HI HO
Edward Snowden Leaves Moscow Airport
By Elizabeth Coady
EDWARD SNOWDEN IS FREE TO WALK ABOUT THE COUNTRY.
WikiLeaks tweeted the information earlier today:
Edward Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia for a year and has now left Moscow airport under the care of WikiLeaks' Sarah Harrison
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 1, 2013
Snowden has been awarded temporary asylum in Russia for one year.
“I just saw him to a taxi out of the airport,” Snowden’s attorney Anatoly Kucherena told the Los Angeles Times. “It is up to him to choose a residence inside Russia, but his location will remain secret for the duration of his stay.”
“For the most wanted man on earth,”he said, “personal safety is his No. 1 priority now.”
The announcement has usual Congressional lawmakers sputtering rabid-mad. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said “Americans in Washington should consider this a game changer in our relationship with Russia,” while Sen. John McCain insisted it was a “slap in the face of all Americans.”
The announcement comes one day after The Guardian revealed yet another top-secret surveillance program operated by the National Security Agency. The program XKeycode gives security analysts access to virtually every American’s phone, email, Internet search and social media exchange — a claim repeatedly denied by Congressional and Obama Administration officials.
Using information provided by Snowden, the newspaper already revealed the PRISM program, enabling the government direct access to the major tech company’s computers.
Snowden, 30, had been holed up inside Sheremetyevo International Airport after he arrived June 23 from Hong Kong. The U.S. canceled his passport, effectively imprisoning him in Russia as he applied for asylum in countries around the globe. Only three Latin American countries ultimately welcomed him, but traveling to them has become a problem after the U.S. muscled allies and alliances to prohibit Snowden from traveling through their air space.
Russia’s offer of temporary asylum comes despite intense lobbying by U.S. officials to prevent that move. Attorney General Eric Holder even wrote a letter to Russia’s minister of justice assuring him that Snowden would not face the death penalty should he be returned to the U.S. But Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnae reads between the lines the the animated cartoon below.
