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Snowden Didn't 'Flee to Russia': Obama Trapped Him There
BLUF:[ZERO] Snowden’s itinerary was arranged such that he wouldn’t land in countries that would extradite him to the United States. Nor would he cross U.S. airspace along the way. He was to make four flights in all, taking him from Hong Kong to Moscow, then Havana, Cuba; Caracas, Venezuela and finally Quito. However, upon arriving in Moscow, Snowden was escorted by Russian security officials to an airport conference room, where they informed him that, while he was flying to Moscow, the Obama administration had invalidated his passport. He’d spend the next 40 days at the Sheremetyevo airport, during which he applied to 27 countries for political asylum. "Not a single one of them was willing to stand up to American pressure," Snowden wrote in his memoir, Permanent Record, "with some countries refusing outright, and others declaring they were unable to even consider my request until I arrived in their territory — a feat that was impossible." Seemingly tired of the spectacle, Putin granted Snowden asylum, and he’s been in Russia ever since. The essential point, however, is that Snowden is in Russia because the Obama administration deliberately trapped him there. In 2013 and ever since, rabid Snowden detractors have failed to acknowledge how that move by the Obama White House belied its own assertions that Snowden was a traitor who traveled to Moscow with highly valuable intelligence information and was at high risk of turning it over to the Russian government. Related: Snowden: 2022-09-27 Putin grants Russian citizenship to Edward Snowden Snowden: 2022-09-05 Amazon temporarily shuts down solar rooftops at all US facilities due to fires Snowden: 2022-09-01 How Britain's spy agency originally refused to block Edward Snowden's revelations about mass data collection being published despite a frantic late night call from NSA Posted by: Besoeker 2022-10-02 |
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