Snowden stuck up in Moscow, Ecuadorian president says

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa says US surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden is stuck up in a Moscow airport and cannot leave the country since he does not have a passport.

Correa made the remarks during an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday in Portoviejo, the Pacific coast city of Ecuador, diminishing possibility that the man, who fled the United States this month before leaking documents on secret US spy programs, will arrive in Ecuador soon.

“He doesn’t have a passport. I don’t know the Russian laws, I don’t know if he can leave the airport, but I understand that he can’t. At this moment he’s under the care of the Russian authorities. If he arrives at an Ecuadorean Embassy we’ll analyze his request for asylum,” the Ecuadorean president stated.

Last week, the Presidential Council for Human Rights of Russia expressed its support of Snowden, saying the 29-year-old former US intelligence contractor deserved to receive political asylum in the country of his choice and should not be extradited to the US.

Washington has called on Ecuador, Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia not to provide political asylum to Snowden.

On June 6, Britain’s the Guardian newspaper revealed that a top secret US court order allows the US National Security Agency (NSA), America’s top spy agency, to collect data on the millions of Americans who are customers of major US phone company Verizon.

On the same day, the Washington Post also reported that the NSA had direct access to internet servers, saying their source, a career intelligence officer, was horrified of the capabilities of the systems used by the US spy agency.

On June 9, Snowden admitted his role in the leaks in a 12-minute video published by the Guardian.

The NSA scandal found even broader dimensions when Snowden revealed more information about the American agency’s espionage against other countries.

On June 12, US House Representative Loretta Sanchez said the revelations of Snowden about the spying operations of the NSA are only “the tip of the iceberg.”

“I can’t speak to what we learned in there, and I don’t know if there are other leaks, if there’s more information somewhere, if somebody else is going to step up, but I will tell you that I believe it’s the tip of the iceberg,” the Democratic lawmaker said.