I'm a little shocked that even here on Hacker News, most of the top-level comments fell for the headline, rather than focusing the attention back where it belongs: <i>the reason why Snowden needs asylum in the first place</i>.<p>Enough of this drama. Snowden has served his purpose in revealing the extend of the NSA shenanigans, but we really shouldn't have to read about his every move.<p>This Reuters news release does not even mention the nature of the leaks that put Mr. Snowden in this situation. It's truly a sad state of reporting and public discourse.<p>Edit: taking a bit of my own advice:<p>We need to stop the NSA snooping all of our communications and restore due process for searches and seizures!
Assuming Venezuela provides Snowden with some sort of travel document to leave Russia, the next big question is, how far is the US willing to go to apprehend him? How exactly is Snowden going to get a flight plan that allows him safe passage to Venezuela.<p>Obama previously said 'he's not scrambling jets' to catch him, but given this week's events I don't believe him. I wouldn't at all be surprised if the US went after his flight somehow. It seems like this administration is willing to be the international villain in their attempts to catch Snowden.<p>And maybe the CIA wouldn't dare forcibly take Snowden out of Russia or China, but who's to say they wouldn't do so to a smaller, less powerful country?
I live in Venezuela. It is routine here that politicians air private conversations, by telephone, or even recorded inside houses. Until a few weeks there was even a TV program, sponsored by the government, that now and then aired private conversations by opposition leaders, for political benefits of course.<p>I really don't know if Snowden knows that, but it would be really ironic if he accepted the proposal.
The most concerning part of this article are the comments which to me feel like they have been paid for.<p>Take this for example:<p>'Snidely70448 Snowden STOLE 3 NSA computers with top secret classified government documents in violation of his employment agreement with Booz Allen, theft alone is a basic crime and when the theft involves top secret government documents it’s in violation of the Espionage Act. Flight to avoid prosecution is also a crime in this country. These laws weren’t written yesterday just for Mr. Snowden. The U.S. is seeking Edward Snowden to answer to those charges. Plain and simple. He isn’t being singled out or vilified. You claim that NSA is violating the 4th Amendment (Congress and the Patriot Act disagree with you), yet you ignore that Snowden violated basic laws of the land.'
Nicaragua is thinking about that as well: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/06/edward-snowden-venezuela-asylum" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/06/edward-snowden-v...</a>
Assuming he makes it down there, who is up for visiting sometime? I've never been to Venezuela -- Angel Falls is really the only tourist thing which interests me there.
In the video you can see Maduro, Venezuela's President, making the official decision public. Of course, it's still to be seen if Snowden decides to go there, and how\when is he going to do it.
One thing I don't understand is why Mr. Snowden did not remain anonymous when he leaked his information? Wouldn't that have given him more options for avoiding reprisal? Or did he reveal his identity to protect himself?
Heh, quite stylish that Maduro mentioned the US/Israel's proxy war in Syria in the same breath. Interestingly, pre-conflict Syrian relations were discussed pointedly by Assange with Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, in his <i>The World Tomorrow</i> interview: <a href="https://assange.rt.com/nasrallah-episode-one/" rel="nofollow">https://assange.rt.com/nasrallah-episode-one/</a> Dig the beard.
> "Who is the guilty one? A young man ... who denounces war plans, or the U.S. government which launches bombs and arms the terrorist Syrian opposition against the people and legitimate President Bashar al-Assad?" he asked, to applause and cheers from ranks of military officers at the parade.<p>I had to laugh at the sheer absurdity.
Going with Iceland kind of seems like a no-brainer. He initially went to Hong Kong, which has a much lower incident of Government corruption than even the US (forgot the link, saw this mentioned in an article). I'm guessing that Venezuela is not going to score very high on that list compared to Iceland. In addition, as others have mentioned, it becomes much more political, as there is an "enemy"/animosity vibe between us and some Latin American countries, whereas there is not with Iceland.<p>It would end up being kind of ironic and sad if he had to live in a country that ended up being just as corrupt and used this level of spying on its own citizens. Pretty confident that Iceland would not be pulling crap like that.
Here is the president's video:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RILfbj7m6CI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RILfbj7m6CI</a>
Assuming he were to fly commercial. What way can he get from SVO to Caracas (CCS)? Like what's a possible route whereby he isn't flying over france/italy/spain which have supposedly not allowed him to fly over their airspace?
Is a jet chartered for him? Does a G4 have the range? Where does it need to stop to refuel?
I was actually fearing that Argentina would volunteer for this. I appreciate that they got the jump on us in this case. I dont think we(Argentina) should meddle on this one.