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June 27, 2013

Ecuador Faces U.S. Pressure on Snowden Asylum Bid 
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Ecuador is facing U.S. pressure to reject the asylum bid of NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden. On Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Robert
Menendez, chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said
that welcoming Snowden "would severely jeopardize" U.S. trade
preferences for Ecuador. Menendez said: "Our government will not reward
countries for bad behavior." Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo
Patiño, meanwhile says his government could take anywhere between a few
days to a few months to decide on Snowden's asylum bid. Snowden is
believed to remain in a transit area of a Moscow airport. On Wednesday,
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Snowden has damaged the United
States, and urged Russia to hand him over.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: "I would hope that the Russians do the
right thing here and turn Snowden over to the United States. General
[Martin] Dempsey said, others, yes, there was damage done to this
country by the Snowden leaks. And we are assessing that now, but, make
no mistake, this violation of our laws was a serious security breach in
our national security apparatus."

 

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