[Infowarrior] - Snowden's Asylum Status

[Richard Forno]

Snowden Withdraws Russia Asylum Request, As Nine Countries Deny Application

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2013 09:13 -0400

Things are turning from bad to worse for the real-life version of The Terminal's Edward Snowden, who a day after applying to 21 countries for political asylum has been flooded with rejection letters near and far, even as he was forced to cancel his application to his current host nation, Russia, after being told he would have to stop leaking secrets as a condition to stay. More from the FT: "The 30-year-old fugitive’s options narrowed further on Tuesday when China reacted coolly to the idea of him moving there, Poland rejected an application and other European nations said asylum requests had to be made in the country." 

Of the 21 applicants listed yesterday, so far 9 countries have rejected his asylum status application. These include:

	• Austria
	• Brazil
	• Ecuador
	• Finland
	• India
	• Ireland
	• Norway
	• Poland
	• Spain

And with Russia now out of the running too, 10 out of 21 on the original list are out.  The bulk of these countries rejected the application on a technicality, claiming that the applicant must be on their soil before he or she can be granted asylum status.

The countries still remaining on the eligible list include:

	• Bolivia
	• China
	• Cuba
	• France
	• Germany
	• Iceland
	• Italy
	• the Netherlands
	• Nicaragua
	• Switzerland
	• Venezuela

Of the above 11 Venezuela appears to be his best bet: “[Snowden] deserves the world’s protection. He has not asked us for it yet. When he does we will give our answer,” Venezuela's new president Máduro told Reuters during a visit to Moscow. “We think this young person has done something very important for humanity, has done a favour to humanity, has spoken great truths to deconstruct a world that . . . is controlled by an imperialist American elite.” Maduro added that his government had yet to receive a request, despite it being on the WikiLeaks list, but that he sympathised with the man wanted by Washington on spying charges.

What is shocking is how quickly Snowden's original destination, Ecuador, flipped a U-turn on his request. One wonders just what revealing pictures of Maduro the NSA must have in its Utah facility.

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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-02/snowden-withdraws-russia-asylum-request-nine-countries-deny-application