Venezuela's President Maduro Offers Asylum to US Fugitive Snowden

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: Reuters Canada

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday he had decided to offer asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has petitioned several countries to avoid capture by Washington.

"I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American, Edward Snowden, so that in the fatherland of (Simon) Bolivar and (Hugo) Chavez, he can come and live away from the imperial North American persecution," Maduro told a televised parade marking Venezuela's independence day.

Snowden is believed to be holed up in the transit area of a Moscow international airport.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis and Deisy Biutrago; Editing by Sandra Maler)



Read more: http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE96500420130706

[idwiyo]

1. K&R !!!

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. Why did he wait until after he left Moscow to make this grand declaration? Eddie coulda hitched.

[totodeinhere]

9. He is not a dictator. He probably had to meet with and consult other members of the government.

before announcing the decision. I hope that Snowden can get safe passage to Venezuela.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. You think he means it this time? He'll be safe in Venezuela as long as he doesn't go out.

For Venezuelans, Kidnappings Are Simply Business As Usual

by Steve Inskeep
June 06, 2013 2:50 AM

"German Garcia-Velutini, a banker, was kidnapped in Caracas and held for 11 months in 2009. Now, he says, he is imprisoned by his bodyguards and feels free only when he is out of the country.

German Garcia-Velutini got into his car and left work one day. It took him 11 months to get home.

Kidnappers had nabbed the Venezuelan banker. His abduction is part of a problem that's been getting worse every year for the past decade in Venezuela, which belongs to a region riddled with crime and the most violent cities in the world."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/06/06/188925079/For-Venezuelans-Kidnappings-Are-Simply-Business-As-Usual

But what do they care? If anything happens to him, they can just blame it on the US.

[totodeinhere]

17. Or he could return to the USA and get tortured like Bradley Manning has.

I think I would take Venezuela risks and all.

[Tarheel_Dem]

18. Then I say GO FOR IT!

One small detail, he has to get out of that damn airport first.

[totodeinhere]

23. I'm sure you would say that. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. Remember, Tarheel_Dem hates all Latin Americans

"Latin America is but a cyst on the anus of the world"

He only participates in the discussions about them to insult.

[bitchkitty]

43. Jesus!

There's a whole lot of hate in that sentence. I'm surprised it didn't get hidden.

[bvar22]

46. I'm GLAD it didn't get hidden.

I want that UP, and with the owners name signed to it,
and also those who have cheered and applauded that hate and bigotry.
THAT doesn't belong at DU,
but I am glad that those who endorse that bullshit have their names signed to it...out in public,
and I applaud Muriel (above) for hanging it around his neck like an Albatross.
He should be forced to [font size=3]Wear It[/font] until he recants his statement,
and offers an apology to Latin America and the decent members of DU for tracking that shit into our house.

That whole thread is an unapologetic Hate Fest of Bigotry and American Exceptionalism.
This is NOT DU's proudest day.



You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]

[bvar22]

45. The ignorance, bigotry, and xenophobia on display is bad enough,

...but it is applauded and cheered in that whole disgusting, Ignorant, thread which is more appropriate to FreeRepublic than to DU.



[font size=3]“Latin America is but a cyst on the anus of the world.”[/font]
is only ONE example of the hate screed applauded and cheered in that thread.

Those are NOT My People.
They are beneath my contempt.
I need to go take a shower.

I take some small comfort that only 11 members among the thousands at DU were willing to recommend that public display of Ignorance, Bigotry, and American Exceptionalism.


You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS.[/font]

[Forgot10Hiro]

49. The Anti-Snowden pro-fascist are an embarrassment to humanity.

It's clear that their minds are warped due to some misguided loyalty to a political candidate that they would sacrifice the whole of their morality.

[muriel_volestrangler]

53. I think Tarheel_Dem's bigotry is for its own sake, though

I can't see how being such an open bigot helps the President in any way. It's just the way Tarheel_Dem is, and presumably always has been. They've just let it out in the open now.

[xtraxritical]

31. All ES needs is a valid passport to leave Russia.

If the Venezuelans are serious they will send him a passport.

[Tarheel_Dem]

32. "If the Venezuelans are serious", couldn't they have done that b/4 he left HK?

[xtraxritical]

42. I dunno.

[JDPriestly]

37. How do we know he is still in that airport?

[Forgot10Hiro]

47. Pffttt!! To equate Snowden to a banker is ridiculous.

Snowden is a peaceful freedom fighter.
Besides people go missing in America all the time for far more sinister reasons than money.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. CNN reporting Nicaragua has also offered asylum.

[maddezmom]

12. BBC has it now as well

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23201774

The presidents of both Nicaragua and Venezuela have indicated their countries could offer political asylum to US fugitive Edward Snowden.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro said it would give asylum to the intelligence leaker, who is believed to be holed up in a transit area of Moscow airport.

Meanwhile Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his country would do so "if circumstances permit".

More at the link.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. We have officially moved to Red on the Color Coded Authoritarian Hystrionics scale.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Stick around, you'll find out.

[silvershadow]

29. Was it the word "fugitive" that did it, by chance? nt

[Peace Patriot]

35. At first I thought you were talking about President Obama and his...

"hystrionic" waylaying of the Bolivian president's official jet and the Bolivian president, by use of lapdogs in European countries. But then I noticed your DU name--"Stupidity"--and I realized that you were calling President Ortega of Nicaragua and President Maduro of Venezuela "authoritarian"--who have kidnapped no one, let alone the elected and revered president of Bolivia, and have drone-bombed no one, and have designated no one as an "enemy combatant" to get around "prisoner of war" laws and socked them away forever in extrajudicial prisons, and have made war on no one, and who, on the contrary, have made a lot of peace, and are furthermore advocates of the poor, of ordinary people and of forgotten and excluded people--presidents like our own FDR who have worked to bring a "New Deal" to their people by popular demand.

"Reds"? "Authoritarians"?



I'm old. I remember Joe McCarthy and have lived through all of the HORRIBLE crimes of my own country in the name of oppressing and killing "Reds." Your comment is ludicrously out-of-date and uninformed.

It is President Obama who is wrong in this case, and who is acting authoritarian. He should be immunizing Snowden and inviting him home to tell all, to Obama and to us. He should indeed be praising his courage and thanking him--instead of hunting him in order to punish and silence him. He should be apologizing to President Morales, who, as head of state in Bolivia, holds the power of asylum, and, IF Snowden had been on his plane, had the RIGHT to offer him protection as an asylum-seeker--a right that, by international law and diplomatic protocol, cannot be taken from a duly elected and recognized head of state. The diversion of his official plane and his detention were wrong, and lawless, from start to finish. Obama should admit it and apologize. But he is not likely to. Why? Because HE represents a country that picks and chooses the laws that it will obey!

[Forgot10Hiro]

48. Did you mean 'histrionics'.... nt.

[Warren Stupidity]

54. I'm lbamign th ipda.

[Arctic Dave]

5. I hope DU stocked up on these. The crazy is gonna be in full swing.

[Ash_F]

11. Oh they are going to lose. Their. Minds. /nt

[Kolesar]

16. speak for yourself ... eom

[Ash_F]

41. Now why would you assume I was talking about you?

Between the content of Arctic Dave's and my own posts?

[Malik Agar]

26. I got my popcorn ready

[silvershadow]

30. Here...

Put some butter on that.

[Purveyor]

27. Oh I don't think even one of those could constrain 'some'. That said, the division of positions on

this Snowden issue on DU is telling, indeed!

Don't think I've ever seen anything like it that wasn't 'primary election' related.

I'm so glad this is 2014...

[Coyotl]

8. Finally, some real news.

I think I'll think about how long to think about this news before I say anything.

[Ash_F]

10. Saw that coming. /nt

[frontier00]

15. Response

What will Obama response be?

[frontier00]

13. Never Happen

Good luck escaping the airport Snowden, Obama has all eyes on you
Mars might as well said snowden gets asylum, he is not leaving

[DeSwiss]

20. This time I bet the bully backs down.

All eyes are on US too. And they're all PISSED!

- Time's up.....

[Nanjing to Seoul]

28. Convicted without a trial. The American way for people who stand up while everyone else sits down

Obama has all eyes on you. . .Snowden will get suicided.

Good luck escaping the airport. . .the US Government never really had respect for the sovereignty of other nations. However, I doubt they will do anything so wide open in another country and provoke a war. Drones are only used in countries that do not have the military ability to strike us back. Russia has that ability.

Snowden will be let on the plane.

[JDPriestly]

38. How do you know Snowden is still in the airport?

Have you seen his photo?

[Forgot10Hiro]

50. Why doesn't Obama have eyes on Clapper?

Clapper committed perjury in front of congress.
Snowden told the truth about illegal actions taken against every American citizen.

[DeSwiss]

19. K&R

[center]Oh, the weather from Washington is spiteful
Venezuelan citizenship is so delightful
And now that he has a place to go
Let it Snowden! Let it Snowden! Let it Snowden![/center]

[frontier00]

21. Snow-job can't run

Snow-job won't leave, how the hell is snow job gonna get out,
If snow job gets to ven, this will kill the dems chances at the white house for years to come
O. it's time to call in the seals

[DeSwiss]

22. You've been watching too many movies. Grow up. n/t

[Socal31]

44. Unfortunately Snowden is why people are talking about Snowden.

This information needed to get out there. However, there was already a conduit with a large audience that could have done it for him. (Wikileaks). He also obviously has the technical knowledge to deliver that information to them anonymously.

Any honest profile of him would include "narcissist" at least once. I am grateful for what he did, but the way he did it was ludicrous. Now, the story is about him, not about PRISM or our 4th amendment.

He wanted to be the real life Jason Bourne, but was not as perceptive as he thought, apparently. The list of countries turning him down for asylum is telling.

[bvar22]

24. Venezuela is a stunningly beautiful country,

....with stunningly beautiful people.
I will be forever grateful for the time I was able to spend in Venezuela,
and the opportunity to get off the path and see the REAL Venezuela.
I fell in LOVE with this place.

Our neighbors in Latin America have given us a successful Blue Print for "CHANGE".
When the US Working Class & Poor realize we have more in common with each other
than we have in common with the Ruling 1% and their Mouth Pieces in Washington,
then WE can have "change" too!


VIVA Democracy!!!!
I pray we get some here soon!

[font size=3]Run, Eddie, RUN!![/font]
Don't let the bastards catch you!
You're gonna LOVE Venezuela!

[Judi Lynn]

25. Whenever a Latin American country makes a statement not putting US interests first,

above those of the majority of people in its own country, corporate media here, and the wire services insist the country, or even all the countries are "DEFYING" the U.S. That has always seemed so damned strange.

We hear quotes, in the days after classified documents are opened, of US officials like Henry Kissinger claiming things like:

“I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

http://www.alternet.org/world/top-10-most-inhuman-henry-kissinger-quotes

[pam4water]

33. K&R

[dipsydoodle]

34. Snowden Offered Asylum In Two Countries

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has been told he could be welcomed in Nicaragua and Venezuela after applying to another six countries for asylum.

Speaking at a public event, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his government was willing to grant political asylum to the former NSA contractor "if circumstances permit it".

He added: "We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua.

>

Mr Ortega said his government had received an asylum application at its embassy in Moscow.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/snowdens-asylum-hunt-widens-says-wikileaks-205401691.html#DgZTgDC

[Peace Patriot]

36. Kudos and laurel wreaths to President Maduro and to President Ortega!

I'm so glad these presidents have stepped up and done the right thing. I wish ours would follow their example.

[AnneD]

40. I cannot help but to compare....

When the Pentagon Papers were released, Ellsberg did not have to leave the country to exercise his right in the democracy. And yet when Snowden leaks a massive unconstitutional internal spy program, he has to leave the country to exercise his rights. This is the clearest example of the erosion of our democracy I can imagine.

I am glad for Snowden but sad for our country.

[bunnies]

51. I hope they got that TP shortage all squared away.

Could be a hell of a shitstorm on the horizon.

[allin99]

52. and several dif. types of planes can get there...

without needing to refuel even if he flies around all the european nations.

http://blog.privatefly.com/edward-snowden-fly-private-jet-moscow-ecuador

he just has to find one that will take him. He can raise the money to somehow pay for it, even though that will be tricky, what bank will want to do that, what internet money processor will do it, etc, cuz the u.s. just ain't gonna let it happen, then from there get to ecuador, which would be better imo, the president isn't as much of a wanna-be dictator.

All that's standing btwn him and actually asylum is someone who is willing to rent/lend him a plane and someone willing to fly it (both of whom will be in for a world of shit, even if just spotlighted to the point of insanity). Russia will happily put him on that flight. All in all, not an easy feat, but his closest possibility yet.

[Forgot10Hiro]

55. I wish the best for this young, brave, heroic man. nt