Someone steps up:
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday he had decided to offer asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has petitioned several countries to avoid capture by Washington.
“I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American, Edward Snowden, so that in the fatherland of (Simon) Bolivar and (Hugo) Chavez, he can come and live away from the imperial North American persecution,” Maduro told a televised parade marking Venezuela’s independence day.
Get your Citgo gas now, because Congress is going to throw a fit.
I doubt Russia lets him leave.
From the article:
I don’t buy the posturing that Russia is reluctantly tolerating Snowden’s overstay. There’s little reason to believe that Snowden is in control of his communications or movement.
I would venture to guess that Snowden cannot and will not leave until Russia has obtained whatever they want from him. Putin may pretend not to be interested in extracting wool from a squealing pig, but the shearing sure seems to be taking a while. If the gloves have come off, can they let him go?
Exactly. What was with that statement released as well? Little to no evidence he wrote it, though he may have authorized it. Why not write it himself if he was in full control? Perhaps he’s learned to stop talking. Everytime he opens his mouth I become less sympathetic to him as a person (which says nothing about how I feel about the discussion we’re supposed to be having).
Does anyone even know if he’s still in Russia?
From Emptywheel, last night:
She thinks Edward may have taken the original plane to La Paz and Maduro picked him up there!
Nope: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/07/tale-re-routed-bolivian-presidents-plane-falling-apart
66838
Looks like he hasn’t left Sheremetyevo.
Whatever kinds of fits our overlords throw, they never seem to take it out on Citgo. It’s the part of Venezuela they can empathize with.
Nicaragua has also offered him asylum, don’t forget.
Will this be the start of another 50 year embargo? Will there be special immigration rules (wet feet dry land) for anyone escaping Venezuela?
So why didn’t he go to Venezuela in the first place?
Traveling to China and Russia first makes most of his moves suspect.
What sources and data did he turn over to the Russians and Beijing? Did he get paid? How is any different that Robert Hanssen?
Traveling to China and Russia first makes most of his moves suspect.
Because you say so?
Because of logic and his statements.
He could have directly flown to Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iceland, Bolivia, or other countries sympathetic to him, but no, he went to Moscow and China.
You probably missed this but the reason Snowden went to the Guardian after he first approached WaPo was because he asked them “publish online a cryptographic key so he could prove to a foreign embassy he was the source of the document leak.”
Now why did he steal code books? Why would he want to present these codes to a foreign embassy? Is there any public knowledge gained by publishing encryption codes? Of course not. The only parties who would have any interest in US codes are russian and chinese spy agencies.
Iceland and Venezuela could care less about code books. They’re not interested in tapping into US government satellites.
So, he could have flown to a sympathetic country and revealed information on metadata, but instead he went to the two countries who would have a monetary interest in the US code books his stole.
Because of logic and his statements.
Logic according to you. Doesn’t mean it makes sense at all.
He could have directly flown to Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iceland, Bolivia, or other countries sympathetic to him, but no, he went to Moscow and China.
He didn’t go to China. He went to Hong Kong. There is a difference. Didn’t he go to Hong Kong because, at the very least, the extradition process would be kinda long and drawn out? Also, when did WaPo and The Guardian get the documents from Snowden? After he got to Hong Kong? And I can’t help you if you think he’s lying about everything.
You probably missed this but the reason Snowden went to the Guardian after he first approached WaPo was because he asked them “publish online a cryptographic key so he could prove to a foreign embassy he was the source of the document leak.”
Do you have proof of this?
Now why did he steal code books? Why would he want to present these codes to a foreign embassy? Is there any public knowledge gained by publishing encryption codes? Of course not. The only parties who would have any interest in US codes are russian and chinese spy agencies.
Where is the proof of this? And, even if true, do you really think the Chinese and Russians are the only interested countries in said code books? And if he did have a copy of said code books, doesn’t it concern you at all that such a person could access them so easily?
Iceland and Venezuela could care less about code books. They’re not interested in tapping into US government satellites.
Really? Not even a country where we’ve tried to help forment coups a couple of different times?
What’s the frequency Kenneth?
Thanks for proving my point. And .. well ….
Gellman published this at the post and there has been much discussion of it. That Gellman wouldn’t guarantee it is what cost the post the exclusive on PRISM.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/06/how-washington-post-lost-prism-exclusive/66048/
Based on that article it sounds like exactly what I said. Snowden wanted a respected third party to publish a crytographic key so that he could prove he was the source of the documents – could prove his identity. A government key would not achieve this, as the government itself would have access to it, and could encrypt documents with it, thereby impersonating him. It had to be a personal cryptographic key.
If he’s talking about publishing a public key to verify his own identity, he’s probably talking about his own crypto key, not a government one. The latter might prove he had access to government docs (though no one is disputing that), but it would not prove he was who he claims to be rather than, say, a government imposter.
He wanted the cryptographic key posted online with the documents so that he could prove he was the source.
Do you understand how this works? This does not imply he is publishing government cryptographic keys. His possession of those keys would not prove he was the leaker as he is not the only one who has those keys – the government does as well.
Let me walk you through this. He takes the government documents and encrypts them using his private key – his own, not a government one. Anyone can decrypt those documents using his public key (which is no doubt what he wanted published), but only he can encrypt documents that can be decrypted with that public key. That is how he proves he is the source. However, the vital part is that this must be a private key possessed only by Ed Snowden; that’s how it proves his identity. If it were a key he got from the government or his employer, they would have their own copies of it and be able to impersonate him. Since this is obviously not his objective, it is obviously not what he he did.
If this is still unclear to you, I suggest visiting Wikipedia and looking up Public Key Cryptography.
isn’t that what MomSense wrote? did you reply to the wrong post?
It sounded to me like Momsense was backing up Sex Kitten, who seemed to think that Snowden had compromised national security by publishing government private crypto keys. If that is not what she (supposing “MomSense” is female) intended, my apologies.
Link?
And where did you get the info about code books? Do governments still use those?
Non-stop flights from Honolulu to Venezuela?
who said “non-stop”
The plane would have been intercepted if it was a two-leg flight; or at least he thought that this was possible or likely.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, per se, just that his routes have explanations going beyond the “he’s a spy” explanation.
Agree! First leg on his flight from Hawaii to Hong Kong seems logical in order to express himself and contact/meet Glenn Greenwald.
The choice of non-stop international flights to South American states were probably non-existent or limited. Moscow on 2nd leg was smart, not possible for US jets to intercept him, nor troubles with aviation rights to cross states. Evo Morales found out what the US rogue state is capable of doing. Just testing?
Other options in the Pacific were not possible as Australia and New Zealand are part of the American/British “five eyes” spy network. Did anyone pick-up on the Le Monde story and great embarrassment to President Hollande? I SPY TOO!
Location Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean (map).
Let’s just keep on talking about one guy and not about the fact that our government is massively snooping on everyone in creation, including countries that thought they were our allies. Mustn’t worry our pretty little heads with matters best left to our masters, who know what’s good for us.
We’ve always spied on our allies. We’re supposed to be a lot more circumspect about it though. Basically, anyone posted at an embassy out of the country is trained as a spy.
Not only have we spied on our allies, but with one exception we have tolerated our allies spying on us. The one exception had to one very big no-no espionage that Israel did and they still want their guy returned.
Seriously.
Anyone who thinks Steve LaBonne is genuinely, honestly concerned that France and the UK are being spied on, raise your hands.
A gasbag enemy sheltering a traitor? Yeah, they’ll be irked.
Amazing!
First of all, Snowden is not reported to be in Venezuela yet nor has anyone put forward a way that he could get there without being intercept by the US military or its allies.
Second, Venezuela could very easily (if the US wanted Snowden bad enough) swap Snowden for a terrorist (blew up an airplane) that Venezuela wants extradited from the US.
Third, Putin could also cut a spy swap deal.
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Timeline of NSA Domestic Spying
It seems that the main reason US folks reflexively dislike Venezuela is because it nationalized an oil company. And the main reason that folks reflexively accuse Snowden of being a traitor is because he didn’t deliver the documents to the Guardian and the Washington Post seven years ago. (Look at the timeline.)
That was in 1976! And it wasn’t as if the country hadn’t traditionally had some control over itsoil resources.
Having seen what the US did in Chile in 1973 and Australia 1974-1975, it was a smart and self-protective move on the part of Venezuela.
Same reason Britain the US dumped Mossadegh in 1954.
For Guatemala is was bananas, and for Allende it was the telecom franchise and ITT mining.
Just seems to me that the “bad vibes” folks have in the US about democratically elected leaders often have to do with which US corporations they’ve shafted.
.
Cross-posted from my diary – Former Blogger @BooMan Proposes Marriage to Spy Snowden.