Putin's Spokesman Says No Change: Russia Won't Extradite Snowden To US

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

MOSCOW - A spokesman for President Vladimir Putin says Russia has not budged from its refusal to extradite U.S. leaker Edward Snowden, who has applied for asylum.

Snowden, who is believed to have been staying at the Moscow airport transit zone since June 23, applied for temporary asylum in Russia last week. The United States wants him sent home to face prosecution for espionage.

Asked by a reporter whether the government's position had changed, Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that "Russia has never extradited anyone and never will." There is no U.S.-Russia extradition treaty.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Putins+spokesman+says+change+Russia+wont+extradite+Snowden/8711662/story.html

[Purveyor]

1. RIA Novosti: Snowden Will Stop Leaks If Given Asylum in Russia – Putin’s Spokesman

MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) – Fugitive US former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden will “no doubt” stop leaking security information if he is given temporary asylum in Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said Friday.

Putin “expressed a firm intention to not allow” further damage to American interests, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked whether Snowden had pledged to stop the leaks when applying for asylum in Russia. “And I have no doubt this is how it will be, no matter how the situation develops,” he added.

Putin is “not participating” in discussions with the US over Snowden, he added. “Judging by the president’s schedule, you can conclude that he is not taking time out from it to follow Snowden,” Peskov told journalists.

The heads of Russia's Federal Security Service and the United States FBI "discuss the issue" of Snowden, he added.

MORE...

http://en.rian.ru/world/20130726/182437451/Snowden-Will-Stop-Leaks-If-Given-Asylum-in-Russia--Putins-Spokesman.html

[dipsydoodle]

2. U.S. pens letter to Russia promising protections for Snowden

(Reuters) - Former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden would not face the death penalty or be tortured and would have all the protections of the U.S. civilian court system if he were sent home, the chief U.S. prosecutor wrote in a letter to his Russian counterpart this week.

In the letter dated July 23 and released on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote that he sought to dispel claims about what would happen to Snowden if Russia handed him over to face charges of illegally disclosing government secrets about surveillance programs.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/uk-usa-security-snowden-russia-idUKBRE96P0H520130726

all the protections of the U.S. civilian court system ?


Russia's Putin "determined" Snowden case will not hurt U.S. ties

Peskov said Putin had expressed "strong determination" not to let ties with Washington suffer over the dispute, "no matter how the situation develops".

But he reiterated Moscow's stance that Russia "did not hand over, does not hand over and will not hand over anybody".

He added that Russia's FSB federal security service FSB and its U.S. counterpart, the FBI were in talks on the matter.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/26/uk-usa-security-snowden-ties-idUKBRE96P0HN20130726

" he reiterated Moscow's stance that Russia "did not hand over, does not hand over and will not hand over anybody"

[truth2power]

3. Eric holder promises fair treatment of Snowden? Says he won't be tortured?...

Let me borrow a phrase from Judge Judy: I wouldn't believe his tongue if it came notarized



This, from the guy who defended Chiquita when they were running death squads in Central America. Ugh!

[dipsydoodle]

5. As I posted elsewhere :

[kardonb]

6. notarized

but you DO believe Putin ? How gullible can yo get , pray tell ? He'll squeeze your friend Snowden dry of every bit of info he can get out of him , then its off to a nice Gulag in Siberia .

[truth2power]

25. What does disbelieving in one have to do with believing in another? ...

Again. Distort and distract.

I'm not going to get into an argument about what Putin would or wouldn't do. Pres. Obama should stop acting like a petulant three year old and let Snowden proceed to his destination of choice - Uruguay, or wherever.

Instead, he bullies other countries into taking action against the aircraft carrying the leader of a sovereign nation, on the off-chance that it's carrying Mr. Snowden. Now I read that the Obama Administration is threatening sanctions against countries that help Snowden in any way. Someone needs to tell him that WE DON'T OWN THE ENTIRE PLANET.

On the other hand, maybe if Obama holds his breath long enough, Snowden will be convinced to take the next flight back to the U.S.

Jeezus! It's embarrassing.

[cstanleytech]

16. The US has honored such promises in the past such as

the case with Jens Söring and he wasnt he a US citizen where as Snowden is and he has even more constitutional protections than Söring in place.

[David__77]

4. The US can try to negotiate a comprehensive extradition treaty.

That's the way to do it. Russia isn't going to do this case-by-case.

[Swede Atlanta]

7. What's in it for Russia?

I find the fact Russia is laughing at the U.S. comical.

Our government complicit by the President and Congress engage in what I view as unconstitutional surveillance of not only non-citizens but its own citizens. And they wonder why the rest of the world says "fuck you" to the U.S.?

The U.S. needs to start accepting responsibility for its past torture, its targeted commercial war on various countries, its egregious surveillance, etc. We are not a nation of laws, we are a nation of despots who happen to carry a veil of legitimacy as a result of an electoral process. I don't think our leaders are any more democratically elected than those in say Egypt are.

[David__77]

8. There are people they want the US to hand over.

Perhaps there could have been a trade at one point, but not now. Unless Putin is politically suicidal.

[hueymahl]

11. +1

[cstanleytech]

17. Russia isnt doing this due to an issue of torture, they are doing it for leverage most likely or

Snowden had something to bargain with and I dont mean with his silence.

[99th_Monkey]

9. So is the US going to start bombing Russia?

or imposing stiff trade sanctions?

not so much. That just applies if you happen to be a small
defenseless nation in Latin America apparently.

[awoke_in_2003]

12. We only bomb those who can't bomb back. nt

[aquart]

10. Excellent. My preferred outcome.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Bet Putin would do it if Snowden was gay.

[Purveyor]

15. I'm disappointed it took 'this long' for that to be brought up. Cheers! eom

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. I was out. >;)

[Veilex]

14. "The United States wants him sent home to face prosecution for espionage"

No, the power brokers who received a bludgeoning want to lynch the man... there would be no justice here. There rarely is when the government is publicly embarrassed. Some of us see what he did as heroic and couragous... and hope those butt-hurt agencies never get their collective talons on the man.

[cstanleytech]

18. BS. Snowden is a citizen and entitled to full protection under the constitution and

even if he wasnt the US has made deals with countries to forgo seeking the death penalty in cases like that of Jens Söring.

[Veilex]

20. I truly hope...

If Snowden does come back to the states and has to face trial, I hope he gets a fair one. Too many people who should have gotten off scot-free, got railroaded due to someone in political office or some agency being vengeful after having a spot light put upon them.

[cstanleytech]

21. To be honest I think he would get a fair one but there is almost 0% chance he wouldnt

be convicted due to the fact he kept giving interviews and issuing threats towards the government of retaliation if anything happened to him and the tapes of those could be used against him and he cant claim the government coerced him to say what he said on them.

[Veilex]

22. You may be right... but I cant say I wouldn't do the same were I in his shoes...

Our government has been awfully brutal to whistle blowers over the last few years. I'd want a little insurance as well... I'd certainly have something set up where if I were disappeared in an attempt to silence me, I'd want whatever secrets I had to be revealed right away, specifically because of the attempted silencing.

[cstanleytech]

23. Brutal? How so?

The only time I can recall them really going after them big are these two current cases of Manning and Snowden who both made the same mistake which was they also released classified information that had nothing to do with revealing a coverup of a crime.
If they had restricted their releases to purely to revealing crimes a whistleblower defense might have worked (even though under the law manning could and should have made the effort to report it to congress and or the inspector generals office first) but as it is they didnt restrict what they released.
Or to make it short, they screwed up.

[Veilex]

24. I see your point.

I cant speak to working as a civil servant, but I know the military (Army in particular), isn't exactly all about providing soldiers with information on how to properly communicate wrong-doing, aside from going up the chain of command. When your chain of command is part of the problem and you don't know who to turn to, I can see situations like Manning's occur. Law enforcement whistle-blowers frequently lose their jobs or get relegated to a low rank which effectively ends their career. Contractors who work for the government have been raped, fired, locked in boxes...heck just look up blackwater whistle-blower retribution to see some of the things they've done. Admittedly, the links below are less current, but are some examples pertinent examples:

http://whistleblowersupporter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/08/iraq-whistleblo.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1905858

http://rt.com/usa/nypd-whistleblowers-facing-retribution-589/

http://www.whistleblowers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=852

http://www.pogo.org/blog/2013/05/time-to-end-the-silent.html

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~eroberts/cs181/projects/2010-11/WikiLeaks/background.html

http://cironline.org/reports/war-whistleblowers-2205

[Major Hogwash]

26. Maybe Greenwald can go testify on Snowden's behalf to the Russian Congress.

Via satellite and then claim he saved the world.