‘Snowden will never be safe again’
Fallout surrounding the NSA leaks will likely shield Edward Snowden from extra-judicial capture in the short term. However, some analysts say Washington’s long memory almost guarantees the whistleblower will never again be secure.
On Sunday a spokesperson for the Hong Kong government confirmed
that Snowden had "legally and voluntarily" left the
country after spending just over a month in the former British
colony.
Snowden originally took shelter there in a bid to fight
extradition to the United States, where the former National
Security Agency [NSA] contractor was recently charged with
espionage for leaking classified details of the agency’s mass
surveillance programs.
After a brief stopover in Moscow, Snowden is expected to depart
to an as of yet unnamed “third country,” with the media
speculating that Iceland, Venezuela and Ecuador are among
potential countries where the whistleblower could make his final
asylum bid.
Andrew Feinstein, a former whistleblower and director of
Corruption Watch UK, argues Snowden’s aversion to facing down the
US “national security state” will likely prompt him to
continue traveling to encumber US efforts to launch legal
proceedings against him.
Feinstein believes that both US and British authorities have
adopted a position of toughing out the fallout from Snowden’s
revelations, downplaying the nature of the leaks while
concurrently claiming the information which was culled was done
so in the public interest. However, concerted attempts to
“diminish the messenger” will prove difficult, leaving Snowden a
thorn in the side of Washington.
Although the United States will continue in its pursuit of
Snowden, journalist Paul Lashmar believes Snowden can put off the
prospect of being sent back to the United States to face
prosecution indefinitely.
Lashmar believes that the scope of the intelligence apparatus
deployed against both US and foreign targets “is quite damaging,”
increasing the likelihood that any rendition operation to capture
Snowden “would go down very badly.”
“Sending a snatch squad into a country to have him arrested
would probably be not a very smart move in my estimation,”
Lashmar asserts.
However, Lashmar argues the complications of getting Snowden in
their possession will not soften the US line again him.
“I think it [NSA surveillance] is making a lot of people in
America uneasy. There is a discussion. But I think the nature of
American society is that the government will seek to prosecute
him for this. I don’t think they’re going to say, ‘thanks Edward
for bringing this to our attention, we think we’ve probably been
going too far. Thank you. You’re now a hero’. I don’t think that
is going to happen.”
Intelligence analyst Glenmore Trenear-Harvey is less optimistic
about Snowden’s chances, arguing that the nature of the criminal
charges filed against him “are such that an international
warrant can be issued for him.”
Trenear-Harvey says the massive scope of US intelligence means
Washington is already aware of his movements to some extent, as
well as any potential communications with supporters in Iceland,
Venezuela or Ecuador.
Regardless of how long it takes to eventually track him down and
the complications of bringing him before the US legal system,
even a successful asylum bid will never provide for Snowden’s
long-term security, Trenear-Harvey concludes.
“The United States, like Russia, has a very long memory. They
also have people who could indeed take people out of different
countries. So, I don’t think he’ll ever be safe. I think he’ll
always be looking over his shoulders and certainly the US
government who has been so embraced by this will not give up
easily.”
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.