Snowden causing ripples in US-China relationship

[Vikrant]

BEIJING: The Snowden affair is turning into a major US-China tussle with the US government on Saturday deciding to prosecute whistleblower Edward Snowden and asking the Hong Kong administration to detain him. Washington clearly wants China to stop Snowden's planned flight to Iceland.

Accepting or rejecting the request is fraught with challenges for the Chinese president, who recently met US president Barack Obama and promised to forge a "new big power relationship".

A section of the Communist Party has been exerting pressure on the Chinese government to refuse Washington's request to extradite Snowden, who worked with a contractor engaged by the US National Security Agency. Party-controlled newspapers have been publishing results of opinion surveys showing that Chinese citizens want the government to ignore US' request.

Many believe that Beijing would obtain sweet revenge for the US move to take Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng out of house arrest and bring him to the US last year. The incident hurt China's pride and severely jolted China-US relationship.

The Chinese foreign ministry and the Hong Kong administration have kept silent in the face of repeated questions from journalists about whether it would accept an extradition request from the US.

But refusing Washington on a matter involving its national security is fraught with dangers for China, observers say. It would jeopardize the "new big power relationship" that Xi Jinping tried to build during his recent US tour.

It would also come in the way of China's efforts to bring back hundreds of corrupt officials living in western countries as Beijing will be seen as non-cooperative. Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with the US and might legally find it difficult to turn down a request.

Observers point out that Beijing does not want to be seen ordering Hong Kong on how to behave after years of promising non-interference with its democratic rights. But it is well known that the Chinese government has a hand in the selection of Hong Kong's leaders, and also retains legal powers to order them in matters classified as national security issues.

Snowden causing ripples in US-China relationship - The Times of India

 

[Missourian]

Obama should make a speech.

I doubt it will help...but it's the only thing he's good at.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Treason will always cause ripples

 

[Vikrant]

Moscow (CNN) -- The man who leaked details of U.S. government surveillance programs was on the run late Sunday, seeking asylum in Ecuador with the aid of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the organization and Ecuador's Foreign Ministry announced.

Edward Snowden, the onetime contract analyst for the National Security Agency, left Hong Kong after the U.S. government sought his extradition on espionage charges, WikiLeaks said. He landed in Moscow, where a CNN crew spotted a car with diplomatic plates and an Ecuadorian flag at the Russian capital's international airport.

WikiLeaks, which facilitates the publication of classified information, did not disclose what country would be Snowden's final destination. But Ecuador has already given WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refuge in its embassy in London for nearly a year after he unsuccessfully fought extradition to Sweden in British courts.

And Washington is asking Ecuador, as well as Cuba and Venezuela, not to admit Snowden, a senior Obama administration official told CNN on Sunday. The United States also is asking those countries to expel him if they do admit him, the official said, and a a source familiar with the matter told CNN that the U.S. government has revoked Snowden's passport.

Snowden "left Hong Kong legally" and is headed to Ecuador "via a safe route for the purposes of asylum," WikiLeaks said in a statement issued Sunday afternoon. He is accompanied by diplomats and lawyers for WikiLeaks, including former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, according to a statement from the organization.

"The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr. Snowden's rights and protecting him as a person," said Garzon, who also represents Assange. "What is being done to Mr. Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange -- for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest -- is an assault against the people."

Snowden has admitted he was the source who leaked classified documents about the NSA's surveillance programs to the British newspaper the Guardian and to The Washington Post. The documents revealed the existence of programs that collect records of domestic telephone calls in the United States and monitor the Internet activity of overseas residents.

The revelation of the leaks rocked the Obama administration and U.S. intelligence community, raising questions about secret operations of the NSA and whether the agency was infringing on American civil liberties.

Snowden left Hong Kong on Sunday "through a lawful and normal channel," the government of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory said Sunday. The U.S. government anounnced Friday that it was charging Snowden with espionage and theft of government property and asked Hong Kong authorities to hold him for extradition proceedings.

In a statement Sunday, Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre said Hong Kong authorities had informed U.S. officials of Snowden's departure.

"We will continue to discuss this matter with Hong Kong and pursue relevant law enforcement cooperation with other countries where Mr. Snowden may be attempting to travel," she said.

The U.S. government had also asked Hong Kong to issue a provisional arrest warrant for Snowden, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said in a statement. But HKSAR officials said there were problems with the request.

"Since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR government has requested the U.S. government to provide additional information," Hong Kong officials said.

Because Hong Kong didn't have enough information, "there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong," the government said.

A Justice Department official said Sunday that the United States had met requirements with its request, disputing the assertion from authorities in Hong Kong.

"They came back to us with a few questions late Friday and we were in the process of answering those questions," the official said. "We believe we were meeting those requirements. As far as the relationship with Hong Kong goes, this raises questions and we will continue to discuss with authorities there."

Hong Kong's lack of intervention came after Snowden told the South China Morning Post that U.S. intelligence agents have been hacking computer networks in Hong Kong and mainland China for years.

Hong Kong said it wanted to have some words with the United States about that.

"The HKSAR government has formally written to the U.S. government requesting clarification on earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies," Hong Kong officials said in the same statement. "The HKSAR government will continue to follow up on the matter so as to protect the legal rights of the people of Hong Kong."

U.S. federal prosecutors have charged Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person. The latter two counts amount to espionage under the federal Espionage Act.

Hong Kong Executive Council member Regina Ip said authorities could arrest Snowden if his actions qualify as criminal under Hong Kong law, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported earlier Sunday. The executive council decides on policy matters for Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China.

But if the charges against him were deemed to be political in nature, the 30-year-old would not be extradited, Ip told Xinhua.

President Barack Obama, top legislators and national security officials defend the surveillance programs Snowden detailed as necessary to combat terrorism and argue that some privacy must be sacrificed in a balanced approach.

They say the law allows collection of metadata, such as the time and numbers of phone calls, and that a special federal court must approve accessing the content -- listening to the call itself.

In interviews this month, Snowden said he fled with the classified documents after taking a leave of absence from his job as an intelligence analyst for NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The company has since fired him.

A series of blog posts this week purportedly by Snowden said he leaked classified details about U.S. surveillance programs because Obama worsened "abusive" practices, instead of curtailing them as he promised as a candidate.

Snowden said that he had to get out of the United States before the leaks were published to avoid being targeted by the government.

Snowden on the run, seeks asylum in Ecuador - CNN.com

 

[georgephillip]

Traitor or patriot seems to be one line in the sand when it comes to "leakers" like Snowden.

Noam Chomsky has spent decades protesting against authoritarian intrusions into personal liberties, and the following are his thoughts on Snowden in response to a question from journalist Maha Zaraket in Beirut:

"MZ: Do you have any comments on the Edward Snowden Case?

NC: First of all, I think he has carried out a heroic act. That is the proper act of a citizen to let people know what their government is doing. For the most part, the public should know what their representatives are doing.

"Of course, governments never want that.

"They want to operate in secret.

"I have spent a lot of time looking through the classified documents in the US, which is maybe the freest society, most of the documents are classified to protect the government against its own population and not for security reasons. I think anyone who tries to lift the veil on this is doing the right thing.

"In fact, the programs that the government was carrying out are really illegitimate and it was correct to expose them. I think he is going to suffer for it. You know.

"But it was the right thing to do."

If it's true that "...most of the documents are classified to protect the government against its own population," did Snowden do the patriotic or treasonous thing?

Noam Chomsky Interview: Sykes-Picot Is Failing | Al Akhbar English

 

[Vikrant]

US revokes Edward Snowden's passport, focuses anger on Putin's Russia


The United States revoked Edward Snowden’s passport on Sunday as his globe-trotting escapades from Hong Kong took him to Moscow and, eventually, will reportedly land him in Ecuador.

A State Department representative confirmed the move, and said Snowden should be held in Moscow pending extradition to the US to answer espionage charges.

...

US revokes Edward Snowden's passport, focuses anger on Putin's Russia | GlobalPost

 

[Unkotare]

Traitor or patriot seems to be one line in the sand when it comes to "leakers" like Snowden.

Noam Chomsky has spent decades protesting against authoritarian intrusions into personal liberties, and the following are his thoughts on Snowden in response to a question from journalist Maha Zaraket in Beirut:]

Chomsky has spent decades being a predictable, formulaic, wrinkled old whore for the academia set and wannabes like you. He keeps putting out and you desperate losers keep throwing money at him for more.

 

[Mad Scientist]

We should go to War with China and Russia, that'd get the economy going and be a big distraction from all the gov't scandals.

 

[georgephillip]

Traitor or patriot seems to be one line in the sand when it comes to "leakers" like Snowden.

Noam Chomsky has spent decades protesting against authoritarian intrusions into personal liberties, and the following are his thoughts on Snowden in response to a question from journalist Maha Zaraket in Beirut:]

Chomsky has spent decades being a predictable, formulaic, wrinkled old whore for the academia set and wannabes like you. He keeps putting out and you desperate losers keep throwing money at him for more.

In all those decades Chomsky's never been confused about the elephant in the room:

"On June 9, the Wall Street Journal reported that for the last few years the National Security Agency has been relying on a software program 'with the quirky name Hadoop' to help it make sense of its enormous collections of data.

"Named after a toy elephant that belonged to the child of one of the original developers of the program, 'Hadoop,' reported the Journal, is a crucial part of 'a computing and software revolution … a piece of free software that lets users distribute big-data projects across hundreds or thousands of computers.'”

When will you stop being stupid?

 

[Unkotare]

When will you stop being stupid?

When will you stop frequenting wrinkly old whores, comrade?

 

[Vikrant]

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia and China on Monday that their relations with the United States would be impaired if it becomes clear they had ignored extradition requests for fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, according to media reports.
Snowden was allowed to leave Hong Kong on a flight to Moscow on Sunday, despite the US authorities requesting his extradition for his disclosure of classified documents about US intelligence programs involving monitoring of computer systems and social networks.
Speaking during a visit to New Delhi, Kerry said Snowden has betrayed his country and has to face the consequences, and it would be "very disappointing" if China and Russia had known about the whistleblower’s plans to take a Hong Kong-Moscow plane on Sunday.
"There would be without any question some effect and impact on the relationship" with the US if this had occurred, Kerry said according to the Wall Street Journal. He also said that there was no clear information on where Snowden is staying as of Monday.
Snowden, who is seeking political asylum in Ecuador, was expected to take a flight from Moscow to Havana this afternoon, but did not appear on the flight, which was mobbed by journalists.
Russian officials have not yet confirmed Snowden’s presence in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media he had no idea Snowden had planned to come to Moscow. "I first heard about it from you [journalists]" he said.
Snowden, accompanied by Sarah Harrison, a representive of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, is being kept out of public view in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport transit area, according to an airport source who spoke to RIA Novosti, after he failed to get on a Cuba-bound plane that he had been checked in for.
Meanwhile, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam, that his government's officials “are analyzing with a lot of responsibility” Snowden’s asylum request, the RT state-run Russian television reported.

Kerry warns Russia, China over fugitive mole - media | Russia & India Report

 

[Vandalshandle]

There is no way in hell that any damage is going to be done with relations with China. We are their single largest customer in the world, and their economy would collapse without us. They know it. We know it. It is all just posturing.

 

[Unkotare]

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia and China on Monday that their relations with the United States would be impaired if it becomes clear they had ignored extradition requests for fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, according to media reports.

Do you think they've stopped laughing yet?

 

[georgephillip]

When will you stop being stupid?

When will you stop frequenting wrinkly old whores, comrade?

When will you stop swallowing Carlyle's cum, Slave:

"For defense contractors, the government officials who write them mega checks, and the hawks in the media who cheer them on, the name of the game is threat inflation. And no one has been better at it than the folks at Booz Allen Hamilton, the inventors of the new boondoggle called cyberwarfare.

That’s the company, under contract with the National Security Agency, that employed whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the information security engineer whose revelation of Booz Allen’s enormously profitable and pervasive spying on Americans now threatens the firm’s profitability and that of its parent hedge fund, the Carlyle Group."

Robert Scheer: The Terror Con - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

 

[Vikrant]

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia and China on Monday that their relations with the United States would be impaired if it becomes clear they had ignored extradition requests for fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, according to media reports.

Do you think they've stopped laughing yet?

"We have no relation to Mr. Snowden, his relations with the American justice or his travel around the world," Lavrov said. "He chooses his route himself, and we have learned about it from the media."

Russia rejects US demand for Snowden's extradition - The Times of India

 

[Unkotare]

When will you stop being stupid?

When will you stop frequenting wrinkly old whores, comrade?

"For defense contractors, the government officials who write them mega checks, and the hawks in the media who cheer them on, the name of the game is threat inflation. And no one has been better at it than the folks at Booz Allen Hamilton, the inventors of the new boondoggle called cyberwarfare.

That’s the company, under contract with the National Security Agency, that employed whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the information security engineer whose revelation of Booz Allen’s enormously profitable and pervasive spying on Americans now threatens the firm’s profitability and that of its parent hedge fund, the Carlyle Group."

Robert Scheer: The Terror Con - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

You are just another example of a hysterical liberal who spends his every waking hour obsessing over some group or individual - hanging on their every word - and then insisting that conservatives - most of whom don't know or care about whatever Boogeyman you've chosen today is - must be under the strict and direct control of whatever the source of that obsession is today.

If you are upset with the corrupt administration in the White House today, good for you. If you are just looking for a new excuse to prance around in your Hyperpartisanship Skirt, nobody gives a shit. Your rabid anti-Americanism is well documented here.

 

[Vikrant]

BEIJING: China on Tuesday brushed aside US warnings that the Edward Snowden affair will have a negative effect on mutual relations and hit out at a White House suggestion that it had facilitated the flight of the whistleblower from Hong Kong as "groundless".

...

China ignores US warning on Snowden - The Times of India

 

[Vikrant]

Ecuador yet to decide on Snowden asylum: Correa


QUITO: Ecuador's president said on Thursday he had yet to consider letting US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden enter his country as tensions with the United States rose, with Washington warning Quito against granting the fugitive asylum.

The Ecuadoran leftist government defiantly pulled out of a trade pact with the United States, claiming it had become an instrument of "blackmail" as Quito considers Snowden's asylum bid.

But despite voicing support for Snowden, the Andean nation denied reports that it authorized a "safepass" travel document for the former National Security Agency contractor and said it would not be able to process his asylum bid until he enters Ecuadoran territory.

"Would he be allowed to arrive on Ecuadoran territory? This is something that, in principle, we haven't considered," President Rafael Correa told a news conference.

"We would probably examine it, but for now he is in Russia," he said, adding that Ecuador's ambassador to Russia met Snowden just once on Monday in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and that no more contact had been made.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose anti-secrecy website has assisted Snowden, said on Monday that Quito had given Snowden a "refugee document of passage" that would allow him to travel here.

The US Spanish-language television network Univision published on its website what appeared to be a "safepass" document with the letterhead of Quito's consulate in London, asking authorities in transit countries to "give the appropriate help" as the bearer travels to Ecuador.

"You request asylum when you are on a country's territory. Snowden is not on Ecuadoran territory, so technically we cannot even process the asylum request," Correa said.

The United States revoked Snowden's passport after he revealed a massive US surveillance program, and the 30-year-old computer specialist has been holed up at the Moscow airport's terminal since arriving there from Hong Kong on Sunday.

In Washington, US State Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell warned that giving Snowden asylum would create "grave difficulties for our bilateral relationship."

"If they take that step, that would have very negative repercussions," Ventrell said.

But a US official also denied that a bilateral trade pact was being used as "blackmail" in the case, insisting that Washington wanted to maintain a good economic relationship with Quito.

Ecuador's communications minister Fernando Alvarado announced earlier that the country "unilaterally and irrevocably renounces these preferential customs tariff rights."

"Ecuador does not accept pressure or threats from anyone, and does not trade on principles or make them contingent on commercial interests, even if those interests are important," he said.

Correa's government said that while it had received the preferential rights in exchange for its cooperation in the war on drugs, they had become a "new instrument of blackmail."

But the US State Department said the trade program was granted by Congress and Quito could not withdraw unilaterally.

The pact, which covers key Ecuadoran exports such as fresh-cut roses, fruits, vegetables and tuna, is set to expire on July 31 unless the US Congress renews it.

The arrangement, which dates back to the early 1990s, originally benefited four Andean nations, and Ecuador was the last country still participating in it. Analysts have warned that Washington may refuse to renew it if Quito grants asylum to Snowden.

The United States is Ecuador's main trade partner, buying 40 percent of Quito's exports, or the equivalent of $9 billion per year.

The Ecuadoran business community disapproved of the government's decision.

"It's a hasty and wrong decision because there was no formal US government announcement threatening to remove us from the ATPDEA (Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act) over the Snowden case," Roberto Aspiazu, head of the Ecuadoran Business Committee, said.

Ecuador has said it could take as little as one day or as long as two months to decide whether to grant asylum to Snowden.

An online publication of the Ecuadoran presidency said Washington has put "explicit and implicit" pressure on Quito over Snowden's asylum petition as well as its decision to shelter Assange at its London embassy and its ties with "nations considered 'enemies' of the United States."

Ecuador yet to decide on Snowden asylum: Correa - The Times of India

 

[whitehall]

Obama is about to go on another apology tour. That should do it.

 

[georgephillip]

Obama is about to go on another apology tour. That should do it.

Should Obama apologize for:

"The United States government is hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to gather data from millions of text messages, former intelligence technician Edward Snowden told the Sunday Morning Post in Hong Kong."

Edward Snowden claims US hacks Chinese phone messages - Telegraph

???