Tuesday, December 3, 2013

What Is Next For NSA Leaker Edward Snowden?

A statement by Hong Kong online media platform ''In Media Hong Kong'' supporting Edward Snowden, a contractor at the National Security Agency (NSA), is seen alongside a petition ''Pardon Edward Snowden'' at the White House website, on a computer screen in Hong Kong in this June 12, 2013 illustration photo. Credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip

The Long Arm Of US Law: What Next For Edward Snowden? -- The Guardian

The US will chase the NSA whistleblower wherever he tries to go, and if he ends up in an American court, he may not be free for decades.

After an eventful six months, Edward Snowden will be hoping for a quieter time ahead – but not as quiet as life in a maximum-security American jail. In Russia since fleeing Hong Kong in June, the NSA computer specialist-turned-whistleblower is living under fairly restrictive conditions. But at least he still has access to the internet – crucial to him – although the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, made it a condition of granting Snowden temporary asylum that he do nothing to embarrass the US further.

Snowden has said he no longer has the documents he leaked, having passed all of them to the journalists he met in Hong Kong in June.

On 21 June, his 30th birthday, the US indicted him on three charges, including two under the Espionage Act: theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorised person, with a possible combined sentence of up to 30 years in jail. Further charges could be added. The death penalty is also available under a section of the act but the US attorney general, Eric Holder, said in July that Snowden would not face execution.

Read more ....

My Comment: He may not be on a Top 10 Wanted List .... but I will hazard a guess that on some unofficial list he is right there beside top Al Qaeda/Mafia/etc. suspects who are presently wanted by the U.S..

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