The US Deploys International Relations to Prevent Another Escape by Snowden

The White House harshly criticizes China’s decision to allow the leaker to leave Hong Kong and warns Russia of the consequences of not turning him in.

The escape of Edward Snowden, who was responsible for leaking information about mass surveillance programs of the United States government, has become a new international setback for the Obama administration, which has been seen as impotent after Hong Kong frustrated the request for the extradition and arrest of the analyst and allowed him to take a flight bound for Russia. The White House has strengthened its diplomatic and legal efforts in order to prevent Snowden from evading American law again and from finding refuge in Ecuador, the only country from which he has officially sought asylum, and has asked the Northern Hemisphere countries to not offer him protection, given that he has been charged with serious crimes.

“We are following all the appropriate legal channels,” said President Barack Obama before meeting with entrepreneurs to talk about immigration reform in the White House. “[We are] working with various other countries to make sure the rule of law is observed.” The Department of State has informed these governments that Snowden is “wanted on felony charges” and that he “should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States.”

Washington is not prepared for Snowden to mock American law as in the case of Hong Kong. The administration had evidence since June 10 that the analyst had taken refuge in the Chinese autonomous region. The FBI, the Department of State and the Department of Justice were in constant contact with their counterparts in Hong Kong; however, the authorities alleged technical defects of the documentation sent by the United States to justify the abandonment of Snowden by that territory. “We are just not buying that this was a technical decision by a Hong Kong immigration official. This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive, despite a valid arrest warrant. And that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship,” claimed Jay Carney, the presidential spokesperson, who used an unusually hard tone and held China directly responsible for Hong Kong’s action.

Convinced that Snowden stays in Moscow, after confirming yesterday that he did not take the flight bound for Havana for which he had bought a ticket when he landed coming from Hong Kong on Sunday morning, the White House and Department of State have focused their resources on dissuading the Russian authorities from following the same way as China and allowing the technician to fly to Latin America. “We are expecting the Russians to examine the options available to them to expel Mr. Snowden for his return to the United States,” said Carney. Hours before, Secretary of State John Kerry warned the government in Moscow from New Delhi that to authorize the departure of the analyst, whom he defined as a “traitor,” would bring “serious consequences” for bilateral relations between both countries.

The lack of willingness from China and Russia and Ecuador’s decision to consider Snowden’s application for asylum have exposed the debatable lack of diplomatic persuasion from the United States and its incapability to bring their fugitives before justice. The American government does not want the analyst to become a new Julian Assange and find, as in the case of the WikiLeaks founder, refuge in a third country. The chain of involved countries in Snowden’s escape has raised skepticism from the Department of State about the analyst’s true intentions at the time of leaking the spying programs. “Russia and China are not havens for Internet freedom,” said Kerry.*

The White House has raised the tone of its language but hasn’t explained how a relationship, the links of which their respective presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping tried to strengthen early this month in California, could be affected. The United States doesn’t consider the possibility that Snowden finds a way into Ecuador, as Assange suggested on Monday. Therefore with Russia, they currently haven’t increased the hostility of their discourse in the confidence, demonstrated by Kerry, that Moscow itself will carry out their requests of extradition.

The escape and the whereabouts of the analyst are not the only worries of Washington. Snowden left the United States provided with four computers loaded with information about surveillance programs that evaded the NSA, and the administration is not interested in it ending up in the hands of other countries.

Snowden’s leakage has caught the White House on the wrong foot. Snowden’s leaks have already forced the president to change his political agenda, forcing him to open a debate about security and privacy, diverting attention from immigration reform, in which he has involved himself personally. The speculation about the current location and final destination of the leaker have now prevented talk of the ambitious plan about climate change that Obama will present on Tuesday and, with complete certainty, will tarnish the tour through Africa that the leader initiated on Wednesday.

*Editor’s note: The original quote by Kerry read, “I wonder if Mr. Snowden chose China and Russian assistance in his flight from justice because they’re such powerful bastions of Internet freedom.”