Edward Snowden as a stateless refugee

There's currently a lot of US mainstream media "spin" obviously fed by irate US government sources--which appears to be completely without merit and baseless (for the record, so far, there is no evidence that Snowden either "worked with" or released information directly to China or Russia)--but speculation never stopped a smear campaign, particularly since we now have NSA and other government officials systemically lying before Congressional committees.

With the support of the Wikileaks organization, it's pretty clear Snowden is in a "secure transit zone" pending resolution of his application for asylum to Ecuador, Venezuela, or elsewhere--

Russia, China defend their conduct in Snowden saga - The Washington Post: "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Snowden had not actually crossed into Russian territory, apparently remaining in a secure transit zone inside the airport or in an area controlled by foreign diplomats. Moscow therefore has had no jurisdiction over his movements, Lavrov said, and has no legal right to turn him over to U.S. authorities."

As for the human rights record of countries that Snowden is now dealing with (after the US government revoked his passport and charged him criminally)--

Snowden made other asylum bids: WikiLeaks | SBS World News: "Julian Assange, on Monday insisted any country that helped Snowden should be applauded regardless of its human rights record. The Australian was asked by a BBC reporter about the "obvious irony" of seeking assistance from China, Russia and Ecuador given they didn't share WikiLeaks' values of privacy and freedom of speech. "I simply do not see the irony," Assange told a teleconference from the Ecuadorean embassy in London. "Any country which assists in upholding his rights must be applauded." Assange said it was a separate issue if countries didn't share the same values as WikiLeaks.  He turned the critique on its head by stating: "We do not criticise people for seeking refugee status in the United States despite its use of torture, drone strikes ... executive kill lists and so on." "No one is suggesting countries like Ecuador are engaged in those types of abuses," Assange said."

So where does Snowden go from here? My best guess is that Snowden is never coming back to the U.S. He has already given everything he has to Wikileaks, the Guardian or others, or given a "key" to a 3rd party which is to be given to those organizations in the event of his death or arrest, so they can access all of that information.  The US government seems to be annoyed, angry, frustrated, and scurrying around in a desperate attempt to apprehend Snowden and otherwise is stuck in "damage control" mode. There are probably a lot of people in Washington that have been busy in CYA moves. In the meantime, most of the world is watching this David vs Goliath story play out.

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