USA Today — But really Snowden would be spoiled for choice, with Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mongolia and Burma among the options of places with nonstop flights from Hong Kong and many remote corners to get lost.
Snowden could also head to mainland China, especially if he used his time in Hong Kong to sort out a visa before he went public. The visa would have cost him as much as a plane ticket to a place like Taipei or Manila but he could avoid flying and travel by bus, train or ferry. It might, however, be a difficult place for him to stay out of the limelight as Beijing would almost certainly take note of his entry and keep a close eye on him. Hotels across the country are required to report to police on every foreign guest.
Or he could head north to Russia, also served from Hong Kong. Media reports there on Tuesday quoted President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary saying Snowden would be considered for asylum. “If we receive such a request, we will consider it,” said Dmitry Peskov.
Give it up spooks. Your gig is blown, doesn’t matter if Snowden drops dead today. Greenwald has the emails and whatever documents and is probably working to connect the dots in his precise, careful manner right this moment. He’ll probably be nominated for a Pulitzer and he might even win one.
One more thing to spook CEOs: if you trust tons of young guys like Snowden with that level of access, why should we trust you?
I don’t think it would help his message if Snowden went to Russia or China. Unfortunately, those are likely the only countries powerful enough to protect him: other nations would either turn him over immediately to appease The Bully of the Block, or not have the means to prevent the US from just sending in a drone to clean up an embarrassing loose end.
On the upside, I doubt the Obama administration wants him captured and extradited: that would mean a public trial and all sorts of very inconvenient constitutional rights. Better if the CIA handles this quietly.
We all know that “wherefore” means “why”, right? [/pedantry]
Phys
Yup that’s why Juliet asks “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” (even tough it’s the Montague part of his name she’s questioning, unless no Capulet would be caught dead being called Romeo).
And Hamlet asks “Wherefore should you do this?” when he’s taking the piss of Polonius. (Poor Polonius, he got it in the arras you know…)
Errata: for ‘tough’ read ‘though’ throughout.
I saw a hit piece by AP (Amateurish Propaganda) today labelling Greenwald an “opinion writer” and “not a journalist”.
Coming from someone who writes tripe for AP, that’s not much of an insult.
…You guy sactually consider him to be at risk of ‘disappearing’ a la Tank Man? I think you’re overhyping the risk here. No he won’t ‘have an accident’ befall him, he will instead be bombarded with court action to simply lock him away forever and/or discredit him, more or less as they want to do to Assange.
No worries!
Iceland already offered him asylum, and they’re one of the few countries not beholden to many people and can actually pull it off.
Assange has the little problem that he was also charged with Rape.
Snowden has several choices, not are really certain.
1. he can return to the US and face the music, although he’d have very vocal support here, he also has people saying he should be charged with treason, so probably not a good idea.
2. he can go to a country like Russia or China that does have an extradition treaty with the US, and claim status as a political prisoner, (an exception to extradition) and hope that his new host country protects him.
3. he can go to a country that has no extradition treaty with the US, and place his hope in the political leadership of that country to face whatever diplomatic pressure the US might bring, and not suddenly arrest him if a big enough carrot is presented.
4. He can go to a foreign country with no extradition treaty (or with one possibly) and simply go off the grid for a while. Lots of places in Africa or southeast asia could facilitate this. Establish a completely new identity and come back in a few years.