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<h1 itemprop="name headline "><small>Edward Snowden: Obama guilty of
deceit over extradition</small></h1>
<p itemprop="description" id="stand-first" class="stand-first-alone"
data-component="Article:standfirst_cta">US president pledged to avoid
'wheeling and dealing' while bullying countries that might grant
asylum, says whistleblower<br>
</p>
<p itemprop="description" id="stand-first" class="stand-first-alone"
data-component="Article:standfirst_cta"><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/edward-snowden-barack-obama-wikileaks">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/edward-snowden-barack-obama-wikileaks</a></small></small><br>
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<ul class="article-attributes trackable-component b4"
data-component="Article:byline">
<li class="byline">
<div class="contributor-full"> <span itemscope="" itemprop="author"
itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name"><a
class="contributor" rel="author" itemprop="url"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/dan-roberts">Dan Roberts</a></span></span>
in Washington and <span itemscope="" itemprop="author"
itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name"><a
class="contributor" rel="author" itemprop="url"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/rorycarroll">Rory Carroll</a></span></span>
in Quito </div>
</li>
<li class="publication"> <a itemprop="publisher"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian">The Guardian</a>, <time
itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2013-07-01" pubdate="">Monday 1
July 2013</time> </li>
</ul>
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itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject">
<div class="caption" itemprop="caption">In the statement released by
WikiLeaks, Snowden claimed the US president had employed the 'old, bad
tools of political aggression'. Photograph: Reuters/The Guardian</div>
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<div id="article-body-blocks">
<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/edward-snowden"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Edward Snowden">Edward Snowden</a>
has accused <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barack-obama"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Barack Obama">Barack Obama</a> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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 <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on WikiLeaks">WikiLeaks</a>.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Snowden's increasingly desperate predicament became further apparent
on Monday night with the leak of a letter he had written to <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ecuador"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Ecuador">Ecuador</a> praising its
"bravery" and expressing "deep respect and sincere thanks" for
considering his request for political asylum.</p>
<p>But the change in mood in Quito, already apparent at the end of last
week, was underlined by an <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/ecuador-rafael-correa-snowden-mistake"
title="">interview Rafael Correa, the president, gave to the Guardian</a>
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.</p>
<p>Correa blamed earlier signs of encouragement on a misunderstanding
by its London embassy.</p>
<p>"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 <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/russia"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Russia">Russia</a>," 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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"For decades the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on United States">United States</a> 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."</p>
<p>Snowden also accused the <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-administration"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Obama administration">Obama
administration</a> of "using citizenship as a weapon", which has
apparently left him unable to leave the airport in Moscow.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The former <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nsa"
title="More from guardian.co.uk on NSA">NSA</a> 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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>His statement also came shortly after one of Obama's top
intelligence officials, US director of national intelligence, James
Clapper, was <a
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/01/james-clapper-apology-congress-erroneous-response"
title="">forced to apologise to Congress</a></a> for "erroneous"
claims that the US did not collect data on its own citizens.</p>
<p>Snowden paid tribute to those who had helped him force such
disclosures.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
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