[News] Edward Snowden: Obama guilty of deceit over extradition

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Edward Snowden: Obama guilty of deceit over extradition

US president pledged to avoid 'wheeling and dealing' while bullying 
countries that might grant asylum, says whistleblower

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/edward-snowden-barack-obama-wikileaks

    *
      Dan Roberts <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/dan-roberts> in
      Washington and Rory Carroll
      <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/rorycarroll> in Quito
    * The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian>, Monday 1
      July 2013

In the statement released by WikiLeaks, Snowden claimed the US president 
had employed the 'old, bad tools of political aggression'. Photograph: 
Reuters/The Guardian

Edward Snowden <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/edward-snowden> has 
accused Barack Obama <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barack-obama> of 
deception for promising in public to avoid diplomatic "wheeling and 
dealing" over his extradition, while privately pressuring countries to 
refuse his requests for asylum.

Snowden, the surveillance whistleblower who is thought to be trapped in 
the legal limbo of a transit zone at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, used 
his first public comments since fleeing Hong Kong to attack the US for 
revoking his passport. He also accused his country of bullying nations 
that might grant him asylum.

"On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would 
not permit any diplomatic 'wheeling and dealing' over my case," Snowden 
said in a statement released by WikiLeaks 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks>.

"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."

Snowden's increasingly desperate predicament became further apparent on 
Monday night with the leak of a letter he had written to Ecuador 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ecuador> praising its "bravery" and 
expressing "deep respect and sincere thanks" for considering his request 
for political asylum.

But the change in mood in Quito, already apparent at the end of last 
week, was underlined by an interview Rafael Correa, the president, gave 
to the Guardian 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/ecuador-rafael-correa-snowden-mistake> 
on Monday in which he insisted Ecuador will not now help Snowden leave 
Moscow and never intended to facilitate his attempted flight to South 
America.

Correa blamed earlier signs of encouragement on a misunderstanding by 
its London embassy.

"That we are responsible for getting him to Ecuador? It's not logical. 
The country that has to give him a safe conduct document is Russia 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia>," Correa said at the 
presidential palace in Quito. Correa said his government did not 
intentionally help Snowden travel from Hong Kong to Moscow with a 
temporary travel pass. "It was a mistake on our part."

In his statement through WikiLeaks, which has been assisting him since 
he left Hong Kong on 10 June, Snowden contrasted the current US approach 
to his extradition with its previous support of political dissidents in 
other countries.

"For decades the United States <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa> of 
America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to 
seek asylum," he said. "Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the 
US in article 14 of the universal declaration of human rights, is now 
being rejected by the current government of my country."

Snowden also accused the Obama administration 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-administration> of "using 
citizenship as a weapon", which has apparently left him unable to leave 
the airport in Moscow.

"Although I am convicted of nothing, [the US] has unilaterally revoked 
my passport, leaving me a stateless person," he said. "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."

Moscow confirmed earlier on Monday that Snowden had applied for 
political asylum in Russia. The LA Times said Snowden had made similar 
applications to a total of 15 countries.

The former NSA <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nsa> contractor struck a 
defiant tone on Monday night. "In the end, the Obama administration is 
not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake," 
he said. "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."

His statement also came shortly after one of Obama's top intelligence 
officials, US director of national intelligence, James Clapper, was 
forced to apologise to Congress 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/01/james-clapper-apology-congress-erroneous-response></a> 
for "erroneous" claims that the US did not collect data on its own citizens.

Snowden paid tribute to those who had helped him force such disclosures.

"One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and 
safety were under threat for revealing the truth," he said.

"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."

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20130702/f817659c/attachment.htm>