Snowden makes Moscow Statement, Releases List of Countries Contacted for Asylum

Local Editor

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden released a statement Monday night from Moscow saying he is "impressed at the efforts taken by so many" to help him, with WikiLeaks hours later releasing a list of countries to be sent applications for asylum.

Sarah Harrison, WikiLeaks' legal advisor to Edward Snowden, made requests for asylum from a long list of nations, according to a news release posted to that organization's website early Tuesday morning.

Requests were made following the initial bids submitted to Ecuador and Iceland, with the list now including countries throughout Europe, Latin and Central America, and several others. The complete list is below:

"The requests were made to a number of countries including the Republic of Austria, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Finland, the French Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of India, the Italian Republic, the Republic of Ireland, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Nicaragua, the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Poland, the Russian Federation, the Kingdom of Spain, the Swiss Confederation and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," the statement reads.

The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Frode Anderson, confirmed on Tuesday that an application for asylum had been received at the Norwegian embassy in Moscow. However, he noted that although the document is supposedly signed by Snowden, there was no way of verifying the signature's validity. Anderson declined to give any further information regarding the subject matter of the application.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, said that Venezuela had not yet received an application for political asylum from the US fugitive.
"Snowden is a man who told the truth and demands protection under international human rights law," said Maduro to press during a trip to Moscow.

Poland has also confirmed that it received an asylum application.

The former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents detailing widespread domestic and foreign surveillance said he is disturbed by what he sees as the Obama administration's use of international intimidation tactics.
"On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic ‘wheeling and dealing' over my case," Snowden wrote. "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."
Snowden highlighted how Washington's effort to bring him home for prosecution seemed to reflect a new ideology that portrays citizenship as a kind of extrajudicial blunt weapon.
"For decades the United States of America [has] been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum," Snowden wrote. "Sadly, this right laid out and voted for by the US 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."
The statement refers to a Friday phone call between US Vice President Joe Biden and Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, in which Biden asked Correa to reject Snowden's request for political asylum.

The statement, posted to the WikiLeaks website, is the second time the whistleblower has communicated to the public since arriving in Moscow from Hong Kong on Sunday, June 23. The first time came the same day in the form of a letter thanking Ecuadorian lawmakers for considering his request for political asylum and for helping him travel to Russia.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team