He's structured his journey so that if the USA tries to force the plane to Havana down in a US airport, it will create an international incident <i>with Russia</i>. The USA could give two shits about antagonizing Cuba, but Russia is still scary.
Traveling within a few hundreds miles of Gitmo. The movie of this is going to be amazing.<p>It's like a world tour of US foreign failures under Bush's fourth term.<p>Can we start a whitehouse petition for Obama to give back his Nobel Prize?
This is slightly strange: the best onward flight to Havana is Aeroflot 150, which departed Moscow SVO 30 minutes ago. This makes Snowden's layover in Moscow likely to be over 20 hours, so one must wonder if he plans to stay there a while.<p><a href="http://flightaware.com/live/findflight/UUEE/MUHA/" rel="nofollow">http://flightaware.com/live/findflight/UUEE/MUHA/</a><p>If he will indeed fly HK-Moscow-Havana-Caracas without delay, he may finish with flight V04101 on Monday at 23:50 Venezuela time (21:20 California time).
Why do we know all this? If he had such a perfect plan why does the whole world know where he's headed? Or maybe he's just really bad at keeping secrets.
It's ironic that Snowden's destination, Venezuela, is fairly authoritarian itself: the 2008 Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index rated Venezuela as a "Hybrid Regime", and as the least democratic state in South America. His countries of aid so far (China, Russia, possibly Cuba) have a similarly poor record. I guess Snowden doesn't have a problem getting help from, or possibly living under, an authoritarian régime, if it suits his interests. Not a terribly principled man. Indeed, it would be better for the cause of domestic surveillance were he to subject himself to the mega-press event that would be a criminal trial in the U.S. Obviously the outcome would be much worse for him in that case.
One question that I saw floating around on Twitter is how could the US Gov charge Snowden on espionage? <i>Espionage</i> doesn't apply or does it?<p>Let's say you and I share some secret. When I pass that information you trusted in me to a third party (who is interested in acquiring that information) <i>secretly</i> for some favor (cash/kind) only then it becomes a case of espionage no?<p>When I share facts that were meant to be confidential according to you with everyone through a public channel then how does it become a case of espionage? It's only a revelation albeit a forced one.<p>How are we placed on this?
I am curious to know how Snowden is financing his travel, lodgings and meals at this point since, presumably, his access to US financial accounts has been cut off. Does a warrant for arrest enable US authorities to place a hold on his accounts?<p>Without a residency visa of some kind, it is difficult to open foreign financial accounts abroad. Perhaps he has a bag full of cash although that may create some issues of its own with various immigration authorities.