Edward Snowden has applied for asylum in six more countries, Bolivia not happy with US, Europe
The saga of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden continues as the 30-year-old stranded in a Moscow airport continues to search for a place he can call home and South American countries demand apologies from some in Europe.
As country after country turns down Snowden’s asylum application, the whistle blower has reportedly applied to six more undisclosed countries.
The whistleblowing website, Wikileaks tweeted Friday that Snowden applied; however, the countries will not be disclosed to attempt to avoid interference by US officials.
One country is at least considering asylum for the NSA leaker.
In Iceland, lawmakers introduced a proposal in Parliament to grant citizenship, according to a USA Today report. However, the bill to grant Snowden citizenship received limited support Thursday. Six members of minority parties were in favor out of Parliament’s 63 members.
The Snowden affair has also drawn the ire of the Bolivian government. A plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales home from Russia was rerouted to Austria on Tuesday after France, Spain and Portugal refused to let it cross their airspace because of suspicions that Snowden was on board.
Since that event, Morales and the Bolivian government put the blame on Washington for that act. “Message to the Americans: The empire and its servants will never be able to intimidate or scare us,” Morales told supporters at El Alto International Airport outside La Paz late Wednesday. “European countries need to liberate themselves from the imperialism of the Americans”, CNN reports.
In addition, Morales threatened to close the U.S. embassy in Bolivia.
Presidents from five South American countries — Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela — met with Morales in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Thursday to discuss the matter.
According to a Bloomberg report, the South American leaders demanded Spain, France, Portugal and Italy apologize and explain why they denied the Bolivian leader’s presidential jet permission to fly through their airspace July 2.
France has apologized to Bolivia for refusing to allow President Evo Morales’ jet into its airspace, blaming “conflicting information”, according to the BBC.
However, Spain refused to apologize as Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said, “Spain doesn’t have to ask for a pardon in any way because its airspace was never closed.”
As the Edward Snowden story continues to unfold with time, more Americans are turning on the NSA whistleblowers according to a Huffington Post/YouGov poll.
According to the new poll, 38 percent of Americans think that Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency, did the wrong thing, while 33 percent said he did the right thing. Still, 29 percent of Americans remain unsure about Snowden’s actions.
These numbers are basically opposite to what Americans were thinking after the NSA whistleblowers first disclosed himself to the public.
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