SNOWDEN LEAVES MOSCOW AIRPORT, GETS REFUGEE STATUS IN RUSSIA
Cairo, 24 Ramadan 1434/2 August 2013 (MINA) – Move comes after new reports shed light on National Security Agency’s wide-reaching surveillance system covering ‘nearly everything a typical user does on the internet’.
Fugitive former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday (1/8) after Russia granted him refugee status, ending more than a month in limbo in the transit area.
A lawyer who has been assisting Snowden said the young American, who is wanted in the United States for leaking details of secret government intelligence programmes, had left the airport for a secure location which would remain secret.
“Edward Snowden has successfully acquired refugee status in Russia,” the anti-secrecy organisation WikiLeaks, which is also assisting Snowden, confirmed on Twitter, Ahramonline quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
His lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told state television: “I have just seen him off. He has left for a secure location … Security is a very serious matter for him.”
Snowden, 30, arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23. He had hoped to fly to Latin America, where three countries have offered to shelter him, but was concerned that the United States would prevent him reaching his destination.
Snowden’s case has caused new strains in relations between Russia and the United States which wants him extradited to face espionage charges.
New revelations from former security contractor Edward Snowden that US intelligence agencies have access to a vast online tracking tool came to light on Wednesday, as lawmakers put the secret surveillance programs under greater scrutiny.
The Guardian, citing documents from Snowden, published National Security Agency training materials for the XKeyscore program, which the British newspaper described as the NSA’s widest-reaching system that covers “nearly everything a typical user does on the Internet.”
Intelligence analysts can conduct surveillance through XKeyscore by filling in an on-screen form giving only a “broad justification” for the search and no review by a court or NSA staff, the newspaper said.(T/P03/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
