= new reply since forum marked as read
You're living in 1945 if you think that the US forces there do anything to prevent an invasion.
this spying is not spying, secretive is not secretive, illegal is not illegal, trying to deny someone asylum is not trying to deny someone asylum..... come on
...it had to be said!
Snowden over. They are "asking." Just as we have honored requests from other countries in the past for extradition of sought criminals. And make no mistake about it, Snowden is a criminal just as any other person would be who stole state secrets or even business secrets and turned them over to others. If Snowden were a true whistleblower he would not have fled the country. Civil disobedience as some others want to say is what Snowden would require him to stay in the US and even be arrested. That's what true civil disobedience is all about. Believing so strongly in your cause that you are willing to sacrifice your creature comforts, face even jail, and maybe even a death sentence (like.."give me liberty or give me death"
in order to correct a civil/social wrong. Snowden is not a hero or a moral civil defector. He is a coward, paid by other cowards, and who are promoting him now as a victim. He betrayed his family and his government and his fellow citizens when it gets right down to it. He has alone helped weakened this nation's ability to deal effectively with our neighbors to the south and other countries around the world. Only time will tell how truly damaged the reputation and power of the US is as a result of his actions to flee. He has signed an oath as an intelligence operator and there were other avenues open to him to protest and blow the whistle that would have been far less damaging to his own country. What he uncovered was that the NSA was actually doing the job they were established to do. And if i recall correctly, the DU and other "progressive" or liberals blasted Condi Rice and GW for not doing a good job with collecting info or using collected info to maybe prevent 9/11. To my knowledge, no one's citizens' "freedom" has been denied by NSA datat collection. And in reality, now that we know about the extent of NSA data collection what Snowden did will not stop the data collection. Why, because since we didn't know about it in the first place, we won't know when it's stopped.
obligated to act as if nothing has happened.
That a state will not make formal complaints about another state's granting of asylum does not, of course, mean that the state can take no action whatsoever. Indeed, the state seeking the person granted asylum may continue to make extradition requests, basically forever. The other state can continue to deny them. That's it.
I am not obligated to invite either my neighbor or the burglar over for my next barbecue, yeah? Whether I should is another matter, I suppose. In such a case, though, I don't think I would.
Analogies until the end of time.
It's not like anyone's ever going to see the US refusing to extradite people from other countries who have fled to the US and leaked their countries intelligence stuff like a rusty sieve. No way! The US is far too upstanding and moral for that. As if they'd have the gall to turn around and demand other countries cooperate with them in trying to get their own leaky sieve back if they'd ever behaved like that!!
Like any other country, the US has the legal "right" to tell another country pretty much anything it wants to tell another country. Countries have the right (more accurately, the "legal discretion" to take a variety of actions. And other countries have the right (more accurately the legal discretion) to comment on those actions and to attempt to dissuade them from being taken by making clear that there may be consequences if their concerns are not heeded.
There is no indication that the US is asserting any legal "authority" to "abrogate" another country's sovereign right. It is simply jawboning other countries not to do something that they have the discretion to do or not do.
relations. My God, Cuba has not learned this fact, even after 50+ years of being punished for having displeased big brother. 
