Snowden, in new statement, accuses Obama of using ‘old, bad tools of political aggression’
Source: Washington Post
Edward Snowden, in his first public message since arriving at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport eight days ago, has issued a statement accusing President Obama of deploying “the old, bad tools of political aggression” and “using citizenship as a weapon” in order to silence him. It describes the Obama administration as “afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.”
The message also accuses Vice President Biden of pressuring foreign leaders to deny his extradition requests.
Here is Snowden’s statement in full, as it appears on the Wikileaks Web site:
On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.
This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.
Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/07/01/snowden-in-new-statement-accuses-obama-of-using-old-bad-tools-of-political-aggression/
Snowden, whether you believe he is a traitor or a saint, "made off" with sensitive documents he should have brought to the attention of U.S. authorities. His modus operandi, to reveal the data in these documents in countries that continue to live under authoritarian rule, borders on ridiculous. He has placed himself in this situation.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Libertarians! Jeesh! 
But thanks for playing! 
Ecuador danced around the idea, spun him around and then tangoed right out the door without him.
I think every country is moving toward telling him to, as my old neighbor would say, "Fuck the fuck off!"
Whatever the laughable response of the Hong Kong authorities to the extradition request (not the warrant), minor errors in a federal warrant are not sufficient to invalidate it; the invalidation of a warrant can only be due to substantial error.
As for due process, Snowden is free to request and show up for a hearing at a US embassy to challenge his passport revocation. US Marshals will be happy to meet him there. The right to challenge the revocation doesn't mean that the revocation is itself on hold. Moreover, in cases where the revocation is of a fugitive's passport, the State Department is not actually required to notify the fugitive in writing immediately (for rather obvious reasons, if one is not disingenuously emulating a prevaricating Hong Kong bureaucrat), it being sufficient according to procedure to delay notification of the fugitive and simply notify the authorities of the host country until one knows that the fugitive is in custody. Oh ho! So he can't challenge the revocation until he has it in writing, and he need not have it in writing until he is in custody!?? CORRECT. The goal with fugitives is to get them into custody. That's kind of how it works. Check the Foreign Affairs Manual on that.
I laughed. Maybe you will too.
Response to Galraedia (Original post)
How everything changed and how I fear even talking on my phone anymore. I'm even afraid to post on the Internet. I know they are watching me at the library. I am really important to them. Even more important than the Ken Lays of the world and the other robber barrons who were stopped in their tracks because of the intense surveillance of their every move. Gosh, I am afraid of my government.
Thank god I don't have to be worried about drinking polluted water, being shot by racist neighborhood watch guys, or being unarmed and shot to death by local police, or having to jump through new hoops to be able to vote in coming elections, or how to meet the new rent increase, or how to get a job with a living wage...we must protect those media patriots who were so good at convincing us that Saddam had WMD and that it was imperative to attack his nation...yeah, that same media that won't follow the leads on how corporate America is screwing the working poor and middle class. But if they did that would they be whistleblowing and lose their jobs and maybe have to flee to Russia? Just asking..
You're not alone.
Bahhhh.
