Wash. Post: Julian Assange: Edward Snowden is ‘marooned in Russia’ [View all]

[JackN415]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/julian-assange-edward-snowden-is-marooned-in-russia/2013/06/30/67ed243e-e191-11e2-9960-65d66450db63_story.html

Edward Snowden — the fugitive former U.S. intelligence contractor — appears to be stuck in Moscow, unable to leave without a valid American passport, according to interviews Sunday with two men who had sought to aid him: WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange and Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa.
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Assange criticized the United States, saying: “To take a passport from a young man in a difficult situation like that is a disgrace.”
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Snowden got from Hong Kong to Moscow by using a letter of safe passage from the Ecuadoran Embassy in London ...
On Sunday, Correa told the AP that an Ecuadoran official at that embassy had committed “a serious error” by issuing the first letter without consulting officials back home. Correa said the consul would be punished, although he didn’t specify how.

Hong Kong complaint that the US extradition document was erroneous, because of the misspelling of his middle name, and hence it could not be processed. Quite conveniently for Snowden to fly out. Yet, for all their celebrated meticulousness, they didn't bother to verify the validity of his Ecuador "Safe Passage" document (without signature? or was it "signed" by Ecuador Minister of Foreign Affairs Julius Assange?).

A masterful example of the Chinese art of using "technicalities. The Chinese is so happy that Snowden serves them well and they got rid of him (to Russia with love, no less) like tossing out a servant after getting full service. (use your own more colorful, entertaining analogies or metaphors here).