HUFFINGTON POST
Beginning a third week holed up in a Moscow airport’s transit zone, Edward Snowden finds himself far enough away to evade U.S. authorities, but also too far from any of the sympathetic nations willing to shelter him.
Aviation experts say that even if Snowden accepts the tentative offers of Venezuela, Nicaragua or Bolivia to give him shelter, it’s virtually impossible to chart a flight plan to those nations that doesn’t include traveling over or refueling in a U.S.-friendly country that could demand inspection of the plane – and detain him.
Nations have full, exclusive jurisdiction over their airspace, so any plane carrying Snowden could be forced to land if it flies over the territory of a country that’s willing to help American authorities capture the fugitive intelligence contractor. Snowden faces felony charges in the United States for leaking classified documents that detailed the National Security Agency’s extensive surveillance apparatus.
“Nations control their airspace up to the heavens, the old saying goes,” said John Q. Mulligan, an aviation law expert at DePaul University’s College of Law. “Just look at the map. It’s probably possible to figure out a route that wouldn’t touch the airspace of the United States or any friendly nations, but it wouldn’t be easy.”
Snowden’s best hope for breaking out of the transit area most likely hinges on whether he could sneak onto one of five weekly, direct flights to Havana, Cuba. ...The main drawback? The path takes the plane directly over the United States, which could flout a standing treaty and force a regularly scheduled commercial flight to land.
There are airplanes that can make the 6,000-mile direct flight from Moscow to Havana or Caracas with fuel to spare. The Airbus A340 has a range of about 9,000 miles and a Boeing 777 can fly for 9,400 miles before refueling. But a direct flight would mean passing through the airspace of European nations and possibly the United States. And chartering such a craft would be incredibly expensive – $100,000 to start, and that’s if a charter service could be found willing to risk angering the United States and perhaps being accused of aiding a fugitive.
“I don’t know what sort of plane they’d have available to make that flight, especially without refueling,” Mulligan said. “A refueling stop would probably be problematic for Snowden.”
Last week’s diversion of Bolivian President Evo Morales’ presidential jet as he attempted to return to Bolivia from Moscow was a cautionary tale for Snowden as he mulls exit strategies from transit-lounge limbo. Outraged Bolivian officials insisted American pressure was to blame for France and Portugal denying the Bolivian president’s plane access to their airspace amid a rumor that Edward J. Snowden was on board.
France, Spain, Italy and Portugal denied Morales’ requests to overfly their airspace on the way to a refueling stop in the Canary Islands.----And lurking under all the problems with air travel is another logistical kink: Snowden’s lack of travel documents. His U.S. passport was revoked, so it’s unclear how he’d be processed out of Moscow. In other asylum cases, those not involving fugitives accused of revealing state secrets, refugees have traveled on specially issued United Nations passports, or other temporary documents issued by individual countries. One factor in his favor, analysts say, however, is the shrewd way Snowden appears to be using his revelations in his case for sanctuary. While governments might expect and forgive the United States for its global surveillance dragnet, ordinary people all over the world have expressed outrage at the program’s scope and targets.
Ending nearly three weeks of silence, Snowden appealed for the help of human rights activists in gaining asylum as he sought safe passage to Latin America.
At a meeting with several human-rights groups today, Snowden discussed how he plans to get out of Russia and into one of the Latin American countries that have offered him asylum. According to Human Rights Watch’s Tanya Lokshina, Venezuela, Russia, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have all invited the infamous leaker to come on over, and while he “accepts all offers,” he has to get out of the airport first. To do so safely, Lokshina told The New York Times that Snowden will be asking Russia for temporary asylum; he previously withdrew a request after refusing to agree to Putin’s condition that he stop publishing information that “brought harm” to the United States. Snowden now says the terms aren’t a problem because “No actions I take or plan are meant to harm the U.S. ... I want the U.S. to succeed.”
EARLIER REPORTS :
DAILY BEAST July 1, 2013 10:15 AM
Edward Snowden's perch at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport is looking more precarious today. Russian President Vladimir Putin says the former NSA contractor must stop leaking U.S. secrets if he wants asylum in Russia, something Putin says he doesn't want to grant. Meanwhile Snowden reportedly gave Russian officials a list of 15 countries he wants to seek asylum in after Ecuador's president expressed reservations about sheltering him. He said Ecuador could only accept Snowden if he were already there, or if he approached an embassy. The names of the countries on Snowden's list have not been released. Let the sweepstakes begin!
BRASILIA, July 2 (Reuters) - Brazil will not grant asylum to former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday, adding that it will leave the request unanswered. The rejection makes Brazil the latest in a flurry of countries that have spurned asylum requests from Snowden,
If you’re in the military overseas, don’t plan on reading The Guardian: its website has reportedly been banned on computers used by troops abroad.
Asylum options appeared to narrow further as at least nine countries reacted unfavorably to his requests for sanctuary and the Kremlin said he had withdrawn his application to Russia.
Only Venezuela and Bolivia appeared to offer him a hint of hope for a way out of his limbo inside the international airport transit lounge at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, where he has been ensconced out of public view for nine days.