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Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983)^[1] is an American former technical contractor for the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who leaked details of several top-secret U.S. and British government mass surveillance programs to the press.^[2][3]

Snowden leaked the information, primarily to Glenn Greenwald of London's The Guardian, in spring 2013 while employed as an "infrastructure analyst" at NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The Guardian in turn published a series of exposés in June 2013 and revealed programs such as the interception of US and European telephone metadata and the PRISM and Tempora Internet surveillance programs. Snowden said the leaks were an effort "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."^[3][4][5] Snowden's leaks are said to rank among the most significant breaches in the history of the NSA.^[6]

On June 14, 2013, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government property.^[7]

Personal life[link]

Childhood, family and education[link]

Snowden was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina,^[8] and grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina.^[9] His father, Lonnie Snowden, a resident of Pennsylvania, was an officer in the United States Coast Guard,^[10] and his mother, a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, is a clerk at a federal court in Maryland.^[9][11]

By 1999, Snowden had moved with his family to Ellicott City, Maryland,^[9] He studied computing at Anne Arundel Community College^[9] to gain the credits necessary to obtain a high-school diploma, but he did not complete the coursework.^[12] Snowden's father explained that his son had missed several months of school owing to illness and, rather than return, took and passed the tests for his GED at a local community college.^[13][5][14] Snowden worked online toward a Master's Degree at the University of Liverpool in 2011.^[15] Having worked at a US military base in Japan, Snowden reportedly had a deep interest in Japanese popular culture and had studied the Japanese language^[16] and later also worked for a Japanese anime company.^[17][18] He also said he had a basic understanding of Mandarin and was deeply interested in martial arts, and listed Buddhism as his religion.^[19]

Career[link]

On May 7, 2004, Snowden enlisted in the United States Army as a Special Forces recruit but did not complete the training.^[1][20] He said he wanted to fight in the Iraq war because he "felt like [he] had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression."^[5] However, he said he was discharged four months later on September 28 after having broken both of his legs in a training accident.

His next employment was as a National Security Agency (NSA) security guard for the Center for Advanced Study of Language at the University of Maryland,^[21] before, he said, joining the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to work on IT security.^[22] In May 2006 Snowden wrote in Ars Technica, an online forum for gamers, hackers and hardware tinkerers, that he had no trouble getting work because he was a "computer wizard." In August he wrote about a possible path in government service, perhaps involving China, but said it "just doesn't seem like as much 'fun' as some of the other places."^[20]

Snowden said that in 2007 the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was responsible for maintaining computer network security.^[23] Snowden described his CIA experience in Geneva as "formative", stating that the CIA deliberately got a Swiss banker drunk and encouraged him to drive home. When the latter was arrested, a CIA operative offered to intervene and later recruited the banker.^[24] Swiss President Ueli Maurer commented, "It does not seem to me that it is likely that this incident played out as it has been described by Snowden and by the media."^[25] The revelations come at a sensitive time for US-Swiss relations as the Swiss government attempts to pass legislation allowing for more banking transparency.^[26]

The Guardian reported that Snowden left the agency in 2009 for a private contractor inside an NSA facility on a US military base in Japan^[5] later identified as Dell,^[27] which had substantial classified contracts.^[27] Snowden remained on the Dell payroll until early 2013.^[27] NSA Director Keith Alexander has said that Snowden held a position at the NSA for the twelve months prior to his next job as a consultant,^[28] with Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information clearances.^[29] According to The New York Times, Snowden took a Certified Ethical Hacker training course in 2010.^[30] USIS completed a background check on Snowden in 2011.^[31]

Snowden described his life as "very comfortable", earning a salary of "roughly US $200,000."^[32] At the time of his departure from the US in May 2013, he had been working for consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton for less than three months inside the NSA at the Kunia Regional SIGINT Operations Center in Hawaii,^[33][34][35] employed on a salary of $122,000.^[36] While intelligence officials have described his position there as a "system administrator", Snowden has claimed he was an "infrastructure analyst", which meant that his job was to look for new ways to break into Internet and telephone traffic around the world.^[37] He said he had taken a pay cut to work at Booz Allen,^[38] and that he sought employment in order to gather data on NSA surveillance around the world so he could leak it.^[39] The firm said Snowden's employment was terminated on June 10 "for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy."^[36][40]

According to Reuters, a source "with detailed knowledge on the matter" stated that Booz Allen's hiring screeners found some details of his education "did not check out precisely", but decided to hire him anyway; Reuters stated that the element which triggered these concerns, or the manner in which Snowden satisfied the concerns, were not known.^[41] The résumé stated that Snowden attended computer-related classes at Johns Hopkins University. A spokesperson for Johns Hopkins said that the university did not find records to show that Snowden attended the university, and suggested that he may instead have attended Advanced Career Technologies, a private for-profit organization which operated as "Computer Career Institute at Johns Hopkins."^[41] A spokesperson for University College of the University of Maryland said that Snowden had attended a summer session at a University of Maryland campus in Asia. Snowden's resume stated that he estimated that he would receive a University of Liverpool computer security master's degree in 2013. A spokesperson for the university said that in 2011 Snowden registered for an online master's degree program in computer security and that "he is not active in his studies and has not completed the program".^[41]

Before leaving for Hong Kong Snowden resided in Waipahu, Hawaii with his girlfriend.^[42] According to local real estate agents, Snowden and his girlfriend moved out of their home on May 1, leaving nothing behind.^[12]

Political views[link]

Snowden has said that in the 2008 presidential election he voted for third-party candidates. He has claimed he had been planning to make disclosures about NSA surveillance programs at the time, but he decided to wait because he "believed in Obama's promises." He was later disappointed that Obama "continued with the policies of his predecessor."^[43] For the 2012 election, political donation records indicate that he contributed to the primary campaign of Ron Paul.^[44][45]

Several sources have alleged that Snowden, writing under the pseudonym "TheTrueHOOHA," was the author of hundreds of posts made on technology news provider Ars Technica's chat rooms.^[46][47][48] A variety of political topics are discussed in the posts. In a January 2009 entry, TheTrueHOOHA exhibited strong support for the United States' security state apparatus and said he believed leakers of classified information "should be shot in the balls."^[49] However, by February 2010 TheTrueHOOHA was framing privacy debates in Constitutional terms: "I wonder, how well would envelopes that became transparent under magical federal candlelight have sold in 1750? 1800? 1850? 1900? 1950?." The last known public posting by TheTrueHOOHA was made on May 21, 2012.

On June 17, 2013, Snowden's father spoke in an interview on Fox TV, expressing concern about misinformation in the media regarding his son. He described his son as "a sensitive, caring young man... He just is a deep thinker." While he was in agreement with his son in his opposition to the surveillance programs that he revealed, he asked his son to stop leaking and return home.^[13] In accounts published in June 2013, interviewers noted that Snowden's laptop displayed stickers supporting internet freedom organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Tor Project.^[5] Snowden said of himself: "I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."^[50]

Media disclosures[link]

Snowden first made contact with documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in January 2013.^[51] According to Poitras, Snowden chose to contact her after seeing her report on William Binney, an NSA whistleblower, in The New York Times. She is a board member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation along with Glenn Greenwald.^[52] Greenwald, reporting for The Guardian, said he had been working with Snowden since February,^[53] and Barton Gellman, writing for The Washington Post, says his first "direct contact" was on May 16.^[54] However, Gellman alleges Greenwald was only involved after the Post declined to guarantee publication of the full documents within 72 hours.^[54] Gellman says Snowden was told his organization could not guarantee when or the extent his revelations would be published, and Snowden succinctly declined further cooperation with him.^[54]

Snowden communicated using encrypted email,^[51] using the codename "Verax". He asked not to be quoted at length for fear of identification by semantic analysis.^[54]

According to Gellman, prior to their first meeting in person, Snowden wrote, "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end."^[54] Snowden also told Gellman that until the articles were published, the journalists working with him would also be at mortal risk from the United States Intelligence Community "if they think you are the single point of failure that could stop this disclosure and make them the sole owner of this information."^[54]

In May 2013, Snowden was permitted temporary leave from his position at the NSA in Hawaii, on the pretext of receiving treatment for his epilepsy.^[5] On May 20, Snowden flew to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong,^[55][56] where he was staying when the initial articles about the NSA that he had leaked were published.^[55][57] Among other specifics, Snowden divulged the existence and functions of several classified US surveillance programs and their scope, including notably PRISM (surveillance program), NSA call database, Boundless Informant. He also revealed details of Tempora, a British black-ops surveillance program run by the NSA's British partner, GCHQ.

Snowden explained his actions saying: "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things [surveillance on its citizens]... I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded."^[58]

Snowden's identity was made public by The Guardian at his request^[53] on June 9. He explained his reasoning for forgoing anonymity: "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong."^[5] He added that by revealing his identity he hoped to protect his colleagues from being subjected to a hunt to determine who had been responsible for the leaks.^[59]

Reactions[link]

United States[link]

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper, described the disclosure of PRISM as "reckless."^[60] The NSA formally requested that the Department of Justice launch a criminal investigation into Snowden's actions.^[60] On June 14, 2013, US federal prosecutors filed a sealed complaint, made public on June 21,^[7][61] charging Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person; the latter two allegations are under the Espionage Act.^[62]

In June 2013, the US Army blocked access to parts of the Guardian website related to government surveillance programs for thousands of defense personnel across the country.^[63] A spokesperson described the filtering as a routine "network hygiene" measure intended to mitigate unauthorized disclosures of classified information onto the Department of Defense's unclassified networks.^[63]

Reactions to Snowden's disclosures among members of Congress were largely negative.^[64] Speaker of the House John Boehner^[65] and Senators Dianne Feinstein^[66] and Bill Nelson^[67] called Snowden a traitor, and several senators and representatives joined them in calling for Snowden's arrest and prosecution.^[68][69][70] Representative Thomas Massie was one of few members of Congress to question the constitutional validity of the government surveillance programs and suggest that Snowden should be granted immunity from prosecution.^[71] Senators Ted Cruz^[72] and Rand Paul^[73] offered tentative support for Snowden, saying they were reserving judgment on Snowden until more information about the surveillance programs and about Snowden's motives were known. Senator Paul said, "I do think when history looks at this, they are going to contrast the behavior of James Clapper, our National Intelligence Director, with Edward Snowden. Mr. Clapper lied in Congress in defiance of the law, in the name of security. Mr. Snowden told the truth in the name of privacy."^[74] Former US president Jimmy Carter said: "He's obviously violated the laws of America, for which he's responsible, but I think the invasion of human rights and American privacy has gone too far ... I think that the secrecy that has been surrounding this invasion of privacy has been excessive, so I think that the bringing of it to the public notice has probably been, in the long term, beneficial."^[75]

A Gallup poll conducted June 10–11, 2013 showed 44 percent of Americans thought it was right for Snowden to share the information with the press while 42 percent thought it was wrong.^[76] A USA Today/Pew Research poll conducted June 12–16 found that 49 percent thought the release of information served the public interest while 44 percent thought it harmed it. The same poll found that 54 percent felt a criminal case should be brought against Snowden, while 38 percent thought one should not be brought.^[77][78] In a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted June 12–16, 43 percent said Snowden should be charged with a crime, while 48 percent said he should not be.^[79]

A We the People petition launched on the White House website on June 9 to seek "a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes [Snowden] has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs" attained 100,000 signatures within two weeks.^[80]

Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who received the leaked documents, praised Snowden for having done a service by revealing the surveillance on the American public.^[81][61] John Cassidy, also of The New Yorker, called Snowden "a hero", and said that "in revealing the colossal scale of the US government's eavesdropping on Americans and other people around the world, [Snowden] has performed a great public service that more than outweighs any breach of trust he may have committed."^[82] CNN columnist Douglas Rushkoff also called Snowden's leak an act of heroism.^[83] Amy Davidson, writing in The New Yorker, was thankful for the "overdue" conversation on privacy and the limits of domestic surveillance.^[84]

Political commentators and public figures such as Noam Chomsky,^[85] Chris Hedges,^[86] Michael Moore^[87], Cornel West,^[88] Glenn Beck,^[87] Matt Drudge,^[89] Alex Jones,^[90] Andrew Napolitano,^[91] Oliver Stone^[92] and Michael Savage^[93] have praised Snowden for exposing secret government surveillance. Other commentators were more critical of Snowden's methods and motivations.^[94]

The editors of Bloomberg News argued that, while the government ought to prosecute Snowden, the media's focus on Snowden took attention away from issues of U.S. government surveillance, the interpretations of the Patriot Act, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court actions, all of which are "what really matters in all this."^[95] Greenwald accused the media in the U.S. of focusing on Edward Snowden instead of focusing on wrongdoing by Clapper and other U.S. officials.^[96] Alex Berenson, a former The New York Times reporter and a writer of seven spy novels, argued that the federal government should have flown a representative to Hong Kong to invite Snowden to give testimony in front of the U.S. Congress and receive a fair criminal trial, with a view to preventing further unintended disclosures of classified information to other countries.^[97]

European governments[link]

British Foreign Minister William Hague admitted that Britain's GCHQ was also spying and collaborating with the NSA, and defended the two agencies' actions as "indispensable".^{[98][99][100]} Meanwhile, UK Defence officials issued a confidential DA-Notice to British media asking for restraint in running further stories related to surveillance leaks including PRISM programme and the British involvement therein.^[101]

European governments reacted angrily, with German and French leaders Angela Merkel and François Hollande branding the spying as 'unacceptable' and insisting the NSA stop immediately,^{[100][102][103][104]} while the European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding sent Washington an official list of questions and demanded an explanation.^[105][106] European diplomats feared that upcoming EU–US trade talks would be overshadowed by the disclosures.^{[107][104][106]}

Human rights organizations[link]

Human Rights Watch said that if Snowden were able to raise the issue of NSA mass surveillance without facing espionage charges, then he would not have left the United States in the first place.^[108]

Widney Brown, Senior Director of Amnesty International, feared that if Snowden was forcibly transferred to the United States, it would put him at "great risk" of human rights violations.^[109]

China and Hong Kong[link]

The South China Morning Post published a poll of Hong Kong residents conducted while Snowden was still in Hong Kong that showed that half of the 509 respondents believed the Chinese government should not surrender Snowden to the United States if Washington raises such a request; 33 percent of those polled think of Snowden as a hero, 12.8 percent described him as a traitor, 23 percent described him as "something in between".^[110]

Hong Kong demonstration at US Consulate on June 15 in support of Snowden

Referring to Snowden's presence in the territory, Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung assured that the government would "handle the case of Mr Snowden in accordance with the laws and established procedures of Hong Kong [and] follow up on any incidents related to the privacy or other rights of the institutions or people in Hong Kong being violated."^[111] Hong Kong Democrat legislator Albert Ho denounced the "unlawful, unjustified and unscrupulous" interference, and demanded the "the whole truth ... an unconditional apology ... and an assurance this interference will stop"^[112] and pan-democrat legislators Gary Fan and Claudia Mo said that the perceived U.S. prosecution against Snowden will set "a dangerous precedent and will likely be used to justify similar actions" by authoritarian governments.^[113] During Snowden's stay, the two main political groups, the pan-democrats and Pro-Beijing camp, found rare agreement to support Snowden.^[114][115] The DAB even organised a separate march to Government headquarters for Snowden.

The People's Daily and the Global Times editorials of June 19 stated respectively that the central Chinese government was unwilling to be involved in a "mess" caused by others, and that the Hong Kong government should follow the public opinion and not concern itself with Sino-US relations.^[116] A Tsinghua University communications studies specialist, Liu Jianming, interpreted that the two articles as suggesting that the PRC government did not want further involvement in the case and that the HKSAR government should handle it independently.^[116]

After Snowden left Hong Kong, Chinese-language newspapers such as the Ming Pao and the Oriental Daily expressed relief that Hong Kong no longer had to shoulder the burden of the Snowden situation.^[117] Mainland experts said that, although the Central Government did not want to appear to be intervening in the matter, it was inconceivable that the Hong Kong government acted independently in a matter that could have far-reaching consequences for Sino-US relations. One expert suggested that, by doing so, China had "returned the favor" for their not having accepted the asylum plea from Wang Lijun in February 2012.^[118] The official Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily denied the US government accusation that the PRC central government had allowed Snowden to escape, and said that Snowden helped in "tearing off Washington's sanctimonious mask".^[119]

Ecuador[link]

After Robert Menendez, chairman of the United States foreign relations panel, warned Ecuador that accepting Snowden "would severely jeopardize" preferential trade access the United States provides to Ecuador,^[120] Ecuador's President Rafael Correa responded by abdicating US trade benefits.^[121] A government spokesman said that Ecuador would offer the USA "economic aid of US$23 million annually, similar to what we received with the trade benefits, with the intention of providing education about human rights."^[122]

Correa criticized the US media for centering its focus on Snowden and countries supporting him, instead of focusing on the global and domestic privacy issues implicated in the leaked documents.^[123]

United Nations[link]

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that "the Snowden case is something I consider to be misuse" and that digital communications should not be "misused in such a way as Snowden did."^[124] Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an Icelandic legislator, criticised Ban for expressing a personal view and said that Ban "seemed entirely unconcerned about the invasion of privacy by governments around the world, and only concerned about how whistleblowers are misusing the system."^[124]

Whistleblower community[link]

Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower and leaker of the top-secret Pentagon Papers in 1971, stated in an interview with CNN that he thought Snowden had done an "incalculable" service to his country and that his leaks might prevent the United States from becoming a surveillance state. He said Snowden had acted with the same sort of courage and patriotism as a soldier in battle.^[125] In an op-ed the following morning, Ellsberg added that "there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material ... includ[ing] the Pentagon Papers".^[126] Ray McGovern, a retired CIA officer who presented White House intelligence briefs for multiple presidents, expressed agreement with Ellsberg, adding "this time today I'm feeling much more hopeful for our democracy that I was feeling this time yesterday."^[127]

William Binney, a whistleblower who disclosed details of the NSA's mass surveillance activities, said that Snowden had "performed a really great public service to begin with by exposing these programs and making the government in a sense publicly accountable for what they're doing." However, after Snowden cited a conversation with a "reliable source" about allegations that the US was "hacking into China", Binney felt he was "transitioning from whistle-blower to a traitor."^[128]

Thomas Drake, former senior executive of NSA and whistleblower as well, said that he feels "extraordinary kinship" with Snowden. "What he did was a magnificent act of civil disobedience. He's exposing the inner workings of the surveillance state. And it's in the public interest. It truly is."^[128]

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hailed Snowden as a "hero" who has exposed "one of the most serious events of the decade – the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state."^[129] After charges against Snowden were revealed, Assange released a statement asking people to "step forward and stand with" Snowden.^[130]

Shamai Leibowitz, who leaked details about an FBI operation, said that the legal threats and "smear campaign" against Snowden is a "grave mistake" because "If the government really wanted to keep more secrets from coming out, they would do well to let this man of conscience go live his life in some other country."^[131]

Itinerary[link]

Snowden left Hawaii for Hong Kong on May 20, 2013 and traveled to Moscow on June 23 as Hong Kong was deliberating a request for his extradition.^[132]

Hong Kong[link]

When asked why he had chosen to be in Hong Kong when the articles about NSA surveillance programs were disclosed to the public, Snowden explained:

NSA employees must declare their foreign travel 30 days in advance and are monitored. There was a distinct possibility I would be interdicted en route, so I had to travel with no advance booking to a country with the cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained. Hong Kong provided that. Iceland could be pushed harder, quicker, before the public could have a chance to make their feelings known, and I would not put that past the current US administration.^[38]

Snowden said that he was predisposed "to seek asylum in a country with shared values", and that his ideal choice would be Iceland.^[3][5] The International Modern Media Institute, an Icelandic freedom of speech advocacy organization, issued a statement offering Snowden legal advice and assistance in gaining asylum.^[133] Iceland's ambassador to China, Kristin A. Arnadottir, pointed out that asylum could not be granted to Snowden because Icelandic law requires that such applications be made from within the country.^[134]

Snowden vowed to challenge any extradition attempt by the US government, and he was reported to have approached Hong Kong human rights lawyers.^[135] In an interview with Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, Snowden said that he planned to remain in Hong Kong until "asked to leave."^[136] He added that his intention was to let the "courts and people of Hong Kong" decide his fate.^[137]

Media reports emerged that the British government was strongly discouraging airlines from allowing Snowden to board any flight bound for the United Kingdom.^[138][139]

On June 20 and 21, a representative of WikiLeaks said that a chartered jet had been prepared to transport Snowden to Iceland,^[140] and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced that he was brokering a discussion between Snowden and the Government of Iceland for Snowden to possibly be granted asylum in Iceland.^[141]

On June 23, US officials said that Snowden's US passport had been revoked.^[142] On the same day, Snowden boarded the commercial Aeroflot flight SU213 from Hong Kong to Moscow, accompanied by Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks.^[143][144] Hong Kong authorities said that Snowden had not been detained as requested by the United States because the United States' extradition request had not fully complied with Hong Kong law^{[145][146][147]} and there was no legal basis to prevent Snowden from leaving.^{[148][149][Notes 1]}

Snowden's passage through Hong Kong inspired a local production team to produce a low-budget five-minute film titled Verax. The film, depicting the time Snowden spent hiding in the Mira Hotel while being unsuccessfully tracked down by the CIA and China's Ministry of State Security, was uploaded to YouTube on June 25, 2013.^[152][153]

Moscow[link]

Ecuador embassy car in front of Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow on June 23, 2013.

On June 24, 2013, Julian Assange told reporters that WikiLeaks had paid for Snowden's lodging in Hong Kong and his flight out. Assange said Snowden was "bound for Ecuador", via Russia and perhaps other countries as well.^[154] Nobody saw Snowden getting off the flight from Hong Kong, and there were some speculations as a car bearing diplomatic plates was seen on the airport tarmac.

Upon Snowden's arrival in Moscow, Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, announced that Snowden had requested asylum in Ecuador.^[155] The United States has an extradition treaty with Ecuador, but it contains a political offense exception under which Ecuador can deny extradition if it determines that Snowden is being prosecuted for political reasons.^[156]

On June 25, 2013, Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Snowden's arrival in Moscow was "a surprise." As Snowden remained in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, Putin said Snowden had not committed any crime on Russian soil^[157] and was free to leave and should do so.^[158] He also claimed that Russia's intelligence agencies "had not worked with" Snowden. ^[158] Putin's claims were received skeptically by some observers:^[159] one Moscow political analyst said "Snowden will fly out of Russia when the Kremlin decides he can go."^[160] Anonymous Ecuadorean officials told the Associated Press that Russia had blocked requests to let Snowden leave Moscow.^[161]

On June 30, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa told the Associated Press that Snowden was "under care" of Russia and could not leave Moscow.^[162] President Evo Morales of Bolivia seemed predisposed to offer asylum to Snowden during an interview with Russia Today.^[163]

Morales plane incident[link]

On July 2, the airplane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales home to Bolivia from Russia was rerouted to Austria when France, Portugal, Spain and Italy denied access to their airspace due to suspicions that Snowden was on board.^[164] Morales had been attending a conference of gas-exporting countries in Russia. Lisbon Airport refused permission for the airplane to make a scheduled landing for fuel, and France refused to let the airplane cross their airspace. The refusals for "technical reasons", strongly denounced by Bolivia, Ecuador and other South American nations, were attributed to rumors perpetuated allegedly by the US that Snowden was on board.^[165][166] Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José García-Margallo, publicly stated that they were told Edward Snowden was on board but did not specify who had given him this information.^[167] Austrian media later claimed the rumor originated with the US ambassador to Austria.^[168] It was originally reported that Snowden was not found on board after Morales allowed a "voluntary" search of his aircraft by Austrian authorities in Vienna. On July 7, Austrian officials announced that although an airport staff member had boarded the plane regarding a reported technical problem, there had been no "formal inspection", saying that federal law gave no reason, as Morales' plane is "his territory".^[169] The plane had departed from Vnukovo Airport instead of Sheremetyevo Airport, 27 miles (Bad rounding here{{#invoke:Math|precision_format| 43.452288 | 1-1 }} km) away.^[170]

At an emergency meeting of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on July 4, Latin American leaders denounced the "imperialist hijacking" or the "kidnap" of President Morales' plane by the United States and its European allies.^{[171][172][173]} Various critics say the event is causing harm to European–Latin American relations, including Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who said "the embarrassment suffered by President Morales affects not only Bolivia, but all of Latin America.^[174][175] The governments of Bolivia and five other South American nations demanded "public apologies" from the involved countries. France apologized almost immediately after the event, saying they were unaware Morales was on the plane.^[176][177] Morales threatened to shut down the US embassy in Bolivia, and said "apologies are not enough because the stance is that international treaties must be respected."^[178]

US officials pre-emptively sent extradition requests to Latin American countries where Snowden might seek asylum or travel through.^[179] Venezualian President Nicolás Maduro rejected the petition and stated that the US had "no moral authority" to arrest Snowden after revealing what he called US "crimes against humanity". Bolivia also rejected the request.^[180]

Asylum requests[link]

On July 1, WikiLeaks revealed that Snowden had applied for political asylum to 20 countries.^[181] Snowden's WikiLeaks handler, Sarah Harrison, had submitted Snowden's request for political asylum in Russia the previous day.^[182]

A statement attributed to Snowden also contended that the U.S. administration, and specifically Vice President Biden, had unjustly pressured the governments of these countries to refuse his petition for asylum.^[183] Wikileaks reported that Snowden made a second batch of applications for asylum in 6 countries, but declined to name them citing to prior interference by US officials.^[184][185]

Favorable[link]

Russian president Vladimir Putin immediately offered Snowden asylum stating that Snowden would have to "stop his work aimed at harming our American partners" if he wanted to remain.^[186][187] The Russian government said Snowden had withdrawn his asylum application upon learning about the conditions.^[181][188]

One day after the UNASUR meeting held on July 4, 2013, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his country would give asylum to Snowden "if circumstances permit", without detailing what the conditions were;^[189] Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he had also decided to offer asylum to Snowden.^[190][191] Bolivian President Evo Morales also announced he would grant asylum to Snowden, "if asked",^[192][193] as a protest against the US and European nations that took part in blocking his plane, and to protect Snowden from the persecution by the USA.^[194]

Declined[link]

Brazilian Foreign Ministry said that the government "received the request for asylum and doesn't intend to respond to the request".^[195] France said, "Given the legal analysis and the situation of the interested party, France will not agree".^[196]

Others[link]

Finland, Germany, India, Poland, Norway, Austria^[197] and Italy cited technical grounds for not treating the application, saying that applications for asylum to these countries must be made from within the countries' borders or at border stations.^{[181][195][198][199]} A Chinese spokesman said they had no information about any request from Snowden.^[200]

See also[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Edward Snowden at Wikipedia's sister projects
	Media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Database entry Q13424289 on Wikidata

• "DNI Statement on Recent Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information." (Archive) Office of the Director of National Intelligence. June 6, 2013. PDF Version (Archive)