Juilian Assange, of Wikileaks fame, is helping Edward Snowden, of NSA fame, circumnavigate the globe to avoid capture by US authorities for espionage charges.
It's like the plot of a summer action-adventure flick: one exiled whistle-blower helping another escape the shadowy forces of an oppressive government that secretly collects data on all the citizens of the land for its own nefarious purposes. Except it isn't a movie. And it's the very real US government that has targeted this group of individuals whose only crime is revealing the truth about our government's questionable domestic and foreign policy actions.
Watching the nightly news is becoming surreal -- Like we're watching a news program contained in a movie hybrid of Escape From New York meets Enemy of the State.
Mother Jones reports:
"Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has been officially indicted by the United States under the Espionage Act, is en route to Ecuador, one of at least two countries in which he is seeking asylum, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said today on a call with reporters. Assange would not provide further details on Snowden's current whereabouts. The whistleblower arrived in Moscow on Sunday, fleeing Hong Kong after China urged his departure in order to avoid a messy extradition battle with the United States, according to Reuters. Snowden was scheduled to fly to Havana early Monday morning, but he never boarded the plane.
"Assange blasted the Obama administration for seeking Snowden's extradition and interfering with his quest for asylum, which WikiLeaks is assisting with. He said that focusing on Snowden distracts from the sweeping surveillance program that he exposed.
"'Snowden has issued an asylum application to Ecuador and possibly other countries,' Assange said from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he is himself avoiding extradition by Sweden and potentially the United States. 'We are aware where Mr. Snowden is. He is in a safe place and his spirits are high, but due to the bellicose threats coming from the US administration, we cannot go into further details at this time.' Kristinn Hrafnsson, a WikiLeaks spokesman, added that Snowden is also formally seeking asylum in Iceland, but wouldn't name other potential countries that he is petitioning for safe haven."
Summer blockbuster, indeed.
