WASHINGTON: US lawmakers yesterday said former national security contractor Edward Snowden’s reported flight to Russia with a plan to flee onward to Cuba or Venezuela undermined his whistle blower claims and they slammed Moscow for helping a fugitive.
An aircraft thought to be carrying Snowden landed in Moscow yesterday after Hong Kong let the former US National Security Agency contractor leave the territory, despite Washington’s efforts to extradite him to face espionage charges.
Democratic US Senator Charles Schumer charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely knew and approved of Snowden’s flight from Hong Kong to Russia. He said that will “have serious consequences” for a US-Russian relationship already strained over Syria and human rights.
“Putin always seems almost eager to stick a finger in the eye of the United States - whether it is Syria, Iran and now of course with Snowden,” Schumer told CNN’s State of the Union, adding that China may have had a role as well. “It remains to be seen how much influence Beijing had on Hong Kong,” Schumer said. “As you know, they coordinate their foreign policies and I have a feeling that the hand of Beijing was involved here.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said Snowden’s reported choice to fly later to Cuba and Venezuela undermines his claim to be a fighter for freedom of information. “Everyone of those nations is hostile to the United States. I mean, if he could go to North Korea and Iran, he could round out his government oppression tour,” the Michigan Republican said on NBC’s Meet the Press programme.
Rogers urged the Obama administration to exhaust all legal options to get Snowden back to the United States. “If he really believes he did something good, he should get on a plane, come back and face the consequences of his actions,” he said.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Snowden needed to be caught and brought back for trial as secrets he was carrying could do a lot of damage to US interests. “I think we need to know exactly what he has,” she told CBS’s Face the Nation. “He could have a lot, lot more that may really put people in jeopardy.”
Schumer aimed most of his fire at Putin, saying “it is almost certain he know, and likely approved” the flight by Snowden, who had been hiding in Hong Kong since leaking details about US surveillance activities to news media. “What is infuriating here is,” Schumer said, was Putin “aiding and abetting Snowden’s escape.” The New York lawmaker is the No. 3 Senate Democrat.
While many blasted Snowden, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee and one of the chamber’s most conservative members, said, “it’s going to be an open question how this young man is judged”.
“If he goes to an independent third country like Iceland and if he refuses to talk to any sort of formal government about this, I think there’s a chance that he’ll be seen as an advocate of privacy.”
If he cozies up to either the Russian government, the Chinese government, or any of these governments that are perceived still as enemies of ours, I think that that will be a real problem for him in history.” Paul said in a separate appearance on CNN’s State of the Union.
Meanwhile, Snowden kept people guessing about his whereabouts and plans. Snowden stayed out of sight after the plane he was believed to be on landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
Passengers arriving from Hong Kong said he may have been whisked away from the runway by waiting cars, initially prompting speculation he may spend the night in a foreign embassy in the Russian capital. “There were a lot of police and black cars when we were getting off the plane,” said a passenger who gave his name only as Olivier.
There was speculation in Moscow earlier that Snowden might seek to stay in Russia. But Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said he was unaware of Snowden’s plans and the Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment on whether he had asked for asylum.
People who have taken refuge in Moscow in the past include Lee Harvey Oswald, the man later accused of assassinating president John F Kennedy. He defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and returned to the United States in 1962, before Kennedy’s murder.
Others include four British double agents during the Cold War — Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby and George Blake. Blake was awarded a medal by Putin in 2007 and lives quietly outside Moscow to this day.
Reuters
