FM of Venezuela says no reply from Snowden...

[MADem]

13. If it was us, I think Pootie Poot would be screaming from the rooftops about our heavy ham hands!

I wonder just what kind of distraction this "Where's Waldo" silliness is in aid of.


It could well be that State is talking to Colombia, to give them some sort of consideration (aid, trade concessions, something) so that they'd be willing to sign off on (i.e. not make a stink about) a prisoner exchange....i.e. the Russians throw Snowden on a plane, and we give the Russians their beloved Viktor Buut! Or Bout, as the wiki-case may be...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Bout

Viktor Anatolyevich Bout (Russian: Виктор Анатольевич Бут ) (born 13 January 1967, near Dushanbe, Tajik SSR, Soviet Union) is a convicted Russian arms smuggler of Ukrainian origins.[1] A citizen of Russia, he was arrested in Thailand in 2008 before being extradited in 2010 to the United States to stand trial on terrorism charges, after having being accused of intending to smuggle arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to use against U.S. forces.[2][3][4] On 2 November 2011, he was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and officials, deliver anti-aircraft missiles and provide aid to a terrorist organization.[1][5]

A former Soviet military translator,[6] Bout had reportedly made a significant amount of money through his multiple air transport companies,[7] by shipping cargo mostly in Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s.[8] As willing to work for Charles Taylor in Liberia as he was for the United Nations in Sudan and the United States in Iraq,[7][9] Bout may have facilitated huge arms shipments into various civil wars in Africa with his private air cargo fleets during the 1990s.[10]

....In cooperation with American authorities,[9] Royal Thai Police arrested Bout in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2008.[12] The United States demanded his extradition, which was eventually mandated by the Thai High Court in August 2010.[4] Before his extradition to the United States in November 2010, he expressed confidence that this U.S. trial would eventually lead to his acquittal.[13][14] This did not occur.[15] From January 2011 to June 2012 Bout was incarcerated in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City.[citation needed] In June 2012 he was transferred to the United States Penitentiary, Marion in Illinois.[16] On 5 April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by a U.S. judge.[17][18][19]

There are 'suspicions'--and I hold them, as well--that Viktor is one of Pootie Poot's Very Special and Very Clever lads, and Pootie would like him back ... badly.

Bout's personal website states that he served in the Soviet Army as a translator, holding the rank of Lieutenant.[6] He is thought to have been discharged in 1991 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.[24] But other sources state he rose to the rank of Major in the GRU[7] (an arm of the Soviet military that combines intelligence services and special forces[7]), that he was an officer in the Soviet Air Forces,[9] that he graduated from a Soviet military intelligence training program,[24] or that he was a KGB operative.[20]

Assuming we've pumped all the "goods" we're gonna get outta Viktor, and perhaps with some assurances that he "finish out his sentence in Russia" (which could be on probation, or whatever, but it would keep him close to home), maybe that's what they are going for...?

In any event, the clock is TICKING. Obama is supposed to visit Pootie's country in September, and his peeps have already passed the word that if Snowden is still there, they'd better not bother making up the bed in the guest bedroom.