to Maryland.

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The Guardian, the British newspaper which published most of the initial reports about secret programs, revealed his identity in an interview with Snowden. 29 Years of age are apparently hiding in Hong Kong.

Snowden grew up in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, according to the document, but his family later moved to Maryland near NSA Headquarters in Fort Meade.

He enrolled in - but not graduated, a Maryland community college and eventually enlisted in the United States Army, reports The Guardian. Later became a security guard in a center of the University of Maryland NSA before landing a job on it security with the CIA.

Snowden most recently worked as a contractor for the NSA in Hawaii, according to the newspaper.

This is what says a spokesman of the University's time of Snowden in the institution:

Susan Gross, a spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel Community College, said that a Joseph Edward Snowden took classes there intermittently since 1999, when Snowden was about 15 years, during the fall of 2005, although he never earned a degree or certificate from the school.

"We cannot confirm with certainty that it is the same person on the phone of the NSA monitoring situation as Snowden is a popular name in this area", Gross said in an e-mail.

The installation of the NSA's Maryland where he worked Snowden is supposedly in College Park. Beyond that, the newspaper of UMD, diamond, is hard to pin down specific:

Facilities and exactly where it was Snowden worked is unknown, but the NSA has connections with various university facilities, including physical science lab, the technology commercialization Office and telecommunications science laboratory.

According to the Sun, records also show that Edward Joseph Snowden listed an address in Ellicott City, Maryland, in a neighborhood about 40 miles from Washington, D.C., the Sun described as "orderly":

No one answered the door there on Sunday afternoon. House front, gray clapboard, with a dining area and a "Welcome" sign was soon swarmed with reporters and cameramen from outlets like CNN, USA Today and CBS once was revealed the identity of Snowden.

Neighbour Joyce Kinsey, who lives in nearby apartments, says Snowden has lived there since he was a teenager. She described him as quiet and said I'd see him on the computer much at home.

These links would not be enough to bring Snowden - now in Hong Kong, but apparently see asylum in Iceland - back. As he said during his interview with the Guardian, "I do not expect see page again."

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Shares of Edward Snowden tearing the Republican party

Here's something to keep an eye fixed on as Edward Snowden history advances: grade the American right takes you to that up as a cause célèbre.

Read the full story at The Daily Beast