The New Yorker: SNOWDEN CALLS RUSSIAN-SPY STORY “ABSURD”

[struggle4progress]

160. The distinction between the Legislative branch and the Executive branch must be mastered

by anyone who wishes to obtain even the most rudimentary understanding US politics, as is distinction between the major political parties

Mike Rogers is a Republican representing Michigan's 8th Congressional district since 1994: as a Congressman, he has no direct Executive power and plays no immediate role in the agencies enforcing US law

The Executive branch is headed by President Obama, who has been in office since 2008: he is the boss of all the agency heads, including the State Department, which handles US passports and is headed by John Kerry. I have already provided reference to 22 CFR 51.60 governing passports; and application of 22 CFR 51.60 in the Snowden case seems entirely routine and by-the-book -- an indictment against him was unsealed on 21 June, his passport revoked on 22 June, and on 23 June Aeroflot allowed him to board a plane for Moscow

Also on 23 June,

... Mr. Assange .. said his group had arranged for Mr. Snowden to travel via a “special refugee travel document” issued by Ecuador ... “He left Hong Kong with that document,” Mr. Assange said ...

so various people had been aware that Snowden could need special travel documents. Unfortunately for Mr Snowden, Ecuador disputed the validity of the “special refugee travel document,” that Assange had somehow obtained, and explicitly revoked it:

... Officials on Thursday acknowledged that the Ecuadorean Embassy in London had issued a June 22 letter of safe passage for Snowden that calls on other countries to allow him to travel to asylum in Ecuador. But Ecuador's secretary of political management, Betty Tola, said the letter was invalid because it was issued without the approval of the government ...

... In his Guardian interview, Correa said his government had not, and would not, give Snowden an authorised travel document to extract himself from Moscow airport ... He said the temporary travel document issued by his London consul on 22 June – and publicly disowned five days later – was issued without official authorisation ...