{"id":24721,"date":"2015-10-30T16:15:21","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T20:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=24721"},"modified":"2015-10-30T16:16:05","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T20:16:05","slug":"ed-snowden-offered-protection-by-the-european-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=24721","title":{"rendered":"Ed Snowden Offered Protection By The European Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU lawmakers ask member states to protect Edward Snowden<\/b><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

John Bacon
\nUSA Today<\/p>\n

The European Parliament passed a resolution\u00a0Thursday urging\u00a0European Union nations\u00a0to protect former\u00a0National Security Agency contractor\u00a0Edward Snowden from\u00a0extradition to the United States, calling him an “international human rights defender.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"(Photo:<\/a>

(Photo: Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The resolution, barely gaining approval by a 285-281 vote,\u00a0was a symbolic nod to Snowden and snub to\u00a0the Obama administration. The White House\u00a0wants Snowden to return from de facto exile in Russia to face charges that include two counts of violating the Espionage Act and one count of\u00a0theft of government property.<\/span><\/p>\n

The resolution calls on EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender”.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Game-changer,”\u00a0Snowden tweeted, adding, “This is not a blow against the US Government, but an open hand extended by friends. It is a chance to move forward.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

The White House was unmoved by the developments in Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur position has not changed,\u201d Ned Price, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement. \u201cMr. Snowden is accused of leaking classified information and faces felony charges here in the United States. As such, he should be returned to the U.S. as soon as possible, where he will be accorded full due process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The EU vote came the same day a federal\u00a0appeals court in New York refused to immediately\u00a0halt the government’s systematic collection of millions of U.S. phone records. A new federal surveillance plan set for November bans the mass collection anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Snowden, 32, is a North Carolina native who worked for the consulting firm\u00a0Booz Allen Hamilton\u00a0when he leaked details of U.S. surveillance programs, including the collection of phone records,\u00a0to\u00a0The Guardian<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0The Washington Post<\/i>. The first reports were published in June 2013, setting off an immediate global firestorm.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was in hiding in\u00a0Hong Kong\u00a0at the time\u00a0but fled to Moscow. He stayed in Russia when the U.S. revoked his passport. Now he works in IT in Moscow, consults for several U.S. companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Several EU members rejected Snowden’s request for asylum. The EU vote could encourage some nations to rethink that position.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If Snowden traveled to a European country even now, the country could\u00a0decide not to extradite him or stall the extradition,” said\u00a0Michelle Benson, a political science professor\u00a0at the University at Buffalo who specializes in international conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

In June, the White House dismissed the idea of dropping the charges.\u00a0Snowden has said he would return to the U.S. if he was guaranteed a fair trial. HIs Russian lawyer, Anatoly\u00a0Kucherena, said in March he had received a letter from then-Attorney General\u00a0Eric Holder promising Snowden would not face capital punishment.<\/span><\/p>\n

“They guarantee\u00a0that Snowden will not be executed, not that he will receive a fair trial,” Kucherena said.<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/world\/2015\/10\/29\/eu-parliament-calls-snowden-human-rights-defender\/74797138\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EU lawmakers ask member states to protect Edward Snowden<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24721\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}