The Guardian: Is Edward Snowden a prisoner in Russia?

[solarhydrocan]

Is Edward Snowden a prisoner in Russia?
Luke Harding The Guardian, Sunday 2 February 2014

In the second exclusive extract from his new book, The Snowden Files, Luke Harding looks at the role of Russia's shadowy intelligence agency, the FSB, in securing the whistleblower's exile – and whether they have cracked his secret files

Edward Snowden's prolonged stay in Russia was involuntary. He got stuck in Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport when his efforts to transit to a South American country such as Ecuador, Bolivia or Venezuela failed. But it made his own story – his narrative of principled exile and flight – a lot more complicated. It was now easier for critics to paint him not as a whistleblower and political refugee but as a 21st-century Kim Philby, the British defector who sold his country and its secrets to the Soviets. Other critics likened him to Bernon F Mitchell and William H Martin, two NSA analysts who defected in 1960 to the Soviet Union, and had a miserable time there for the rest of their lives. The analogies were unfair. Snowden was no traitor.

But, for better or worse, the 30-year-old American was now dependent on the Kremlin and its shadowy spy agencies for protection and patronage. According to the activists who met him at Sheremetyevo, Snowden had several new minders. Who were they? All of Moscow assumed they were undercover agents from the FSB.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the KGB was dissolved. But it didn't disappear. In 1995 most of the KGB's operations were transferred to a new intelligence agency, the FSB. Nominally, it carries out the same functions as the FBI and other western law enforcement agencies: criminal prosecution, investigations into organised crime and counter-terrorism. But its most important job is counter-espionage.

One of the lawyers invited to Snowden's press conference in the airport on 12 June 2013 was Anatoly Kucherena. Afterwards Snowden sent an email to Kucherena and asked for his help. Kucherena agreed. He returned to Sheremetyevo two days later and held a long meeting with Snowden. He explained Russian laws. He also suggested Snowden abandon his other asylum requests...more
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/02/is-edward-snowden-prisoner-in-russia

Continuity: The first extract: How Edward Snowden went from loyal NSA contractor to whistleblower

He was politically conservative, a gun owner, a geek – and the man behind the biggest intelligence leak in history. In this exclusive extract from his new book, Luke Harding looks at Edward Snowden's journey from patriot to America's most wanted
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/01/edward-snowden-intelligence-leak-nsa-contractor-extract

DU Post: http://election.democraticunderground.com/10024432170

Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent with the
Guardian. He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. His new book Mafia State: How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia, is published by Guardian Books.
He is currently based at the Guardian's office in London.

This Luke Harding is an excellent author

[Blue_Tires]

1. Harding dances around the topic but neither asks nor bothers to

answer the question many have had from the start, which is: "What deal was agreed to with the Russians for asylum?" It's evident by now that condition number one of the deal was to keep Russia's name out of any future leaks or disclosures, along with Snowden (and by extension Greenwald) refraining from *ANY* public comment on Russia's heavy-handed policy on political dissidents, journalists exposing corruption, GLBT, Chechnya, etc... I've always wondered if that was all, or if there was a part two or three as well...


p.s.: A "Schweitzer 2016" sig?? Good luck with THAT shit...The last national interview he gave already alienated the bulk of the African-American voter base; I shudder to think what he'll do for an encore....

[Blue_Tires]

2. Kick...

I must be a certified thread-killer or something by now...