Snowden Gets Assylum Offer From Venezuela and Nicaragua

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro said it would give asylum to the intelligence leaker, who is believed to be stuck up in a transit area of Moscow airport.

Actually Venezuela would be an excellent choice to go in this hemisphere which is a country not controlled by United States.  Actually the best place would be Canada but that would never happened. This is not like the Viet Nam days in which Canada showed exceptional courage in doing what was right even though both the Democratic Administration of Lyndon B. Johnson and Republican Richard M. Nixon put surmateble pressure against the Canadians to not accept and exatradite all the young guys that were going there before being drafted for the war or just desserting the army while on leave in the US.

Any country in Europe would be best of all because the trip could be made by a combination of land and waterand sikipping air but any place the Russians fly should not be a problem. Cuba would be just great, except that he is a decade or two too late. The government there now as both Fidel and his brother Raul, who is the President now, are looking to possibly improve relations with the United States, particularly while they have a democratic adminisration. He Could have a nice life in Cuba with little money and be able if the government there would allow it to have internet and phone access to anywhere. However I would be surprised of that happening. 

Contrary to Julian Assange that kept jumping from one place to the other and eventually was quiet down by a sillly charge of rape. A charge that anyone can prove and it can put someone in jail for a quarter of a century. He has been given assylum by Equador (Extradiction and information on Assange), He (Snowden have been stuck in one place, which is very uncomfortable for him but probably safer since the Russian have given him free passage to leave to anywhere that would take him.

Meanwhile Ex contra-Leader Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his country would do so "if circumstances permit”.

The offer from Mr. Ortega, ex enemy of the administration of Ronald Reagan, who tried to forced him out of office even though he had been elected President ( so much for the statement of the USA that Morsi in Egypt could nlot be forced out by the Army because he was dully elected ( sometimes I think that the governemnt of the USA, both Congress and the White House either Don’t know history or they think all the people have forgotten it).

In Nicaragua he wont be as well as in Venezuela which is a country more educated than Ncaragua and a bit less poor because of their oil imports. Yes I said lesss poor when it shpould be rich being that the have enough oil for theselves and to import. Someone most be righ overthere, I hear from the people from there that is not the people that are rich. You wonder sometimes…!

Bolivia's Evo Morales said Mr Snowden could get asylum there if he sought it.

Mr Snowden has sent requests for political asylum to at least 21 countries, most of which have turned down his request. Earlier, Wikileaks said he had applied to six additional countries on Friday.

The whistleblowing website said it would not name the countries "due to attempted US interference".

But even if a country accepted the American's application, getting there could prove difficult, the BBC's Steven Rosenberg, in Moscow, reports.

European airspace could be closed to any aircraft suspected of carrying the fugitive, our correspondent says.

Earlier this week, several European countries reportedly refused to allow the Bolivian president's jet to cross their airspace on its way back from Moscow - apparently because of suspicions that Edward Snowden was on board.

Mr Morales described Mr Snowden's actions as "a fair way of protesting" and described him as "persecuted by his fellow countrymen".

"We are not scared [of reprisals]," he added.

President Maduro made his announcement in a speech on Venezuela's Independence Day.

"As head of state and government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young US citizen Edward Snowden so he can come to the fatherland of Bolivar and Chavez to live away from the imperial North American persecution," President Maduro said.

The US wants to prosecute Mr Snowden over the leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents.

Earlier Mr Ortega said Nicaragua had received an application at its embassy in Moscow.

"We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua," AFP news agency quoted the Nicaraguan president as saying.

 Daniel Ortega was a fierce opponent of the US during his first period as Nicaragua's president in the 1980s, after the left-wing Sandinista movement came to power.

Bolivia, which had also suggested it could offer Mr Snowden asylum, saw its presidential plane barred from European airspace on Tuesday.

There was speculation the 30-year-old was on the plane carrying President Evo Morales back from Russia to La Paz earlier this week.

"Edward Snowden has applied to another six countries for asylum," tweeted Wikileaks, which has been helping the former CIA contractor.

"They will not be named at this time due to attempted US interference."

The US has been blamed for being behind the decision by France, Portugal, Italy and Spain to close its airspace to Bolivia's president, whose plane was grounded in Austria for 13 hours as a result.

Earlier on Friday, Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo admitted he and other European officials had been told that Mr Snowden was on board - but refused to say who gave out the information.

He denied Spain had closed its airspace to the presidential plane, explaining that the delay in Austria meant the flight permit had expired and needed to be renewed.

His comment is the first official recognition by the European states that the incident with Mr Morales' plane was connected with the Snowden affair.

It has been widely condemned by President Morales and several other South American nations, who were critical of the US.

Mr Snowden arrived in the Moscow airport from Hong Kong last month.

He revealed himself to be responsible for the leaking of classified US intelligence documents that revealed a vast surveillance programme of phone and web data.

The documents have also led to allegations that both the UK and French intelligence agencies run similarly vast data collection operations, and the US has been eavesdropping on official EU communications.

{{Adam}}

source: BBC/UK