Russia grants Snowden asylum:

                                                  Edward Snowden's new Russian passport:


RUSSIA GRANTS ASYLUM
TO EDWARD SNOWDEN:

Massive diplomatic snub
to Washington:

On August 1,  Edward Snowden was granted asylum in the Russian Federation and left the Sheremetyevo Airport transit zone.

Earlier, a source close to the matter reported this information explaining that the customs officers received the required papers from Federal Migration Service giving Snowden the right to stay in Russia. He’s “formally in Russia’s territory.” He added that the former CIA employee currently "has all the necessary documents to legally stay in Russia". He cannot be deported to the United States, even if the country makes an official request, a source in the Russian law enforcement agencies told news agencies on Thursday. “The granting of temporary asylum protects Snowden from deportation, because under the law a person, who was granted temporary asylum, cannot be returned against his will to the country, a citizen of which he is, or to the place of his permanent residence.”

His legal representative, Anatoly Kucherena said: “I have just handed over to him papers from the Russian Immigration Service. They are what he needs to leave the transit zone.” Kucherena told state broadcaster Russia 24: “I have just seen him off. He has left for a secure location. Security is a very serious matter for him.”

Kucherena told Reuters: “He is the most wanted man on planet Earth. What do you think he is going to do?” “He has to think about his personal security. I cannot tell you where he is going.” “I put him in a taxi 15 to 20 minutes ago and gave him his certificate on getting refugee status in the Russian Federation. He can live wherever he wants in Russia. It’s his personal choice.” Mr Snowden left accompanied by WikiLeaks representative, Sarah Harrison. She twittered saying:

“We would like to thank the Russian people and all those others who have helped to protect Mr. Snowden. We have won the battle – now the war.”

He has been granted temporary asylum through at least through July 31, 2014. He can extend it annually on request. Doing so lets him stay in Russia permanently. He can make a new life there if he chooses. He’s got plenty of time to decide. He won’t be sent back to America. At 15:30 Moscow time (11:30 GMT), he left Sheremetyevo Airport transit zone.

In a formal statement issued to the Press Mr Snowden explained his actions:
 

“I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded,” he said. "That is not something I am willing to support or live under. I don’t want to live in a world where there’s no privacy, and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity. I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong".

"I had been looking for leaders, but I realised that leadership is about being the first to act. There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich. The great fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. People won’t be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things. And in the months ahead, the years ahead, it’s only going to get worse".

DIPLOMACY NORMS:

Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special representative for human rights and the rule of law, said that when pressing for the return of Snowden, who was stranded in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, the United States should not claim that Russia is under any obligation to do so:

“In any situation of international significance, we remain committed to the fulfillment of corresponding international obligations,” the Russian diplomat said. “When obligations exist, we fulfil them. But they should not be invented in cases where they do not exist,” he said.

Washington has repeatedly called on Moscow to reject Snowden’s request for asylum and send him back to the United States to stand trial on charges of espionage and theft. However, Dolgov said Russia has not yet received a formal US request to extradite Snowden. US officials have requested Russia to return Snowden, arguing that although the two states have no formal extradition treaty, Washington has allegedly returned a number of Russians following requests from Moscow. Dolgov said the United States had failed to provide Russia with a list of those individuals, adding that the terms “extradition” and “deportation” were not interchangeable and should not be confused. “As far as I know, there have been no cases [of extradition] from US territory. Although people are indeed being deported, it’s not because of Russia’s demands, but because they have violated US law,” the Russian diplomat said.

Since nothing done by the Kremlin is uncalculated, this decision to resist Washington's pressure has to have been decided at top level, meaning President Vladimir Putin himself. Putin  said  previously that US intelligence fugitive  Edward Snowden was staying in the transit area of a Moscow airport because Washington had “blocked” him there by intimidating countries that had been ready to grant him asylum. “He arrived on our territory without an invitation. He wasn’t flying to us. He was on a transit flight to other countries,” Putin said in St. Petersburg, adding that the United States had “intimidated other countries, so that nobody wants him.” “That’s how they blocked him on our territory,” Putin said. Putin added that Russia would not extradite Snowden to the United States, where he could face the death penalty. But the Kremlin has also tried to keep its distance from the case, emphasising that it is a human rights issue.

WASHINGTON immediately criticised the Russian decision and hinted that it could cancel a planned bilateral summit between US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin at next month's G20 Summit in St Petersburg.  “We have a wide range of interests with the Russians, and we are evaluating the utility of a summit,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told a news briefing on Thursday in reference to the two leaders’ planned meeting next month, adding that the United States is “extremely disappointed” that Russia has given refuge to Snowden.

Carney declined to discuss if or how Washington might respond in the aftermath of Snowden’s asylum and said that while the White House is examining the value of the scheduled Obama-Putin summit, he did not have any changes in the US president’s schedule to announce. Obama plans to travel to Russia next month for the G20 meeting in St. Petersburg, a trip which includes the scheduled bilateral meeting with Putin in Moscow.

Carney indicated that US authorities would continue to press Russia for help in bringing Snowden into the custody of the Americans. “We will obviously be in contact with Russian authorities expressing our extreme disappointment in this decision and making the case clearly that there is absolute legal justification for Mr. Snowden to be returned to the United States” Carney told reporters. Both Carney and US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that Russia did not notify the United States in advance of its decision to grant asylum to Snowden. 

Prominent US politicians, meanwhile, expressed outrage over Russia’s approval of Snowden’s asylum request, saying it deals a significant blow to bilateral relations. US Sen. John McCain, a consistent  critic of the Obama administration and  called the move “a slap in the face of all Americans.”  “Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia,” McCain said in a statement. “We need to deal with the Russia that is, not the Russia we might wish for. We cannot allow today’s action by Putin to stand without serious repercussions.”

McCain called on the Obama administration to respond in part by expanding the blacklist of Russian officials sanctioned under the controversial Magnitsky Act and extending membership in the North Atlanta Treaty Organization (NATO) to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, whose ambitions to join the military alliance have angered Moscow in recent years. Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, called Snowden’s asylum “a setback to US-Russian relations” despite being only granted for a period of one year. Snowden “is a fugitive who belongs in a United States courtroom, not a free man deserving of asylum in Russia,” Menendez said in a statement.

Sen. Tom Coburn said in a television interview with MSNBC on Thursday that Snowden’s asylum “probably hurts the relationship” between Russia and the United States and suggested Russian intelligence had exploited the former NSA contractor’s knowledge of US intelligence programs – a claim both Snowden and Russian officials have denied. “He’s undoubtedly in my mind a traitor to our country and probably most of what he knows, the Russians already know. … It’s a gold mine for them,” Coburn said.

Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters in Moscow on Thursday that Snowden’s asylum “is not important enough to affect political relations” between the United States and Russia, adding that Moscow was interested in the development of ties with Washington “in all areas".

 

The outrage of the US Senate rabble rousers notwithstanding, the Russian decision will be welcomed by supporters of Mr Snowden and regard it as a significant defeat for the US National Surveillance State.



(see also Blagaroon 2; Bradley Manning trial ends;
 

http://blagaroon2.blogspot.ie/2013/08/bradley-manning-major-threat-to-us.html#comment-form)

 

 

 

 

 

Edward Snowden gets Whistleblower Prize:

                                                                      Edward Snowden

SNOWDEN GETS 2013
WHISTLEBLOWER
PRIZE FROM GERMANY:

 

Edward Snowden, the American security official who leaked top-secret information on the US Government's worldwide spying activities has been awarded the 2013 Whistleblower Prize from the Federation of German Scientists and the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA). The decision was announced in Berlin on 24 July.

                               At the Press Conference in Berlin announcing the award.

The FGS awards, together with the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA ) since 1999, every two years, the whistleblower prize. This year, for the first time, the award involved the anti-corruption organization Transparency International  whose representatives were present at the awards ceremony.

The winner of this year's Whistleblower award is Edward Snowden, which was announced in the Humboldt Unversity-Viadrina School of Governance, Wilhelmstrasse, Berlin,Germany.

The jury's statement:

This year's whistleblower award goes to the American Edward J. Snowden. He has made public the mass scrutinizing and retention of communications data by Western intelligence agencies, without previous suspicion. With the whistleblower prize, people are nominated who uncover serious wrongdoing in the public interest and dangerous developments for man and society, democracy, peace and the environment.

The whistleblower prize is awarded every two years since 1999 by the Federation of German Scientists and the German section of IALANA, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms. The prize money is 3,000 euros. Among the previous winners include Rainer Moormann (2011: Risks of the pebble bed reactor), Rudolf Schmenger / Frank Wehrheim (2009: Frankfurt taxman) and Brigitte Heinisch (2007: Berlin geriatric nurse). For the first time the anti-corruption organization Transparency International Germany participates in this year's association of the award.

The revelations of Edward J. Snowden allowed  the jury to view  the possiblility and inevitability  to clarify the facts and evidence intensively and to check on a secured basis in fact then determine whether and in what ways what was  uncovered by Snowden approaches domestic and foreign intelligence bodies applicable law being violated.

In  the Federal Republic of Germany, Article 10 of the Basic Law is, according to current knowledge, particularly injured as a fundamental right of defense of governmental intervention and government protection as well as the G10 Act (duty to comply with the conditions laid down therein concerning such intervention). Edward Snowden has taken to disclosure of the information despite having knowledge of the actual prosecution of whistleblowers in security service and the serious disadvantages for themselves personally in acting this way.

Hartmut Grassl of the Federation of German Scientists: "An open society requires moral courage and courageous people like Edward Snowden, so that grievances are identified and prevented."

Otto Jackel, Chairman of the German section of IALANA: "Who could be the most supportive in offering  the beleaguered  U.S. citizen asylum from state political persecution of his homeland,  except us, to at least offer a safe haven as Germany, which is apparently the NSA  target particularly affected, but, the EU as a whole is called to assist as Edward Snowden has with his whistleblowing  given Germany and the other EU Member States a great service. We should compete to take him not just out of principle, but out of gratitude "

Edda Müller, Chair of Transparency Germany: "We are supporting Edward Snowden knowing  that his brave actions have consequences. The international treaties that limit the sovereignty of Germany must be changed. Great Britain, as a member state of the European Union must explain very clearly in Brussels, where it stands on the issue as it is among the fundamental rights of EU citizens. In addition, we finally need in Germany adequate whistleblower protection through the legal arrangements ".

This positive step by prestigious organisations in Germany helps lessen the isolation of Mr Snowden which the US has been trying to enforce with threats and diplomatic bullying and even the criminal attempt to disrupt the flight plan of Bolivian President Morales returning home from a visit to Europe, and counters the attempts to portray him as a wanted criminal when, in fact, it is the US Government which is the world's major war criminal and abuser of human rights in the 21st Century.

Letter to Russia:

 

Mr Snowden is currently a fugitive, temporarily resident in the transit area of a Moscow airport awaiting decisions on his asylum applications to various countries including the Russian Federation. The US has mounted a campaign of vicious intimidation against Mr Snowden since the situation began and a raging campaign of vilification has been whipped up by the American Right at the same time. Since this has provoked outrage and condemnation in the countries revealed as having been spied on by the US security agencies, the diplomatic backlash has forced Washington to revise its stance and seem more focused on legalities and proper procedures than its first blustering reactions.

In a more conciliatory move, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter to the Russian Minister of Justice assuring the Russian Government that the U.S. will not seek the death penalty for National Security Agency leak source Edward Snowden if he is returned to the U.S.

Seeking to push back on assertions Snowden made in his request for temporary asylum in Russia, Holder also said in the letter that the U.S. will not torture Snowden.

"We also understand from press reports that Mr.Snowden has filed papers seeking temporary asylum in Russia on the grounds that if he were returned to the United States, he would be tortured and would face the death penalty," Holder wrote in the letter to Russian Minister of Justice Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov. 

"These claims are entirely without merit."

Holder explained that the charges Snowden currently faces in the U.S. do not carry the possibility of being charged with the death penalty. 

In June, Snowden was charged with three felonies that each carry a maximum of 10 years in prison: Theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person. (These charges were rejected by the Irish High Court recently as being devoid of evidence when the US sought an arrest warrant to be issued against Snowden if he arrived in Ireland. See post July 15 on this page).

Holder went on to say that the U.S. would not torture Snowden because, simply, it is unlawful in the U.S. (Tell that to the detainees illegally held by the U.S. Government in its torture camp in Guantanamo Bay)

Holder went on to say that the U.S. would not torture Snowden because, simply, it is unlawful in the U.S.

"We believe that these assurances eliminate these asserted grounds for Mr. Snowden's claim that he should be treated as a refugee or granted asylum, temporary or otherwise," Holder wrote.

NATIONAL SURVEILLANCE STATE GETS BOOST
FROM OBAMA:


Following intense pressure from the Obama administration and top intelligence officials, the US House of Representatives defeated an amendment that would have placed constraints on the National Security Agency’s powers to spy on the American people.

The amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act would have blocked funding for the NSA to collect phone “metadata” that is not related to a specific investigation. Among the programs exposed by whistle-blower Edward Snowden is one in which the government obtains and stores the records on nearly every phone call placed in the United States. This allows the state to construct a detailed social and political profile of every individual swept up in the program.

The House voted 217-205  to reject the amendment, which was introduced by Michigan Republican Justin Amash. The vote was an opportunity for congressmen to posture as critics of the unpopular and illegal spying programs, with the votes pro and con carefully calibrated to ensure that the measure was defeated. The Obama administration intervened extremely aggressively to block the amendment in its early stages. Even if it had passed in the House, it would still have had to be passed by the Senate and signed by President Obama to become law.

As the amendment was brought forward, the White House rushed to issue a statement on Tuesday evening. “We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community’s counterterrorism tools,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open or deliberative process.” Carney’s statement followed an extraordinary closed door meeting convened by NSA head General Keith Alexander with members of the House of Representatives, urging them to vote against the restriction on NSA surveillance authority. House members were warned that the content of the meeting was “top secret.”

The powers targeted by the Amash amendment relate only to one in a whole series of programs aimed at gathering data on the population of the United States and the entire world. This was indicated by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, a critic of the NSA, who said on Tuesday that the NSA is “an always expanding, omnipresent surveillance state.” Wyden referred to multiple “secret surveillance programs.” He accused the Obama administration of “actively” misleading the public about surveillance on Americans, and said that the government is “merging the ability to conduct surveillance that reveals every aspect of a person’s life with the ability to conjure up the legal authority to execute that surveillance.”

What Wyden describes is illegal and unconstitutional activity, for which administration officials and leaders of the military-intelligence apparatus should be impeached and tried in a court of law. The crimes go far beyond those of the Nixon administration. These programs, however, have been implemented with the complicity of the entire state apparatus, including Congress and the courts. Top lawmakers from both parties, including House Speaker John Boehner (Republican); Representative Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (Republican); House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Republican); House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat); and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Democrat), staunchly opposed the amendment.

“Any amendments to defund the program on appropriations bills would be unwise,” Senators Dianne Feinstein (Democrat) and Saxby Chambliss (Republican), the chairwoman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a joint statement Tuesday, referring to the NSA’s blanket data gathering activities. Dutch Ruppersberger, representative from Maryland and the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, celebrated the outcome of the vote, claiming that the amendment would have “eliminated a crucial counterterrorism tool.”

As usual, defenders of the surveillance program argued that it was necessary because the government was “at war with terrorism.” These statements are made even as the US prepares to more directly arm the opposition in Syria, which is dominated by Islamist forces associated with Al Qaeda. They follow, moreover, revelations that the US is spying on governments all over the world, including those of nominal allies such as Germany and France. The “war on terror” has for more than a decade served as a pretext for wars abroad and the abrogation of core democratic rights within the United States.

The real target of the surveillance is the American and international working class, a fact that is made clear by the nature of the programs. The Big Brother spying is part of the preparation of the American ruling class for mass social opposition. The Defense Appropriations Act allocates massive resources for war while paving the way for further attacks on the social conditions of the working class. The bill includes $512.5 billion for the Pentagon and an additional $85.8 billion in “Overseas Contingency Operations” war funding.

The White House has argued that the bill’s shortfall of $5.1 billion below current defence spending will force the administration to make new cuts to domestic spending, including health and education.

 

The world is warned by the Snowden revelations of the plans of the US Military-Industrial Complex (as did President Eisenhower as he left office in 1960) to abridge citizens' Constitutional rights, operate on the basis of permanent war and despoil the resources of the entire planet in its own greedy interests.

 

 

                                                         













 

                                                            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anti-War Granny causes Court upset:

                Margaretta D'Arcy, (79), veteran Irish Peace Campaigner outside Ennis Courthouse


ANTI-WAR GRANNY
CAUSES COURT
UPSET IN ENNIS:


An anti-war granny caused mayhem in a court room when she confronted a judge in a bright orange jump suit.

Disabled  Margaretta D’Arcy, 79, refused to stand down from a bench in front of Judge Patrick Durcan at Ennis (Co Clare) District Court - and the hearing had to be halted. Ms Darcy appeared in connection with the alleged interference of the proper use of Shannon Airport last October 7, 2012, by going on the runway without permission. Ms D'Arcy, a well known artist, is a veteran of the Irish and International Peace Movement and has been a regular attendee, health permitting, at the monthly Peace Protest at the gates of Shannon Airport, Co. Clare, in the west of Ireland near Limerick city since the protests began following the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. Since the invasion there has been large-scale use of the Airport by the US Military despite public opposition in Ireland, an officially neutral country.

When the case was called last Wednesday,10 July Ms Darcy, of Woodquay, Galway, approached the bench the better to hear and see the judge properly because of poor sight and hearing. She then stood on the bench below the judge's podium to hear Judge Durcan say he was going to adjourn the matter to September 11 next because her co-accused wasn’t in court.

Ms D'Arcy – who needs a zimmer frame with wheels to walk - said that she wanted the judge to dismiss the summons against her as it is inaccurate. Judge Durcan said: “That is a matter for hearing and not for today.”  The judge then asked Ms D'Arcy: "Will you please go down to ground level and stand on the ground for safety reasons. I will not have you standing on the bench.” Ms D'Arcy refused and replied: “I am going to stand here. We have to see each other as equals. It is the citizens of Ireland that own the courts. In response, Judge Durcan said: “You are going to be removed. I am going to suspend the court for two minutes.”

As the judge was walking from the bench, Ms D’Arcy called out after him: “So you don’t want a conversation with me around the word ‘proper’ and the use of the airport as a military airport. Murder, Complicity in murder. Run, run away and never hear the truth.” Ms D'Arcy then stepped down from the bench with the assistance of two Gardaí (Irish police)and she was then applauded by her supporters in court, including retired UN Assistant Secretary General, Denis Halliday, and well-known anti-war activist Dr Ed Horgan.

On returning to court, Judge Durcan said that on the adjourned date in September, he would decide if the case will be heard in the district court or the circuit court. This is an obvious dodge by the state prosecutor to avoid hearing evidence of the misuse of the civilian airport at Shannon by the US Military since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 with the full collaboration of Irish Governments since then despite public opposition. The local Shannonwatch organisation, who monitor US Military activities at the airport, had brought to court a wheelbarrow (literally) of documentary evidence of the violations of Irish and International law occurring there in the past 10 years.

 

Full court report here:

http://www.shannonwatch.org/blog/margaratta-darcy-leaves-court-her-questions-unanswered

 

 

 

Ireland says no to US demands for Snowden arrest:

                                                     The High Courts of Justice, Dublin.

DUBLIN HIGH COURT
REJECTS US APPLICATION
FOR SNOWDEN ARREST
WARRANT:


Ireland has denied the U.S. an arrest warrant for whistle blower Edward Snowden in case he lands in this country. The High Court in Dublin ruled that Washington DC security chiefs failed to show where alleged crimes had been committed by the former intelligence contractor.The US applied for a provisional arrest warrant on Friday through its Dublin embassy.

Officials made the move after former NSA employee, Mr Snowden, contacted 21 countries, including Ireland, seeking asylum. There were concerns by US Officials that the fugitive intelligence officer, who has been living in the transit section of Moscow's Sheremetyevo-2 airport, would pass through Shannon Airport en route to South America. A request for asylum in Ireland can only be considered if Snowden makes an application on arrival in the country according to Government sources but, on a previous occasion asylum was granted to hundreds of Bosnian refugees although they had not yet arrived in Ireland

Judge Colm Mac Eochaidh refused the request for an arrest warrant on the grounds that no information had been given by the US authorities about where the alleged offences took place. The ruling also stated that the decision was taken because the US failed to show where the theft of government property took place or what had been stolen.Judge Mac Eochaidh said offences may relate to theft of information and its misuse rather than to physical property but that assumptions could not be made that it took place in Hawaii.

Former NSA analyst Mr Snowden has requested asylum across the globe, in Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela.He is wanted for allegedly leaking details of secret surveillance operations in the UK and US and has been in diplomatic limbo since his arrival in Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23.

RUSSIA RESPONDS

Russian president Vladimir Putin said Mr Snowden would have to stop leaking US secrets if he wanted to get asylum there. Russia’s foreign minister has rejected American demands to extradite Edward Snowden. Sergei Lavrov said Snowden had not crossed the Russian border and insisted that Russia has nothing to do with him, his relations with US justice, or his travel plans. He angrily criticised American demands for Snowden’s extradition and warnings of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply.

Mr Lavrov said that accusing Russia of “violation of US laws and even some sort of conspiracy” with regard to Snowden is “absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable”. He would not specify the location of Snowden, who booked a Havana-bound flight from Moscow a week ago but, did not show up on the plane.

 

SHITTER SHATTER BATS FOR US SPY AGENCIES:

The Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter says there's nothing to prevent the US from making a fresh application to the Irish courts for the extradition of whistleblower Ed Snowden, should he enter the state following the refusal by the High Court to issue a provisional arrest warrant, in the event Snowden arrives in Ireland seeking political asylum.

                                                                  Shatter at a party conference

 

Responding to the High Court judgement, Minister Shatter said the Irish and U.S. authorities are in close contact with regard to Snowden.He said it was worth noting that the High Court refused to issue the arrest warrant "on the basis of specific information, rather than a determination as to whether an individual should or should not be extradited " Once again Shatter displays his contempt for the Irish public with a partisan propagandist claim on behalf of a foreign government. Also, he has no right commenting on a legal case before the courts in any manner whatsoever which amounts to contempt of court for which he should be called before the Justice hearing the case to account for his disgraceful remarks.

Shatter, a known pro-Zionist and apologist for Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank Palestinian Territories, including the piratical attacks on Irish ships travelling to Gaza; the illegal detention, kidnap, assault and stealing of property from Irish citizens on board shows that he is unfit to be a minister in the Irish Government and should be dismissed forthwith by An Taoiseach if the government had any respect for itself or the people it purports to govern under the Irish constitution.

Leaks

Edward Snowden leaked classified US intelligence documents to the media last month. Once he was unveiled as the NSA whistleblower, he fled to Hong Kong and from there to Moscow, where he has been residing in a transit area of the city's airport for weeks. He has subsequently released intelligence claiming that the US has been monitoring secret, official EU communications. Snowden has sought political asylum in dozens of countries - several of which have refused. However, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua are enthusiastic to grant him asylum, if he can get out of Moscow - and is given uninhibited passage through international airspace.

A diplomatic incident a week ago when an aircraft carrying Bolivian President Morales was forced to break its journey and land in Vienna because of rumours that Mr Snowden was on board has provoked outrage throughout Latin America at the high-handed and lawless activities of Washington in its attempts to apprehend Mr Snowden.

Apart from the brass-necked effrontery of the US Administration in seeking the assistance of Irish courts in their vindictive campaign of intimidation against Mr Snowden while they continue to commit acts of murderous violence across the globe against the civilian populations of the several countries they are engaged in military actions in, the provocative intervention of Shatter on their behalf must be condemned and opposed vigorously by all progressive and democratic forces here.