Hide
and leak: Where in the world is Edward Snowden?
RT,
25
June, 2013
When
it comes to the whereabouts of Edward Snowden, there has been far
more conjecture than concrete fact. While Washington would do
anything to get its hands on the whistleblower, tracking down Snowden
has turned into a full on cloak and dagger affair.
On
Sunday Edward Snowden left Chinese territory two days after espionage
charges were leveled against him, setting off an international game
of cat and mouse which has the United States’ massive global
intelligence apparatus trying to cut the former National Security
Agency (NSA) contractor off at the pass.
The
White House for its part seemed to be certain that Snowden did in
fact reach Moscow after taking off from Hong Kong on Sunday.
“We
have known where he is and believe we know where he is now,” White
House press secretary Jay Carney said during a Monday afternoon
briefing. “It is our assumption that he is in Russia.”
“I’m
not going to get into specifics, but it is our understanding that he
is still in Russia,”
Carney continued. "We
have asked the Russians to look at all the options and expel Snowden
to the US,”
he said.
WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange has said on Monday that Snowden was in a “safe
place.” Assange, who was unable to give further information as to
Snowden’s whereabouts, claimed that Snowden had left Hong Kong on
June 23 “bound
for Ecuador via a safe pass through Russia and other states."
Shortly
after Snowden allegedly arrived in Moscow, the government of Ecuador
announced it had received an asylum request from the fugitive
whistleblower. Assange claimed Snowden, whose passport was reportedly
revoked one day prior to his departure from Hong Kong, was further
granted a refugee document of passage.
It has been reported that Snowden was snaking his way around the globe to avoid capture, with a complicated route which would have seen him fly from Moscow to Caracas via Havana, with the expectation that he would later travel on to the Ecuadorian capital Quito.
While the state-controlled Russian airline Aeroflot said that he had checked in for flight SU150 to Havana with two seats (17A and 17C) in his name on Monday, seemingly half the world’s press corps was on board, but Snowden was conspicuously absent.
The fact that hefailed to board a Moscow-to-Havana flight on Monday following his hasty escape from Hong Kong one day prior begs the question: did the world’s most infamous whistleblower step foot on Russian soil at all?
It has been reported that Snowden was snaking his way around the globe to avoid capture, with a complicated route which would have seen him fly from Moscow to Caracas via Havana, with the expectation that he would later travel on to the Ecuadorian capital Quito.
While the state-controlled Russian airline Aeroflot said that he had checked in for flight SU150 to Havana with two seats (17A and 17C) in his name on Monday, seemingly half the world’s press corps was on board, but Snowden was conspicuously absent.
The fact that hefailed to board a Moscow-to-Havana flight on Monday following his hasty escape from Hong Kong one day prior begs the question: did the world’s most infamous whistleblower step foot on Russian soil at all?
Wikileaks
and unnamed sources
The
government of Hong Kong never specified Snowden’s destination, only
stating that he had in fact left Chinese territory for “a third
country” on Sunday. The Russian government has made no official
comment regarding the whistleblower either.
Although
reporters noted the heavy presence of Russian security services at
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry
Peskov disavowed any knowledge of Snowden’s arrival in the Russian
capital.
“I
don’t [know if he's planning to stay in Moscow]. I heard about his
potential arrival from the press. I know nothing,” Peskov told the
Guardian on Sunday.
When
RT contacted Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) regarding the
matter, the agency declined to comment.
With
no corroborating video footage, the only actual proof that Snowden
arrived in Moscow on Sunday evening stem from three primary sources:
WikiLeaks, the government of Ecuador and anonymous sources working
within the airport.
Wikileaks,
whose representative Sarah Harrison reportedly accompanied Snowden on
the flight, regularly sent out tweets up until flight SU213 touched
down in the Russian capital around 5:00 p.m. local time.
The
anti-secrecy group said in a statement that the former CIA technician
is on his way to Ecuador "via a safe route for the purposes of
asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from
WikiLeaks."
A
source from within WikiLeaks, speaking on condition of anonymity,
confirmed to RT that the rogue NSA leaker was indeed on the flight,
passing on the names of Ecuadorian officials who were slated to meet
Snowden at the airport.
An
unnamed Aeroflot official also told Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency
that the former CIA technician was indeed on board Flight SU213 which
landed in Moscow.
Smoke
and mirrors?
Shortly
after flight 213 landed, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino
tweeted that “The Government of Ecuador had received an asylum
request from Edward J. #Snowden.” Cars baring license plates for
the Ecuadorian diplomatic mission were spotted at Moscow
International Airport Sheremetyevo.
Ecuador's
ambassador to Russia, Chavez Zavala, was also seen at the airport.
Just moments before stepping into a hotel on the airport’s
premises, he reportedly told journalists: "We're waiting for
[Sarah] Harrison. We're going to talk to them."
Although
Snowden had reportedly taken a suite at the «V-Express» Capsule
Hotel in Terminal E of the airport’s transit area, no visual
confirmation of the former contractor has surfaced despite the myriad
passengers and swarm of journalists staking out quite possibly the
world’s most wanted man.
A
source at Aeroflot told Interfax news agency that Snowden had checked
into the hotel, noting that “he cannot leave the terminal as he has
no Russian visa." Harrison, he added, did have a Russian visa.
Another
source told the agency of the unprecedented security measures which
had been taken “to maintain Snowden's security and to guarantee his
safe departure.”
“Everything
has been done to allow Snowden to spend the night peacefully at the
airport's capsule hotel and to fly quietly to Cuba," the source
continued.
However,
on Monday evening a source at the hotel later told RT that Snowden
had in fact never checked in or out of the facility.
It
bears recalling that WikiLeaks, which did everything possible to draw
attention to Snowden’s location between takeoff and landing, has a
vested nterest in concealing the fugitive whistleblower's actual
movements.
Ecuador
has already shown its willingness to take big political risks by
granting Assange diplomatic asylum at its London embassy, where the
Wikileaks founder has remained holed up for over a year. With round
the clock police surveillance and a diplomatic standoff with the UK
government set to last for years, Quito might have decided on
avoiding another diplomatic showdown by facilitating Snowden’s safe
passage before he arrives in Ecuador.
Destination
unknown
Once
Snowden failed to show for his Havana-bound flight, RT’s Irina
Galushko noted there were at least four flights leaving on Monday
that could put Snowden on route to Ecuador.
A
source familiar with the situation earlier told Interfax that Snowden
might take the next flight to Latin America via Cuba.
“He’s
probably got another ticket also via Cuba, as there are no direct
flights [from Moscow] to Caracas or Quito.”
Like
so much other information that has leaked out of Moscow’s
international hub, nothing ever materialized. The same source later
told Interfax that Snowden was probably already outside of the
Russian Federation.
Speaking
at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi,
Secretary of State John Kerry said he had no knowledge of Snowden’s
final destination, adding he would be deeply troubled if Moscow or
China had prior notice of Snowden’s travel plans, Reuters reports.
More
baffling to Washington is how Snowden ever left Hong Kong as his
passport had been revoked one day prior. On the same day, the US
asked Hong Kong to hand over Snowden under the terms of a 1998
extradition treaty with the Chinese territory.
However,
The Hong Kong special administrative region [HKSAR] government said
their decision not to block Snowden’s departure stemmed from the
fact that “the documents provided by the US government did not
fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law.”
“As
the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to
process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no
legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong. The HKSAR
government has already informed the US government of Mr Snowden's
departure,” the statement continued.
On
Friday, federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against
Snowden for leaking a trove of documents regarding the NSA’s
clandestine surveillance programs.
Snowden
was charged with theft, “unauthorized communication of national
defense information” and “willful communication of classified
communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.”
The last two charges were brought under the 1917 Espionage Act, which
allow for the issuance of an international arrest warrant against
him.
Russia,
which has no extradition treaty with the US, said it would be under
no obligation to hand over a US citizen. Foreign Minister. Sergey
Lavrov has previously said Russia would be willing to consider an
asylum request from Snowden.
However,
an unnamed security official told RIA-Novosti news agency on Monday
that no orders for Snowden's arrest have been dispatched through
Interpol to Russian law enforcement agencies.
Speaking
from Hanoi on Monday, Patino said he did not know Snowden’s current
whereabouts, or where the whistleblower planned to travel next.
The
Ecuadorian FM, who read a letter in which Snowden likened himself to
Bradley Manning, the US army private who is currently on trial for
leaking classified information to Wikileaks, intimated that the
former NSA contractor’s asylum request would be considered on human
rights grounds.
Following
news that Snowden’s passport had been revoked, State Department
spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said he "should not be allowed to
proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary
to return him to the United States."
That
Snowden could leave Hong Kong on an invalidated passport despite the
charges leveled against him speaks volumes about the fallout from the
United States sweeping surveillance activities.
And
despite the massive troves of information the US government continues
to cull both at home and abroad through PRISM and related
surveillance programs, one critical fact remains elusive: where in
the world is Edward Snowden?
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