Thursday, June 27, 2013

When life imitates art

We blogged earlier in the week about "whistleblower" Edward Snowden (who isn't actually a whistleblower at all), and his possible plight about being stuck in transit. Well, that is exactly what has happened; the Herald reports:

Edward Snowden, the United States intelligence whistleblower, could remain stuck in limbo in a Moscow airport for weeks or months.
Russian media reported a source "close to Mr Snowden" saying that he could be forced to stay in Russia indefinitely because US authorities had annulled his passport.
President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the former CIA and National Security Agency technician was staying legally in the transit area of Sheremetyevo Airport after flying in on Monday from Hong Kong, where he leaked details of widespread surveillance by US security services of American citizens' emails and telephone calls.
There appeared little urgency over his departure. The Daily Telegraph and other media scoured Sheremetyevo's three southern terminals yesterday but airport staff, receptionists at a capsule hotel, policemen, Russian consular officials and passengers all claimed they had not seen the American.
It seemed likely the whistleblower was in a closed area of the airport and WikiLeaks, the organisation that has been supporting Snowden, said he was safe and well.

Snowden's plight is right out of the movies; check this out:




For Tom Hanks' character, there was a happy ending. For Snowden however, the ending is likely to be far from happy. His US passport has been annulled, he cannot enter Russia or any other country, and the transit lounge at Sheremetyevo Airport is going to lose its novelty after a few days.

Still, he has no-one to blame but himself.

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