This weekend NSA whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden left a government safe house in Hong Kong and flew to Moscow, where he then booked a flight to Cuba.
A bunch of journalists booked seats on the same flight from Moscow to Havana.
Snowden didn't show.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 24, 2013
The Guardian put it this way: "Edward Snowden not on Aeroflot flight to Havana. But a bunch of reporters are. (Bad news for them: it's dry)."
On Sunday the 30-year-old ex-Booz Allen employee requested asylum in Ecuador and CNN reported that the U.S. revoked Snowden's passport at some point.
Now it looks like Russia, or Snowden (or WikiLeaks), pulled a fast one on everybody.
Before Snowden's no-show, Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary told Reuters: "Overall, we have no information about him."
Now Russia's Interfax news agency is reporting that former CIA technician is likely outside of Russia.
So almost no one knows where he is.
Journalists from around world embark on Moscow-Havana flight to "photograph an empty seat" via @caosnewspic.twitter.com/TL6BGR3NmF#Snowden
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) June 24, 2013
"The journalists stare at the message on their phones: 'I'm sorry, the princess is in another castle'" - pg. 82, of my Snowden screenplay
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) June 24, 2013
The most famous empty chair since Eastwood's. #Snowdenpic.twitter.com/wrPjAKdbHz
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) June 24, 2013
Snowden leaked the first concrete evidence of the NSA's domestic surveillance apparatus when he gave Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald “thousands” of classified documents. The documents have corroborated claims made by other whistleblowers.
On Friday the U.S. filed criminal espionage charges against the former NSA contractor, and has been trying to pressure countries hosting Snowden to turn him over.
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