Europe just voted to drop criminal charges against Edward Snowden and offer him asylum

[JDPriestly]

48. European countries are being encouraged or permitted to ignore requests for the

extradition of Edward Snowden. They are also being encouraged or permitted to offer Edward Snowden asylum from American or other charges against him.

This is significant because asylum is granted to victims of persecution including political persecution and victims of human rights violations.

So this suggests that the European body that passed this resolution views the US as a violator of the human rights of Snowden or as having persecuted Snowden for political reasons or both.

That's a big deal. We usually think of Europe as our ally and as sharing our values. Europeans in general are critical of a number of our policies including the surveillance by our government (although Britain and Germany have worked with us on that and perhaps other countries have too) and our death penalty among other things.