Finn and Horwitz report: "Federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of documents about top-secret surveillance programs, and the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain him on a provisional arrest warrant."
Edward Snowden says 'litany of lies' prompted him to leak US surveillance. (photo: IBN)
US Charges Snowden With Espionage
22 June 13
ederal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked a trove of documents about top-secret surveillance programs, and the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain him on a provisional arrest warrant, according to U.S. officials.
Snowden was charged with theft, "unauthorized communication of national defense information" and "willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person," according to the complaint. The last two charges were brought under the 1917 Espionage Act.
The complaint, which initially was sealed, was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, a jurisdiction where Snowden's former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is headquartered and a district with a long track record of prosecuting cases with national security implications. After The Washington Post reported the charges, senior administration officials said late Friday that the Justice Department was barraged with calls from lawmakers and reporters and decided to unseal the criminal complaint.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.
Snowden flew to Hong Kong last month after leaving his job at an NSA facility in Hawaii with a collection of highly classified documents that he acquired while working at the agency as a systems analyst.
The documents, some of which have been published in The Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper, detailed some of the most secret surveillance operations undertaken by the United States and Britain , as well as classified legal memos and court orders underpinning the programs in the United States.
The 30-year-old intelligence analyst revealed himself June 9 as the leaker in an interview with the Guardian and said he went to Hong Kong because it provided the "cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained."
Snowden subsequently disappeared from public view; it is thought that he is still in the Chinese territory. Hong Kong has its own legislative and legal systems but ultimately answers to Beijing, under the "one country, two systems" arrangement.
The leaks have sparked national and international debates about the secret powers of the NSA to infringe on the privacy of Americans and foreigners. Officials from President Obama on down have said they welcome the opportunity to explain the importance of the programs and the safeguards they say are built into them. Skeptics, including some in Congress, have said the NSA has assumed the power to soak up data about Americans that was never intended under the law.
There was never any doubt that the Justice Department would seek to prosecute Snowden for one of the most significant national security leaks in the country's history. The Obama administration has shown a particular propensity to go after leakers and has launched more investigations than any previous administration. This White House is responsible for bringing six of the nine total indictments ever brought under the 1917 Espionage Act. Snowden will be the seventh individual when he is formally indicted.
Justice Department officials had already said that a criminal investigation of Snowden was underway and was being run out of the FBI's Washington field office in conjunction with lawyers from the department's National Security Division.
By filing a criminal complaint, prosecutors have a legal basis to make the detention request of the authorities in Hong Kong. Prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment, probably under seal, and can then move to have Snowden extradited from Hong Kong for trial in the United States.
Snowden, however, can fight the extradition effort in the courts in Hong Kong. Any battle is likely to reach Hong Kong's highest court and could last many months, lawyers in the United States and Hong Kong said.
The United States has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, and U.S. officials said cooperation with the Chinese territory, which enjoys some autonomy from Beijing, has been good in previous cases.
The treaty, however, has an exception for political offenses, and espionage has traditionally been treated as a political offense. Snowden's defense team in Hong Kong is likely to invoke part of the extradition treaty with the United States, which states that suspects will not be turned over to face criminal trial for offenses of a "political character."
Typically in such cases, Hong Kong's chief executive must first decide whether to issue a warrant for the accused's arrest. But the extradition treaty also says that in exceptional cases a provisional warrant can be issued by a Hong Kong judge without the chief executive's approval. The judge must give the chief executive notice, however, that he has issued the warrant.
A spokesperson at the office of Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying said there was no information on Snowden's case. The police department did not respond to calls or e-mails. At the police station for Central District in Hong Kong Island, police officers on duty said they had not heard anything about Snowden.
If Snowden is arrested, he would appear before a judge. Bail would be unlikely and, instead, Snowden would be sent to the Lai Chi Kok maximum-security facility in Kowloon, a short drive from the high-end Mira Hotel, where he is last known to have stayed in Hong Kong.
Snowden could also remain in Hong Kong if the Chinese government decides that it is not in the defense or foreign policy interests of the government in Beijing to have him sent back to the United States for trial.
Another option would be for Snowden to apply for asylum with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which handles most asylum requests in Hong Kong. The UNHCR was closed Saturday morning and did not immediately respond to requests for comment via e-mail and phone. The asylum application process can take months or even years because Hong Kong has a severe backlog. The Hong Kong government cannot formally surrender individuals until their asylum applications have been processed.
Snowden also could attempt to reach another jurisdiction and seek asylum there before the authorities in Hong Kong act.
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I'll give you a hint: rhymes with tush.
By some accountings, if you include interest on the portion of the national attributable to military spending, military pension and post-service medical expense, and all the other military expenditures larded into other non-military portions of the federal budget, military spending absorbs more than 50% of the annual federal budget. Visit http://www.truemajority.org/csba/priorities.php for one version of that view.
I want my money back!!
N.
Its par for the (early) Modern course, for those into history.
The PRIVATE CENTAL BANK CARTEL, since the days of Adam 'the invisible hand' Smith, has worked, and conspired (but pls. don't say "labored"- these people think for a living) to perpetuate their own dominance of ALL western nation's monetary/curren cy systems, largely (among other strategies) by means of the military-indust rial-complex, perpetual wars & sky-high 'public' debt, payable of course, mostly to themselves- the intellectual creators of the trick/system.
Today's 'public' debt in USA is not substantially different from 18th century Britian's... Same (old) game; slightly different (new) place.
And what happened to the USSR after it tried to conquer Afghanistan?
Our military is much worse off today than 10 years ago. And not just in terms of hardware worn out during our pointless wars.
Officers' training has also been sacrificed.
It used to be that our Air Force officers would get a chance to study subjects like foreign affairs in places like Georgetown. This provides so many benefits, from greater integration of our officers into our society, to just having a more professional and well rounded corps. But this sort of thing is being drastically curtailed due to the expenses of our wars.
So we are descending into banana republichood in more than one way.
I think that no matter what you think our role in the world should be, these pointless crusades against Moslems and Arabs are the wrong way to go about it.
Nobody, no matter how conservative or how liberal, should support our crusades. It does not benefit our people, our military, our standing, and certainly not our victims.
These figures take military spending and divide it by the number of troops we have. Total stupidity.
It is CONTRACTING that eats the money. In the past 8 years, most of the billions of dollars have gone to military contractors, who do less than the troops, and make sometimes 50 times the money, and to contractors tasked with fulfilling the unrealistic demands of the "combatant commanders". The proof is in the pudding--nothin g worthwhile except protection against IEDs has been produced.
This $12,000 figure should be pasted on billboards nationwide and run on t.v. too. Let us all understand how much and what we are paying for!
The incredible committment of resources to a lost cause and our inability to escape from it.
The destruction of the US economy
Loss of world-wide credibilty
High unemployment
Collapse of the housing market
Massive loss of human lives
Just add it all up. The cost goes much further than just dollars and cents.
And Bush/Cheney and cronies have been given immunity from prosecution by the US government for these crimes!
I say, arrest the bums. Do a Brattleboro, VT, and pass a law that says if Bush or Cheney even step a TOE into their city, they will be arrested for their crimes against the US, humanity, and the planet!
We sit in their quagmire of hate and greed, while they bask in their fortunes.
I truly hope there IS a payback day for them, even if it comes via the International Court.
N.
When the procurement of a hammer is $200., I'm thinking I'd love to sell hammers to the military...
Ecuador police to take lie detector test.
Each person in W.H. and Congress should take lie detector tests -- so we can figure out HOW much $$ they know went to what/who
In fact, we know when they say "my constutients" want blah blah -- is not true -- those who funded their elections demand "what they say the people want" -- THE PEOPLE want jobs, their homes, and equal tax for all.
NO elected person who tries to legislate law on a religious basis is OUT -- we have a constitution and it is not the bible of any religion.
I want an accounting of ALL those (70K) checks the government sends each month.
If a company makes their goods in a foreign country (jobs overseas is becoming epidemic) -- they MUST pay a tarif tax to sell product in USA. This might equalize their choice to keep their $$ off shore to dodge taxes.
This article is not a surprise -- but brings up what the 12 specials must consider: Bring everyone into a medicare system - along with some of the CORRECT parts of the Heaalth Care Reform.,
Vote 2012 -- get the RepugNUTS out -- Register now and get mail-in ballots (deliver them to the polling both on election day and make sure they are put into the slot with machine votes)
How would he say MISSON ACCOMPLISHED in Arabic?
I am starting to loose hope for any sense in our government.
Norquist must be in bed with Al Quaeda + GOP/TP in bed with Norquist --
The GOP now says Obama's fault for no jobs when GOP has not allowed one JOB CREATION bill to be in front of Congress. And the GOP/TP says Obama has a spending problem - when the CONGRESS HOLDS THE PURSE!
Something is wrong with media that they allow these people to talk - none give facts/figures.
I'll go for a run and hope I sweat out all my anger!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!
Likely it is too late even IF we stop ALL the WARS next 24 hours.
And populist Obama believes ... what a joke.
Is there ONE rational being in Washington DC?
What is lacking is a true education for our students so that they would know the truth.
Within 5 years we will be NOT there - bankrupted USA will be worse than CCCP in 1989.
Chaney and Bush both oilmen... I remember that Bush announced the war could wind down about a week after the 'benchnmark' to divide Iraq's oil. We thought that meant Sunni, Shi'a, and Kurd. But it was BP, Shell? a Dutch oil co. and ?? Still looking for that info. And where are the media stories about it?
OSB won like he said he would.
And if they won't tax for war, they won't tax for keeping newly poor American's alive. We are either screwed or on the verge of revolution. Fat chance since we no longer have rights or even free speach, much less an informed populace. And there are all those private jails now.... We're screwed.
The government should be warned to not tax for war or we will have a revolution for sure. Privatization is a real consideration and than you for keeping us on that subject.
No way would this be reported on mainstream.
What about the "Missing Billions" in Iraq and Afghanistan? And the "No-Bid" contracts? And the biggest Embassy n the world in Baghdad which can be seen from space (if they were supposed to be even considering leaving)? And the "Black Budget" (CIA, surveillance, assassinations and now renditions worldwide) which is not even accountable to Congress nor the president but which is apparently almost 0.5 of the total "official" defense (Ha, ha!) budget. And THAT'S just recent.
Oh yes -and throw in the recent recruitment and use of "Private security firms", many made up of the scum of the earth from death squads and banana republic police.
As General Smedly Butler put it in his book of the same name "War is just a Racket" and the old "Fighting Quaker" should know this better than anybody.
You don't fined wealthy people signing up to go to the middle east to fight, only people that need to feed their families.
End these wars now, put these people to work on our decaying infrastructure.
Take note, the military-indust rial complex knew all along that a nation's mania for "security" would fill their coffers!
And, they were both right!
Why don't Americans see it? Duh!