Edward Snowden Tag

In a letter to Russia's Minister of Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder said that Edward Snowden would not face the death penalty or be tortured if he returned to the United States. From the Wall Street Journal: Attorney General Eric Holder, in a letter to Russian counterpart...

Edward Snowden has information that could prove to be the US' "worst nightmare," according to The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, who has been covering the NSA leaker's public revelations of the US government's surveillance activities. From Reuters: "Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government...

UPDATES below the post. Multiple outlets are reporting that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has accepted asylum in Venezuela, and the news is spreading like wildfire.  But there doesn't seem to be reliable confirmation of this news, as most reports appear to be based on a single source - a Russian lawmaker who deleted his relevant tweet. I've been monitoring this for the last two hours and was waiting for actual confirmation, but the news cycle doesn't appear to want to wait. Here's how it's all gone down on Twitter so far. Make sure you read to the end. Several news outlets tweeted earlier today that Snowden had accepted asylum in Venezuela, based on a tweet from Alexey Pushkov, a Russian lawmaker close to the Kremlin. https://twitter.com/AP/status/354609751511924736 https://twitter.com/AFP/status/354607382564835329 https://twitter.com/ReutersWorld/status/354610306347053057 Shortly thereafter however, that lawmaker’s tweet was memory holed. https://twitter.com/b_fung/status/354610393261412352

As the US prepares to meet with China next week, recent leaks by Edward Snowden appear to have put cybersecurity talks in jeopardy. From The Hill: The Obama administration had hoped to press China on the issue during the fifth round of the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic...

The Army is reportedly restricting staff members’ internal access to The Guardian UK’s NSA related news coverage. Officials say automatic content filters are responsible. From the Monterey Herald:

Gordon Van Vleet, an Arizona-based spokesman for the Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, or NETCOM, said in an email the Army is filtering "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks." He wrote it is routine for the Department of Defense to take preventative "network hygiene" measures to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information. "We make every effort to balance the need to preserve information access with operational security," he wrote, "however, there are strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information." In a later phone call, Van Vleet said the filter of classified information on public websites was "Armywide" and did not originate at the Presidio. Presidio employees described how they could access the U.S. site, www.guardiannews.com, but were blocked from articles, such as those about the NSA, that redirected to the British site.

Spencer Ackerman, U.S. national security editor at the Guardian, tweeted earlier that the Department of Defense indicated it is not selectively blocking Guardian content, rather, automatic content filters are responsible. https://twitter.com/attackerman/status/350597454627995648 https://twitter.com/attackerman/status/350598534241861632 Indeed, an email from Van Fleet embedded in the Monterey Herald article goes on to elaborate:

As Edward Snowden bides his time in a Russian airport while he tries to secure safe asylum for himself, US officials are growing increasingly concerned that China and Russia may have gained access to information in the NSA leaker’s possession. The Free Beacon reports: Intelligence agencies in...

A report this afternoon has confirmed suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has taken steps to make his trove of NSA documents available to others in the event "anything happens" to him, in an effort to insure that any information he hopes to see disclosed...

A Hong Kong media outlet has revealed today that NSA leaker Edward Snowden sought the position as an NSA contractor at Booz Allen Hamilton specifically to gather evidence on NSA surveillance. From the South China Morning Post: Edward Snowden secured a job with a US government contractor...

Edward Snowden was expected to board a flight from Moscow today en route to an unknown final destination by way of Cuba and Venezuela.  But officials have said that the NSA leaker did not board that flight. From the Washington Post: Edward Snowden, who was expected to...

UPDATE 6/23 1:00pm EST: Snowden has requested asylum in Ecuador, per Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Minister. https://twitter.com/RicardoPatinoEC/status/348841761684197378 ***** A statement from Hong Kong's government confirms that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has left the country.  A local news outlet reports that Snowden is bound for Cuba and Venezuela by way of Moscow, while Wikileaks is claiming that it has "assisted Mr. Snowden's political asylum." (added -- live feed from Russia Today -- Update -- which confirms Snowden has landed in Moscow) [feed removed] The HKSAR government issued the following statement today:

Mr Edward Snowden left Hong Kong today (June 23) on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel. The US Government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR Government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden. Since the documents provided by the US Government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR Government has requested the US Government to provide additional information so that the Department of Justice could consider whether the US Government's request can meet the relevant legal conditions. 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. Meanwhile, the HKSAR Government has formally written to the US Government requesting clarification on earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies. The HKSAR Government will continue to follow up on the matter so as to protect the legal rights of the people of Hong Kong.

It is notable that the Hong Kong government’s statement makes direct reference to Snowden’s accusations against the US of hacking Hong Kong targets. The South China Morning Post has provided more details on Snowden’s flight itinerary, indicating that he is expected to then fly from Moscow to Cuba, and then to Venezuela.

The 30-year-old left from Chep Lap Kok airport on a flight scheduled for 10.55am. He boarded Aeroflot Flight SU213, which is due to land at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport at 5.15pm local time (8.15pm Hong Kong time). Russian news agencies Interfax and Itar-Tass reported Snowden is booked on a flight from Moscow to Cuba on Monday. Itar-Tass said Snowden would fly from Havana to Caracas, Venezuela. “A passenger under that name will arrive in Moscow from Hong Kong today on flight SU213, and tomorrow, on June 24, he will fly to Havana on flight SU150,” the state news agency ITAR-Tass quoted a source at the airline as saying. “Also tomorrow, he will go to Caracas from Havana on a local flight.”

Wikileaks is claiming that it has assisted Snowden in securing political asylum, and has issued a statement indicating that Snowden requested its assistance to “secure his safety.”  It also said that Snowden is currently “being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks.” https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/348724514135347200 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/348732325909102593 https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/348773063816519681

A Hong Kong news outlet unveiled explosive new hacking accusations against the US on Saturday morning, citing information shared with the outlet by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. From the South China Morning Post: Snowden, who celebrated his 30th birthday on Friday as the US government made public...

Breaking news tonight from the Washington Post: Federal prosecutors have filed a sealed criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of documents about top-secret surveillance programs, and the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain him on...

A full transcript of the Guardian's live online Q&A session with NSA leaker Edward Snowden is provided below.  The contents of the session were transcribed as is, without any edits or corrections to content, only formatting edits. You can also download it via PDF. (Note:  We cannot...