U.S federal prosecutors have charged whistleblower Edward Snowden with espionage, theft and conversion of government property in a sealed criminal complaint, and asked Hong Kong to detain him ahead of a move to extradite him.
Though the criminal complaint is sealed, charges of espionage and theft are undoubtedly based on Snowden's extraction of classified documents from NSA servers, which led to the publication of several articles regarding the NSA's PRISM program, which alleged to harvest private user data through cooperation with a slew of American corporations including Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Federal prosecutors have now laid the groundwork for Snowden's extradition back to the U.S for trial, and have 60 days to file an indictment, The U.S currently has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, though that treaty includes an exception for crimes of a political nature. The 29 year old former intelligence analyst flew to Hong Kong last month, having been in contact with journalists at The Washington Post and The Guardian Newspapers regarding a series of highly classified documents regarding a massive electronic surveillance program run by the U.S National Security Agency that he had acquired and intended to leak.
Washington has now asked Hong Kong's government to detain Snowden on a provisional arrest warrant, according to officials who spoke with the Post. Though the territory is considered a ''semi-autonomous'' region under Chinese sovereignty, it is unclear whether the matter will be handled solely by Hong Kong's legal system or without intervention from Beijing.
More detail to follow on this story as it breaks.
Nearly two weeks ago a Fox News analyst called for Snowden's execution. Here is that interview:
Though the criminal complaint is sealed, charges of espionage and theft are undoubtedly based on Snowden's extraction of classified documents from NSA servers, which led to the publication of several articles regarding the NSA's PRISM program, which alleged to harvest private user data through cooperation with a slew of American corporations including Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Federal prosecutors have now laid the groundwork for Snowden's extradition back to the U.S for trial, and have 60 days to file an indictment, The U.S currently has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, though that treaty includes an exception for crimes of a political nature. The 29 year old former intelligence analyst flew to Hong Kong last month, having been in contact with journalists at The Washington Post and The Guardian Newspapers regarding a series of highly classified documents regarding a massive electronic surveillance program run by the U.S National Security Agency that he had acquired and intended to leak.
Washington has now asked Hong Kong's government to detain Snowden on a provisional arrest warrant, according to officials who spoke with the Post. Though the territory is considered a ''semi-autonomous'' region under Chinese sovereignty, it is unclear whether the matter will be handled solely by Hong Kong's legal system or without intervention from Beijing.
More detail to follow on this story as it breaks.
Nearly two weeks ago a Fox News analyst called for Snowden's execution. Here is that interview:
If our Government had not been spying on it's own citizens this would be a non issue. The fact that they were and wanted to keep it secret as if we do not have the right to know about it makes it a problem. Why aren't people concerned that they are spying on us and that is unconstitutional and a breach of trust. Whistleblowing is very dangerous business. Either you will die in some mysterious accident or untimely heart attack or you will be charged with treason or espionage and given the death penalty. Wow! At the same time this administration sends guns to drug cartels and dealers in Mexico, Fast and Furious. It lets 4 American citizens be murdered by jihadist in Benghazi, with a stand down order to the military. It uses the IRS to intimidate certain segments of society that disagrees with this administration. Then it wants us to believe that spying on us is for our own safety, right! Umm, why then were they were not able to stop the Boston bombing? Please, those who will surrender their liberty for a sense of security, deserve neither. This man did not commit treason, or espionage, he did steal some information and then expose the truth about our Government spying on us. It was not about the Government spying on our enemies, or other Countries, it is us they are worried about, it is us they fear, and for telling us they are spying on us, he must die?
ReplyDeleteAGREED! Last year 15,000+ non US Citizens entered this country under a visa and completely disappeared. Security failure! Russia sends notices to US government agencies warning of a family of a seriously potentially extremely dangerous family of terrorist living in the US and the US Govt. responds by allowing this family to blow up people at the Boston marathon. Security failure! And NOW, they want us to believe that they are gathering 20 TB of information an hour so they can sift through it for security purposes??? Seriously? 20 F*****G TBs... AN HOUR! This man did not sell or give information to an American enemy. This is NOT espionage. What this man did was notify the American public to the dangers of their government's underhanded and dirty ways. Now that I think of it, maybe he did share that information with the enemy of the US Govt.
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