NSA Leaker Snowden Flees from Hong Kong to Russia

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright June 23, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

              Fleeing from extradition in Hong Kong, 29-year-old former CIA employee and Booz Allen Hamilton National Security Administration contractor Edward Snowden boarded an Aeroflot flight to Moscow.  Helped by WikiLeaks to arrange political asylum, Snowden’s on his way to Ecuador or Cuba.  Angered by Hong Kong’s inpatience to get the correct documents for extradition and Moscow’s refusal to help the U.S., Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Schumer ripped Moscow for sticking it to the U.S. in the Snowden affair yet acts clueless over recent U.S. attempts to arm Syrian rebels,  directly violating Moscow’s requests for the U.S. to stay out of Syria.  When President Barack Obama agreed June 15 to arm Syrian rebels, it completely ignored Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would spread more terrorism and throw the region into chaos.

              While still in Hong Kong, Snowden implicated the U.S. government in spying on Hong Kong and Mainland China.  When Obama met with Putin at a highly-charged G8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland June 15, U.S. and EU officials ganged up on Putin for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist government.  Ripping Putin for supporting a traditional ally, the U.S. now wants Russia to help detaining Snowden from making his way to exile in Ecuador or Cuba.  “The government of Ecuador has received an asylum request from Edward J. Snowden,” said Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino.  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange currently enjoys asylum in London’s Ecuadorean embassy.  Ecuador, Venezuela and Cuba are part of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of “anti-imperialist” communist governments in Latin America.  Snowden embarrassed the White House by exposing a widespread covert NSA spying program.

             Defying Russia and China on Syria has made work all but impossible on the U.N. Security Council.  When Obama met with Chinese Presdient Xi Jinping June 8, he confronted the Chinese leader on its espionage, including patent and copyright infringements on a whole range of products.  Snowden’s leaks turn the whole spying scandal on its head where the U.S. can no longer sell itself as sacrosanct.  “The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr. Snowden’s rights and protecting him as a person,” said WickiLeaks lawyer and former Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon.  Persecuting Assange and now Snowden has antagonized the international community, tired of lectured by the U.S. about human rights abuses.   “What is being done to Mr. Snowden and Mr. Julian Assange—for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest—is an assault against the people,” said Garzon, blasting the U.S. for prosecuting Snowden and Assange.

            Charging Snowden with theft of U.S. government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized persons, with the last two charges falling under the Espionage Act.  While Snowden has no grounds for filling under U.S. Whistleblower statutes, he’s followed in Assange’s footsteps exposing government corruption of confidential diplomatic cables.  Exposing widespread spying the NSA embarrasses Obama and the Justice Department for spying on the U.S. and foreign governments .  Revelations about hacking into Russian and Chinese computers robs the U.S. of its “moral authority,” according to Tea Party-friendly U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).  Paul considers Obama’s unlawful spying operation worse than Watergate, warranting eventual impeachment charges.  Obaam has countered that enhanced surveillance has foiled numerous terror attacks.

          Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, believes Snowden should be extradited b and tried for treason.  By all accounts, Snowden was more interested in “perfecting” the union, not subverting the U.S. government.  Proving treason wouldn’t be easy.  While there’s plenty of grounds for violating the Espionge Act, proving Snowden’s intent to subvert the government would be a tough sledding.  Snowden’s disclosures hurt the U.S. bargaining position with Russia and China, especially on the U.N. Security Council.  Snowden’s new charges that U.S. monitored Chinese telecom companies didn’t sit well with Beijing.  Calling Snowden’s charges “clearly troubling signs,” China Xinhua News Agency accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for accusing China of spying when they were equally if not more than anyone.  Exposing the truth hurts more than dispelling rumors of corruption and human rights abuses.

          U.S. authorities want Snowden’s head now that he’s exposed widespread spying by the NSA.  White House officials can’t expect cooperation from Russia and China now that it’s deliberatively ignored wishes to not intervene in Syria.  Obama’s decision to intervene in Syria has made it all the more difficult to get help on the U.N. Security Council where it counts when it comes to extraditing Snowden.  As it stands now, Snowden will become a PR nightmare for the U.S government as he escapes the long arm of American justice.  Making enemies on the Security Council has come back to bite the White House, now that they want favors from Russia and China.  Snowden’s guilty of violating his confidentiality agreement with Booz Allen Hamiliton but not, as the White House claims, treason.  Whether the U.S. can get him on violating the Espionage Act is anyone’s guess.  What did the government expect trusting a 29-year-old hacker with U.S. national security secrets?    

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.