BigStory:
Russian President Vladimir Putin bluntly rejected U.S. pleas to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden on Tuesday, saying Snowden is free to travel wherever he wants and insisting that Russian security agencies haven’t contacted him.
Snowden is in the transit zone of a Moscow airport and has not passed through Russian immigration, Putin said, meaning he is not technically in Russia.
After arriving Sunday on a flight from Hong Kong, Snowden booked a seat on a Havana-bound flight from Moscow on Monday en route to Venezuela and then possible asylum in Ecuador, but he didn’t board the plane.
Snowden’s whereabouts since then have been a mystery, and Putin’s comments were the first time Russia has made clear it knows where he is.
Speculation has been rife that Russian security agencies might want to keep Snowden in Russia for a more thorough debriefing, but Putin denied that.
“Our special services never worked with Mr. Snowden and aren’t working with him today,” Putin said at a news conference during a visit to Finland.
Putin said that because there is no extradition agreement with the U.S., it couldn’t meet the U.S. request.
“Mr. Snowden is a free man, and the sooner he chooses his final destination the better it is for us and for him,” Putin said. “I hope it will not affect the business-like character of our relations with the U.S. and I hope that our partners will understand that.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that though the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, it wants Moscow to comply with common law practices between countries where fugitives are concerned.
Putin’s staunch refusal to consider Snowden’s extradition reflects the Russian president’s readiness to further challenge Washington at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are already strained over Syria and a Russian ban on adoptions by Americans.
Is it any wonder that both China and Russian have snubbed Obama? Just a week ago, the world learned that the United States and Great Britain were spying on a G12 Summit and even installed an Internet “cafe” to lure the delegates from several countries while both the UK and NSA spied on the delegates.
Today John Kerry was upset that Russia’s Putin told the U.S. that they would not extradite Edward J. Snowden (the U.S. and Russia have no extradition treaty). John Kerry said that (I’m paraphrasing here) the Russians should follow the rule of law, or something to that effect. It’s like the dog can’t see it’s tail. The Russians are no doubt laughing at Kerry’s comments.
But more sinister is the U.S.’s overreaching to get Snowden, claiming he’s a threat, a traitor, has more secrets to reveal, etc. But where are criminal warrants for those violating the Constitutional rights of millions of Americans – illegally collecting personal information from individuals without any probable cause as required by law. That too is illegal, criminal, and repugnant. I say round up those responsible for violating the rights of American citizens, try them in open courts and then when found guilty imprison them in federal prisons. Zero tolerance this nonsense.
I’m no supporter of violence or militants. But I do believe that as the police have to obey the law on search warrants, the NSA can (using their pea brains) find a way to outsmart the enemy (militants) without violating the law and become militants themselves. Shut down the NSA’s sinister den of crooks in Utah and shut down programs that violate our constitution — no judge can rule against our Constitution.
Besides, the size and magnitude of the Utah plant does not present a pretty picture for our future. Without extreme safeguards or shutting Utah down now, I can image nothing but a gestapo police state for American’s in the future.
I’ve said my peace, and I leave it all up to you. (From Moody Blues, Out and In).
So….you hate America, right?
@AdrianS, #1:
Snap the hell out of it! Russia and China are both engaged in massive, state-sponsored hacking operations, directed against both the U.S. government and any U.S. private concerns of interest. This is going on constantly, routinely, and on a scale that is so massive it’s almost beyond belief. Isn’t anyone paying attention? (Maybe not. The extent of our own internal surveillance program seems to have taken everyone by complete surprise.)
Do you think the United States and UK governments should just be sitting there politely, making no similar defensive or offensive efforts on behalf of their own nations?
Computer networks are almost totally in control of the modern technological world. They’re every modern nation’s central nervous system. The cyber landscape is a potential battlefield. Nations could literally collapse if their information infrastructures were seriously compromised. This is FACT.
Consider Edward Snowden’s actions in that context.
The dummies and his staff have no power. They are all a fraud and the world sees then a such.
The key now is to find out who is pulling the idiots strings. We all know the “coke head” is not bright so who is the sting man?
This administration is absolutely pathetic. Which should be expected, as during the 2008 election the MSM tried to placate fears about team Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience by reminding the public that he had VP candidate Joe Biden to help. (Why anyone would have been comforted by that was beyond me.)