NSA Leaker Edward Snowden to Leaves Hong Kong for Moscow, Russia … Bound for Venezuela via Moscow and Cuba? Iceland? Ecuador?

It appears that Hong Kong thought little of the United States formal request for the extradition of Edward Snowden.

Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, is reported by the Guardian to have left Hong Kong and is on his way to Moscow Russia. According to accounts, Snowden has left on Aeroflot flight to Moscow along with representatives of WikiLeaks. According to the AP, the Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden left “on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel.” Talk about having little respect for the United States. Hong Kong just thumbed their nose at the US request for extradition.

The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has flown out of Hong Kong, where he had been in hiding since identifying himself as the source of revelations on US surveillance programs, despite a US request for his arrest.

The 30-year-old had previously said he would stay in the city and fight for his freedom in the courts. But the Hong Kong government confirmed that he left on Sunday, two days after the US announced it had charged him with espionage, saying documents filed by the US did not fully comply with legal requirements.

It also said it was requesting clarification from Washington on Snowden’s claims that the US had hacked targets in the territory.

Video from Fox & Friends Sunday

The South China Morning Post is reporting that Snowden is bound for Venezuela via Moscow and Cuba.

US whistle-blower Edward Snowden has left Hong Kong and is on a commercial flight to Russia, but Moscow will not be his final destination.

The fugitive whistle-blower boarded the Moscow-bound flight earlier on Sunday and would continue on to another country, possibly Cuba then Venezuela, according to media reports.

The Hong Kong government said in a statement that Snowden had departed “on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel”.

The 30-year-old left from Chep Lap Kok airport on a flight scheduled for 10.55am. He is believed to have boarded Aeroflot Flight SU213, which landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport at 5.03pm local time, according to the airport’s website.

Wikileaks statement: Wikileaks is claiming that it has assisted Snowden in securing political asylum.

Mr Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who exposed evidence of a global surveillance regime conducted by US and UK intelligence agencies, has left Hong Kong legally. He is bound for a democratic nation via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks.

Mr Snowden requested that WikiLeaks use its legal expertise and experience to secure his safety. Once Mr Snowden arrives at his final destination his request will be formally processed.

Former Spanish Judge Mr Baltasar Garzon, legal director of Wikileaks and lawyer for Julian Assange has made the following statement:

“The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden’s rights and protecting him as a person. What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange – for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest – is an assault against the people”.

UPDATE I: As reported at CNN, Edward Snowden has landed in Moscow.

The global cat-and-mouse hunt for Edward Snowden took a dramatic turn Sunday when the man wanted on U.S. espionage charges fled Hong Kong and reportedly arrived in Russia.

WikiLeaks said in a Twitter post Sunday that Snowden had touched down in Moscow. But the organization, which facilitates the publication of classified information, did not disclose what country would be his final destination.

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Announced It Has Arrested a CIA Spy Identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle in Moscow

RUT-ROH … Russia’s security services, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested what they are saying is a CIA agent posing as an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The man has been identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle. He was arrested on suspicion of spying. The FSB said Fogle had been masquerading as a career diplomat at the Political Section of the U.S. Embassy, but that he was a CIA employee. Hmm, how’s that Obama – Russia reset button going? Much, much more at RT, Russia Today.  Let’s see how the Obama administration handles this one.

 Ryan Christopher Fogle inside FSB office

Russia’s security services claimed Tuesday to have arrested a CIA agent posing as an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for allegedly trying to recruit a Russian secret service agent to work for the U.S.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it had detained a man identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle on the evening of May 13 or early the next morning for attempting to recruit a Russian agent.

The U.S. Embassy would not comment on the reports when contacted Tuesday morning by CBS News.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted a statement from the FSB as saying Fogle was arrested while trying to recruit a member of the Russian security services, and he had on his person, “special technical devices, written instructions for the Russian citizen being recruited, a large sum of cash and means of changing his appearance.”

After being arrested and processed by Russian security services, the man was handed back to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Moscow.

Russia – Beyond the Headlines: FSB arrests CIA agent in Moscow.

Technical devices, a large amount of cash in Euros and disguises were also confiscated during the arrest.

Fogle also possessed a letter that offered the Russian officer up to $1 million per year in compensation and asked him to set up a new Gmail account to accept the offer.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said via Twitter that the embassy had no comment at this time. The embassy’s press service also confirmed that the U.S. mission in Moscow would not comment on the situation

Poor, Poor Pitiful Terrorist … No One Wants To Bury Boston Marathon Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev … Ship His Carcass Back to Russia COD!

Wait, what do I hear, crickets playing the violin?

File the following story under, no kidding, REALLY? It would appear that there are no takers to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was responsible for killing three people and inuring over 200 others as two bomb explosions occurred at the finish line and later killing an MIT parole officer. Imagine that? The funeral home owner Peter Stefan stated that it would be impossible to send the body back to Russia and added the family wants Tsarnaev buried in Boston. I COULD CARE LESS WHAT HIS PARENTS WANTED!!! What is wrong his this funeral owner, has he lost his mind when he said, “If we had Hitler here, we would bury Hitler.” NO WE WOULD NOT!!! Impossible, how is it impossible? Ship Tamerlan’s dead terrorist carcass back to his parents in Russia, COD. It seems like a rather easy to me. Why on Earth would any cemetery want this terrorist in it? All that would happen is retribution against the place and the cemetery would be vandalized. There is no way that the location would not be known, especially in this day and age of social media. Shipping this terrorist hence he came from would solve many problems, including not rubbing the good people of Massachusetts’s face in the mud of actually having this killer’s body buried in their state for eternity. Would seem to me that since Tamerlan Tsarnaev has no problem going back to Russia to foster his terrorism education, he should have no problem going back there as a corpse. Hell, for that matter cremate his or bury him at sea next to Bin Laden. There is a reason why Bin Laden was not buried, how about we think of the families of those murdered and maimed this time? When even Muslim cemeteries do not want you … you got a problem … time to send him FEDEX back to where he came from.

No one willing to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but I bet there are many people willing to stone him even after death

A Worcester funeral home director was scrambling last night to find a cemetery that would bury the marathon bombings mastermind, as protesters jeered outside his door demanding that the bomber’s body be shipped out of the United States.

Emotions ran high outside the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlor, which is handling the unenviable task of burying terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

“He should burn in hell,” said Ann Mink of Worcester, who was part of the sign-toting crowd.

Added Theresa Noye: “I would put him on a boat and drop him in the ocean with Osama bin ?Laden.”

Funeral home owner Peter Stefan told the Herald he has reached out to four cemeteries where Muslims are buried and so far all have turned him down.

A note to ignorant funeral owners across America … we may bury he worst of the worst here, BUT NOT TERRORIST, WHO USE OUR COUNTRY AND THEN KILL AMERICANS!

Russians Wiretap Recorded Tamerlan Tsarnaev Talking Jihad with His Mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva

The Russians secretly recorded in a wiretap Tamerlan Tsarnaev discussing Jihad with his mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. Russian authorities had previously turned over information to the United States that it had on Tamerlan and his mother. The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years. However, they did not turn over this wiretap. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva were on US terror watch lists and questioned by the FBI, yet on May 1, 2013 Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhohkar, detonated two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260. The question remains, why did  Vladmir Putin and the Russians not provide this piece of information when warning the US about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s extremists actions? We will never know if the FBI would have acted on such intel or whether it would have prevented the bombing. Then again, we do not know if it would have either.

Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call.

In another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials said.

The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.

As it was, Russian authorities told the FBI only that they had concerns that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. With no additional information, the FBI conducted a limited inquiry and closed the case in June 2011.

In early 2011, the Russian FSB internal security service intercepted a conversation between Tamerlan and his mother vaguely discussing jihad, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.

The two discussed the possibility of Tamerlan going to Palestine, but he told his mother he didn’t speak the language there, according to the officials, who reviewed the information Russia shared with the U.S.

As reported at CBS News, in another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case.

The United States Cancels Part of Missile Defense That Russia Opposed … It’s Just Barack Obama Being More Flexible

Comrade Obama keeps his word to Moscow …

Huh, remember when President Barack Obama was caught on an open mic  telling Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” to deal with Russia on issues like missile defense after he was reelected? Guess what America, that time is now. As reported at the NY Times,  the United States [Obama] has canceled the final phase of a Europe-based missile defense system that was fiercely opposed by Russia.  As Just One Minute  correctly states, “the election and the North Korean missile tests give Obama the excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway.” Just how weak and clueless is Obama as a Commander in Chief?

 

The United States has effectively canceled the final phase of a Europe-based missile defense system that was fiercely opposed by Russia and cited repeatedly by the Kremlin as a major obstacle to cooperation on nuclear arms reductions and other issues.

Russian officials here have so far declined to comment on the announcement, which was made in Washington on Friday by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel as part of a plan to deploy additional ballistic missile interceptors to counter North Korea. The cancellation of some European-based defenses will allow resources to be shifted to protect against North Korea.

If Obama had been in Office during the 1980′s, the Soviet Union would never have collapsed and the Iron Curtain would still be standing.