Snowden accepts Venezuela asylum, says Russian official

[morningfog]

The head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee says Edward Snowden has accepted Venezuela's offer of political asylum.

Alexei Pushkov made the statement on his Twitter account Tuesday. The message did not clarify how he learned of Snowden's purported acceptance, but Pushkov has acted as an unofficial point-man for the Kremlin on the Snowden affair.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/07/09/us-edward-snowden-asylum-venezuela.html?cmp=rss

[ProSense]

1. Evidently,

this was a tweet that was deleted a few minutes later.

Alexei Pushkov made the statement on his Twitter account Tuesday. The Tweet was promptly deleted.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/edward-snowden-venezuela-asylum_n_3566793.html

Strange.

[morningfog]

2. Agence France-Presse reports that, according to a "top lawmaker,"

Snowden has agreed to asylum in Venezuela. It appears that "top lawmaker" is a Venezuelan (or is it US) source, but doesn't say who.

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/354607382564835329

[ProSense]

3. No, that's the same story.

Edward Snowden has accepted Venezuela's offer of asylum, says senior Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov in Twitter post #breaking

https://twitter.com/ReutersWorld/status/354610306347053057

[morningfog]

4. How can you tell?

It's not clear. It seems AFP would have cited Pushkov or re-tweeted.

[ProSense]

7. Follow the links

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/354618577518739456

[maddezmom]

5. Not sure this is accurate or not...seems to be a lot of confusion

Has Snowden accepted Venezuela's asylum offer or not?



Has NSA leaker Edward Snowden accept Venezuela's offer of asylum or not? The head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee tweeted Tuesday that Snowden has, then quickly deleted the message.

Moments later, the lawmaker, Alexei Pushkov, sent out a new tweet saying, in Russian, that the report that Snowden's purported acceptance was an18-hour old report from the Russian TV program "Vesti 24."

"Contact them about this question," he tweets in Russian.

There was no immediate explanation for the mixed signals by Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov.

Pushkov's initial tweet did not clarify how he learned of Snowden's purported decision, although the Russian politician has played an unofficial role for the Kremlin on the Snowden affair.

More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/09/venezuela-confirms-snowden-asylum-request/2501259/

[morningfog]

8. Definitely confusion. But, if I had to bet, it would be that he has accepted asylum

andis planning his route to Venezuela now.

[maddezmom]

10. Could be, maybe he was told by higher ups to close his trap

[maddezmom]

13. Your link @ CBC has been updated now to reflect the delete tweet.

[randome]

6. Truly scraping the bottom of the barrel after being told 'Go fish' by about 30 other countries.

http://www.eluniversal.com/2011/06/25/in-venezuela-torture-is-not-at-all-a-matter-of-the-past.shtml

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Birds are very territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font]
[hr]

[morningfog]

9. It beats life in prison, or worse.

[randome]

11. Doubtful he'd get life in prison. I've heard anything from 36 months to 10 years.

But then he could still fight the good fight. Except he would have his original problem: no evidence.

It's easier to skate by without evidence when you're making claims while on the run. It would be much more difficult when fact-checkers are present and working to verify his claims.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Birds are very territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font]
[hr]

[morningfog]

12. He is facing 30 years with the current charges. More will be added.

He will get life if he comes back to the US. There is absolutely no reason for him to do that. THere is no "good fight" here.

He has provided evidence, which you go out of your way to ignore, and undoubtedly has more to release.

[gholtron]

18. He has NO evidence of any law breaking

In fact he said that he wanted the public to know that the NSA has been spying. He didn't say they were spying illegally. He wanted the public to make that judgment. He took it upon himself to notify everyone about what the NSA is/was doing because He didn't like it and not because the NSA abused the 4th amendment. Personally, I do hope he doesn't come back. Let's see him do that in Venezuela. Let's see him steal Venezuelan classified documents and report on Venezuela human right abuses. I would LOVE to read all about that.

[former9thward]

15. Bitter much?

Several countries have granted him asylum. The golden age of U.S. imperialism is over. Live with it.

[bvar22]

20. Bitter A LOT.

I have had the privilege of working in Venezuela, and seeing the country.
It is a beautiful country,
and the Venezuelans are beautiful people.
Venezuela is a great place to live.

While I was there, many Americans and Brits who had spent time working there were choosing to live in Venezuela or Costa Rica.

[randome]

22. Hardly bitter. Snowden's little jaunts around the world ("I'm not here to hide from justice.")...

...affect me not in the slightest. Now if he had evidence to support his wild claims, I'd be one of his strongest fans. But he doesn't.

And Venezuela? http://www.eluniversal.com/2011/06/25/in-venezuela-torture-is-not-at-all-a-matter-of-the-past.shtml

Come on, about 30 countries turned him down and now he's scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font]
[hr]

[cali]

14. good, but I dread the lengths that the U.S. will go to get its hands on him

[pinboy3niner]

16. AP: Confusion on Snowden acceptance of Venezuela offer

By JIM HEINTZ— Jul. 9 11:27 AM EDT

MOSCOW (AP) — The net of rumors and uncertainties over NSA leaker Edward Snowden deepened Tuesday when a prominent Russian lawmaker tweeted that Snowden had accepted Venezuela's offer of political asylum, then deleted the posting a few minutes later.

It was not possible to immediately reach Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee who has acted as an unofficial point-man for the Kremlin on the Snowden affair. But soon after the posting on his Twitter account disappeared, he sent another message saying his claim was based on a report from the state all-news television channel Vesti.

However, no such information could be found on Vesti's website and no Russian news agency reported that Vesti had reported it. The TV channel could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Kremlin declined comment on Tuesday's developments.

...


http://bigstory.ap.org/article/russian-official-snowden-accepts-venezuelan-offer

[hack89]

17. Now he just has to get there. nt

[struggle4progress]

19. Is He Or Isn't He? Much Confusion Over Snowden And Venezuela

by MARK MEMMOTT
July 09, 201311:50 AM

... First, Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee of Russia's state Duma, tweeted that "NSA leaker" Edward Snowden had accepted an asylum offer from Venezuela. Snowden, as you probably know, is thought to be in legal limbo at the transit zone of Moscow's airport. He's trying to avoid being sent back to the U.S., where he would be prosecuted for spilling secrets about National Security Agency surveillance programs ...

— Then Pushkov deleted his tweet. Uh-oh. That's usually a sign that someone thinks he shouldn't have said what he just said.

— Pushkov came back minutes later with a tweet that said, "Information that Snowden accepted an offer of asylum from Maduro came from 18-hour release of 'Vesti 24'." That's a Russian news channel.

— But Vesti 24 wasn't mentioning this scoop on its website or on its Twitter page. Hmm. Instead, NPR's Corey Flintoff told us from Moscow that "Vesti 24's 7 p.m. is quoting Pushkov" about Snowden's supposed-decision ...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/09/200382725/is-he-or-isnt-he-much-confusion-over-snowden-venezuela

[morningfog]

21. He is. They just want to keep a lid on it.