Snowden needs "world's protection", says Venezuelan leader

[frontier00]

Source: RT

(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday that Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy agency contractor, deserved the "world's protection" for divulging details of Washington's spy program.

Snowden, wanted by Washington on spying charges for revealing the secret U.S. electronic surveillance program Prism, has applied for political asylum in more than a dozen countries, in his search for safety.

The 30-year-old is in legal limbo in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, unable to fly on to a hoped-for destination in Latin America because he has no legal travel documents and no Russian visa to leave the airport.

On Monday, he broke a nine-day silence since arriving in Moscow from Hong Kong, challenging Washington by saying he was free to publish more about its programs and that he was being illegally persecuted.

That ruled out a prolonged stay in Russia, where a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said Snowden had withdrawn his request for asylum after the Russian leader said he should give up his "anti-American activity".

But while countries lined up to deny his asylum requests, Venezuela, part of an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America, said it was time to stop berating a man who has "done something very important for humanity".

"He deserves the world's protection. He has not asked us for it yet. When he does we will give our answer," Maduro told Reuters during a visit to Moscow.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/02/us-usa-security-snowden-idUSBRE96107520130702

[AsahinaKimi]

1. I wonder if he can seriously get any protection...

Or, will our government send someone out to bring him back dead or a live?

[struggle4progress]

2. Meh. Biden seems to be doing fine diplomatic work by phone: Correa denies Ecuador issued him

official papers and says that for now he's Russia's problem; Putin says Snowden can't stay if he keeps on leaking

Hong Kong encouraged him to absquatulate, and it seems Cuba didn't want him passing through, since otherwise he'd have been on the Aeroflot

Venezuela's making pretty talk about him, but it doesn't look like he'll be flying back there on the President's jet

[AsahinaKimi]

4. That did not really answer my question...

But I guess we probably know the answer. If someone wants him dead, he will be dead.

[struggle4progress]

8. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me the current Administration -- unlike various others

I recall -- has some dedication to solving such problems through diplomacy

[AsahinaKimi]

9. Lets hope so..

But I am sure there are a lot of gun ho agencies who might want to send a clear message to people in this country. Lets hope they are kept on a short leash.

[cstanleytech]

11. Oh I think there is plenty of evidence to prove that Obama prefers diplomacy over force compare to

Bush.
Such examples are how he has been dealing with North Korea and Iran over their nuclear programs, he hasnt invaded or even tried to build a base of countries to support such.
In fact he has been slowly withdrawing our troops from the two wars Bush got us bogged down in plus the economy is starting to slowly recover from what Bush and the Republicans did.
Not to mention he i actually going through the FISA courts to get warrants for stuff where as Bush thought he was above FISA since he was president.

[Kolesar]

5. Absquatulate is a deeply silly word

...that means to make off with something or someone. Why say a thief ran away with your money when it's much more fun to say he absquatulated with it?

The word absquatulate came out of an odd fad in America in the 1830s for making playful words that sounded vaguely Latin.

Bloviate ("speak pompously&quot and discombobulate ("make confused&quot are two other pseudo-Latin coinages from that era.

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/absquatulate

[davidthegnome]

20. Killing him would be too obvious.

Which isn't to say that it won't be done, but if it is, it will be done in such a way that it will be almost impossible to even suggest it was anything other than an "accident". Car goes off the road, maybe a bridge collapses while he's on it, perhaps he has a sudden heart attack.

Still, I don't think that extreme measure will be taken. I think they'll fiddle around with diplomacy for some time before just shrugging it off. If the last ten years and more haven't made Americans angry enough to do something collectively, then this won't either. Only when our televisions, ipads, ipods, computers, smart phones, xboxes and playstations are effected will we actually become angry enough to do something.

Most of us either knew or suspected what Snowden finally confirmed in any event. The "relentless persuit" I suspect, does not have any real teeth. If they wanted him dead or disappeared, he would be dead or missing.

I'm more worried about what Snowden doesn't know - and what we don't know, about what the NSA is really up to. What we know already is bad enough... but somehow, I suspect it's the tip of the ice berg.

[Kolesar]

3. Just what Venezuela needs--another free market zealot in their midst

He can lecture from his little ron book about how they need to privatize everything.

[struggle4progress]

6. I just noticed Snowden's father's lawyer is Bruce Fein, a former member of Ron Paul's campaign team

and one of the Reagan era FCC commissioners who dismantled the Fairness Doctrine

[Kolesar]

7. You've done good, little zealot, now suffer the consequences...eom

[RufusTFirefly]

13. Fein also publicly called for the impeachment of Dick Cheney

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2007/06/impeach_cheney.html

In addition, he was highly, publicly critical of Presidential signing statements during the Bush years.

But then, I don't imagine that you "just noticed" those particular facts.

[struggle4progress]

19. Wow! He wrote a bullshizz article for the Moonie Times, suggesting that Congress should

impeach the then-Vice-President for not following one of the then-President's Executive Orders!

You ever heard the story about the Rabbit and the Tarbaby? Well, that suggestion was a Tarbaby

[Demeter]

10. Ignore the idiots and keep on posting, frontier

Too many people on this site would cut off their noses to spite other people.

"Noses" being a code word for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, rule of law, constitution and bill of rights, and all those social conventions we USED to have.

It must be a mental illness, because it's far to big to be a mental block.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Venezuela is perfectly free to entertain his asylum request when and if it comes through

Let's see if he ends up in Venezuela.

[Turbineguy]

14. I think it's more the other way around.

[Le Taz Hot]

15. Well isn't that an interesting

turn of events? Venezuela. Hmmmm. . .

[BlueInPhilly]

16. He is a traitor

Please don't romanticize what he did and is doing. He is a traitor, nothing more.

[former9thward]

17. Just like Daniel Ellsberg.

Nixon speaks from the grave.

[Demeter]

18. "Traitor, Mr. Dickerson? To what? The British Crown?"

"Or the British half-crown?"


1776--the musical...Dickerson heads the North Carolina delegation, and is a Loyalist...