Iceland Received Informal Approach Over Snowden Seeking Asylum

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Iceland received informal approach over Snowden seeking asylum

REYKJAVIK | Tue Jun 18, 2013 10:44am EDT

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland has received an informal approach from an intermediary who says Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs, wants to seek asylum there.

Snowden, the former employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who worked in an NSA facility in Hawaii, made world headlines after providing details of the program to the Guardian and Washington Post and then fleeing to Hong Kong.

In a column in Icelandic daily Frettabladid, WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson wrote that a middleman had approached him on behalf of Snowden.

"On 12 June, I received a message from Edward Snowden where he asked me to notify the Icelandic government that he wanted to seek asylum in Iceland," Hrafnsson, who is also an investigative journalist in Iceland, told Reuters.

The Icelandic government, which has refused to say whether they would grant asylum to Snowden, confirmed it had received the message from Hrafnsson.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE95H0OQ20130618

[SleeplessinSoCal]

1. How long will this guy get media coverage?

It's likely to turn into another Occupy Wall Street, where it's headline news for a time, and then falls off the map - as intended.

I don't have a lot of respect for the way Snowden has gone about this, but I'm more disgusted by our corrupt, corporate media. So I'm pulling for him to figure out a way to have staying power.

[railsback]

2. It will be fun to watch when the Republicans use the tyranny of Obama

against their Democratic opponents in 2014.