Your Web News in One Place

Help Webnuz

Referal links:

Sign up for GreenGeeks web hosting
June 23, 2013 08:33 pm GMT

NSA Whistleblower Snowden Leaves Hong Kong For Moscow, Looking For Asylum In Democratic Nation

Edward SnowdenEdward Snowden, the whistleblower who exposed the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program and a number of similar government initiatives over the course of the last few weeks, has left Hong Kong and is currently in transit in Moscow. According to Wikileaks, which has been providing legal assistance to Snowden, he is on his way to a “democratic nation via a safe route for the purposes of asylum.” That democratic nation, the earliest reports suggested, was Venezuela, with Moscow just being the first stop on his journey. Now, however, it looks like Ecuador, which also offered asylum to Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange, has taken an interest in this case, too. Earlier this week, it seemed Snowden was going to head for Iceland. Where exactly he is going now, however, remains unclear and we will update this post as we learn more. https://twitter.com/BBCDanielS/statuses/348831609438470145 Snowden was allowed to leave Hong Kong legally, Hong Kong’s government said today, because the U.S.’s request for the issue of a warrant of arrest “did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law.” Hong Kong asked the U.S. for more information, but because it didn’t receive this yet, it had “no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong.” Hong Kong, it’s worth noting, is also asking the U.S. for clarifications about earlier reports that its computer systems were hacked by U.S. agencies. Snowden left Hong Kong on an Aeroflot jet bound for Moscow, which landed a few hours ago, but most current reports suggest he will continue from there to Cuba and finally Venezuela. If he remains in transit in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, it’s unlikely Russia could detain him, even if the U.S. issued a request. ABC’s Kirit Radia, who talked to passenger’s on Sowden’s flight, suggest that his plane was met by “diplomatic cars,” but it’s unclear what country’s cars these were. We will update this story as we hear more. https://twitter.com/WilliamsJon/statuses/348794144321318912

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DDYyUPgioJg/

Share this article:    Share on Facebook
View Full Article

Techcrunch

TechCrunch is a leading technology blog, dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news.

More About this Source Visit Techcrunch