Concerning the case of Mr Edward Snowden, the Chief Executive, Mr C Y Leung, issued the following statement today (June 15) :
When the relevant mechanism is activated, the Hong Kong SAR Government will handle the case of Mr Snowden in accordance with the laws and established procedures of Hong Kong. Meanwhile, the Government will follow up on any incidents related to the privacy or other rights of the institutions or people in Hong Kong being violated.
Ends/Saturday, June 15, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:06
Hundreds of marchers joined together to support Edward Snowden. Despite the rain, they made their way to the US consulate and Hong Kong government headquarters where they handed
open letters to representatives.
Police estimates put the number of participants at 300, but earlier, organisers said the protest was at 900 people at its peak. Follow the rally from beginning to end,
on the Post's live-blog.
Facebook became the first to release aggregate numbers of requests from the US government, saying in a
blog post that it received between 9,000 and 10,000 US requests for user data in the second half of last year, covering 18,000 to 19,000 of its users’ accounts. Facebook has more than 1.1 billion users worldwide.
FRIDAY, JUNE 14
Convicted US spy Christopher Boyce: 'Snowden is doomed': In one of only a handful of interviews Boyce has given since his arrest in 1977, he told
CNN this week about his own motivations three decades ago and what Snowden is likely to face psychologically now he is pitted against the world's most powerful secret service.
"We are surprised and disappointed by comments from Rep. Peter King R(NY), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, saying "legal action should be taken" against Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald for his reporting on NSA surveillance.
This is especially troubling in light of comments from Eric Holder, US Attorney General who stated: "As long as I am attorney general, we will not prosecute any reporter for doing his or her job." Holder went on to say he was “troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable."
If Snowden were to seek legal protection in Hong Kong, he can ask to be considered a refugee or claim he will be tortured if sent back, writes the Post's Patsy Moy, Joyce Ng and Lana Lam. He has
told the Post that he strongly supports the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees system.
In a possible extradition case, Snowden has a few options. The
Post's Adolfo Arranz takes a look in an
infographic.
Classified US government data shown to the
Post by Snowden has provided a rare insight into the effectiveness of Washington's top-secret global cyberspying programme,
writes Lana Lam. The detailed records - which cannot be independently verified - show specific dates and the IP addresses of computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland hacked by the National Security Agency over a four-year period.
They also include information indicating whether an attack on a computer was ongoing or had been completed, along with an amount of additional operational information.
HK protesters march to US Consulate in support of Snowden (AFP)
The FBI said it had launched a criminal investigation and was taking "all necessary steps" to prosecute Snowden for exposing secret US surveillance programmes.
FBI Director Robert Mueller told the US House Judiciary Committee: "These disclosures have caused significant harm to our nation and to our safety. We are taking all necessary steps to hold the person responsible for these disclosures," he said.
writes a
commentary about the Prism programme for
The Guardian.
, a few detective bloggers have combed the internet from about 10 years ago looking for traces of a possible young Snowden.
- Are these Edward Snowden’s ARSTechnica posts? A blogger who combed a message board points out that:
- TheTrueHooha mentions he has considered working in Japan, Thailand, Korea, China and Australia. "China is definitely a good option career-wise, and I’ve already got a basic understanding of Mandarin and the culture, but it just doesn’t seem like as much “fun” as some of the other places. Who knows where the “needs of the service” will actually end up placing me, though."
- Others think an 18-year-old Snowden took modelling photos.
after the disclosure of a huge US electronic surveillance programme, state newspaper
China Daily said. The programme “is certain to stain Washington’s overseas image and test developing Sino-US ties”,
the newspaper cited analysts as saying.
“How the case is handled could pose a challenge to the burgeoning goodwill between Beijing and Washington given that Snowden is in Chinese territory and the Sino-US relationship is constantly soured on cybersecurity.”
An analyst noted the irony that the US’ surveillance programme was exposed just as Washington has intensified its public accusations of Chinese state-backed cyberattacks -- an allegation which Beijing vehemently denies.
“It turns out that the biggest threat to the pursuit of individual freedom and privacy in the US is the unbridled power of the government,” the paper quoted China Foreign Affairs University researcher Li Haidong as saying. (Agence France-Presse)
on Snowden during his official visit to New York. The
Post's Gary Cheung
reports that the visit "has turned out to be an awkward trip to the United States to promote trade relations". Asked about how extraditions to friendly countries were handled, he said: “In general, we follow the laws and our policies.”
Guardian's Glenn Greenwald blasts Rep. King's accusations in NSA case after the New York Republican called for the columnist to face criminal charges (
CNN)
Snowden’s teen years at a Japanese anime start-up Long before he became known worldwide as the NSA contractor who exposed top-secret US government surveillance programs, Edward Snowden worked for a Japanese anime company run by friends and went by the nicknames “The True HOOHA” and “Phish.” (
Reuters)
Reactions from Twitter after Snowden's interview with the Post
on the White House website reaches more than 65,000 signatures.
One in 3 Americans see NSA leaker Edward Snowden as ‘patriot’ than traitor, according to a poll by
Reuters.Some 23 per cent of those surveyed said former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is a traitor while 31 per cent said he is a patriot. An additional 46 per cent said they did not know.
Stories from the exclusive interview:
“I have had many opportunities to flee HK, but I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong’s rule of law."
"The US government will do anything to prevent me from getting this into the public eye, which is why they are pushing so hard for extradition.”
“I have not spoken to any of my family,” he said. But, he added: “I am worried about the pressure they are feeling from the FBI.”
Snowden said that according to unverified documents seen by the Post, the NSA had been hacking computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland since 2009.
from a secret location in Hong Kong.
Taiwan entitled to decide whether to admit Snowden, a Ministry of Justice official says. (
Channel News Asia)
Former US Republican Congressman Ron Paul told Fox Business News that he feared the US government might send a drone missile to kill Snowden.
"I'm worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile," Paul said in the
interview, adding "it’s a shame that we are in an age where people who tell the truth about what the government is doing gets into trouble".
are
planning a rally on Saturday, to "defend free speech" and "uphold Hong Kong law".
Oriental Daily News said Snowden was trying to contact Hong Kong-based human rights organisations and lawyers for help, without citing sources. However Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor has not yet received any message from Snowden, it added.
Hong Kong's immigration department has no record of him leaving the country, Apple Daily has reported.
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei writes an
opinion piece in The Guardian: "The US is behaving like China". "To me, it's abusively using government powers to interfere in individuals' privacy. This is an important moment for international society to reconsider and protect individual right," he writes.
The father of Snowden's girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, is "shocked" by news that the Snowden is the NSA leaker, the
AP reports.
Again, a Twitter account purports to be Snowden "now seeking refuge". The account is fake.
New York Republican Peter King tells CNN that the journalists tied to the leaks should be prosecuted. "If they willingly knew that this was classified information, I think actions should be taken, especially on something of this magnitude,"
said King, who leads the House Homeland Security subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Terrorism.
TUESDAY, JUNE 11
Law professor Simon Young, of the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Comparative and Public Law, releases a
media advisory about Hong Kong's asylum laws and the Snowden case. (
PDF version)
Satirical news website The Daily Currant posts a
story that US Senator John McCain has called for an invasion of Hong Kong, what he calls "an enemy of the state". "I don't want to hear about extradition or rendition or any of that nonsense. This man is a traitor and if we don't get him within 24 hours I say we need to start bombing the hell out of Hong Kong," the fake news story reads.
The emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, Peter Bouckaert,
told The Guardian that Snowden should not be considered safe in Hong Kong. "There's little doubt [reason] to believe that the Hong Kong authorities would not co-operate with the CIA in this case," said Bouckaert, who after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi found faxes in Tripoli indicating that the Hong Kong authorities had co-operated with the CIA in rendering an anti-Gaddafi Islamist to Libya.
Chinese microbloggers wonder if Snowden is in the wrong place,
reports the Post's Amy Li. “Isn’t government monitoring a norm? Doesn’t our government do that daily?” one said. Another wrote: “Kid, we have a much more powerful surveillance system in China. Coming here is suicide.”
Sales of George Orwell's 1984 are up 5,000 per cent on Amazon,
reports Slate. Orwell's dystopian novel is set in a "big brother" state.
Booz Allen issues a statement that Snowden was an employee for less than three months. He was "terminated" on June 10 "for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy",
the statement said. It also confirmed he had a salary of US$120,000 a year, not US$200,00 as Snowden claimed.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange calls Snowden a hero. "Edward Snowden is a hero who informed the public about one of the most serious events of the decade which is the creeping formulation of a mass surveillance state that has now corrupted the courts in the United States..." Assange said in an
interview with SkyNews.
Reports about Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills surface. "I don't know what will happen from here. I don't know how to feel normal," the self-styled "pole-dancing superhero" wrote on her
blog. She was also "adrift in a sea of chaos" after Snowden came forward as the whistle-blower,
CNN reported.
Edward Snowden's decision to flee to Hong Kong may be an
early test of the burgeoning relationship between Xi and Obama, writes
Post correspondent Teddy Ng.
Harry's View
MONDAY, JUNE 10
Fake Snowden Twitter accounts crop up.
Iceland cannot grant asylum to Snowden unless he is there, the country's ambassador to China told the
Post's Patrick Boehler. "According to Icelandic law, a person can only submit such an applications once he/she is in Iceland,"
said Kristín Árnadóttir, the Icelandic ambassador in Beijing. Snowden had told The Guardian that he might try to seek asylum in Iceland.
Why The Guardian is the
go-to newspaper for whistle-blowers, the
Post's Julian Ryall in Tokyo asks. "What the editors in London have been saying over the last few years is that
The Guardian has become the world's leading liberal voice," Justin McCurry, the Guardian's Tokyo correspondent said. "So if there are issues like government-level abuses or power, violations of human rights and so on, then this is the place to go to because The Guardian will treat them sensibly and accurately."
A timeline of events that led up to the Snowden affair is created by journalists.
Timeline by Henry Williams, Joanne Lam and AJ Libunao.
Hong Kong is baffled by Snowden's choice of hideout, reports the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report. It quotes politicians who note Hong Kong's "longstanding co-operation with the US on legal and economic matters".
Edward Snowden reveals his identity and that he has been holed up in a Hong Kong hotel, in a video and story in Britain's Guardian newspaper. "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," he said, but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."
