Standing next to Edward Snowden’s seat on flight to Cuba. He ain’t here. pic.twitter.com/NVRH3Pzved
— max seddon (@maxseddon) June 24, 2013
Former CIA contractor turned infamous NSA leaker Edward Snowden is a much sought after guy right now. All reports indicated that at this moment, Snowden would be on a flight from Moscow — where he reportedly arrived yesterday from Hong Kong — bound for Havana, Cuba, which would get him that much closer to his final destination — likely either Venezuela or Ecuador. The flight was a popular ticket for the small legion of journalists currently dedicated to keeping track of Snowden, all of whom were treated to a rude awakening today when it became clear as the flight finished boarding that Snowden himself was not on board.
That means there are a lot of folks on a flight from Moscow to Havana right now who just realized their reason for travelling is “Uh, nothing, I guess?” What’s even worse? It appears the Aeroflot flight isn’t even serving drinks. The Moscow-Havana route is a pretty long one in the best of circumstances, and it’s exponentially longer for any journalist who just got juked out of their shoes by a story and sent on a wild goose chase halfway around the world. Without a drink, though, it would be downright intolerable. Here’s hoping someone had the forethought to bring along enough travel bottles of grain alcohol to drown everyone’s sorrows — otherwise, that flight has the potential to get downright ugly.
As for today’s continuation of this weekend’s rousing game of Where in the World is Edward Snowden?, it’s unclear at the moment. After likely arriving in Moscow yesterday, speculation on his whereabouts is rampant. He could still be in Russia, waiting for a later flight that’s a little less packed with people wanting to get a quote out of him. Or he could have left Russia last night. And while we have reports indicating that Russia was his destination when he left Hong Kong, there are no pictures of Snowden at the airport there, and Russian officials never actually confirmed his arrival. Dude could literally be anywhere at this point.
Journalists aren’t the only ones confused as to Snowden’s location. Secretary of State John Kerry has told reporters that the U.S. government does not know Snowden’s location or travel plans, and those guys know pretty much everything now. Kerry added that he would be “deeply troubled” if authorities in China and Russia knew of Snowden’s plans to leave and did nothing to stop him.
Meanwhile, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino Arocam, has confirmed at a press conference just moments ago that Ecuador is considering an asylum request made by Snowden, though a final decision on the matter has yet to be reached.
(via The Guardian, Twitter, RT)
- Remember — the PRISM program is still officially classified, so let’s pretend we don’t know about it
- That’s a lot of phone records you’re taking there, NSA. You sure you need all of those?
- Here’s what the NSA might know about you through these programs
