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On July 1, WikiLeaks revealed that Snowden had applied for political asylum to 19 countries in addition to Ecuador and Iceland; these included Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and Venezuela. A statement attributed to Snowden also contended that the U.S. administration, and specifically Vice President Biden, had unjustly pressured the governments of these countries to refuse his petition for asylum.[160]
Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly said any asylum request would be considered only if he stopped leaking the United States' secrets.[161] In response, Snowden withdrew his asylum application to Russia.[162] India and Brazil have turned down Snowden's application, while Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Switzerland have stated that applications for political asylum can be accepted only from applicants who are physically present on the respective countries' territory.[162][163] Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski added that, in any case, Snowden's request would likely be rejected.[162]Norway rejected the application on July 2 of formal reasons, but the Norwegian chapter of P.E.N. stated that they will use their right to ask for a renewed handling of the application.
Austrian news just reported that our president could grant him asylum without him showing up in Vienna. It seems to be quite difficult to do so, though, and no one expects it to happen.
So far his options are Bolivia, China, Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela.
Ecuador and China are out. If Cuba or Venezuela were interested he would be there already. I putting money on that no one is going to be inclined to get into a pissing match with the U.S. over an unreliable person who does nothing to further their natural interest.
I call Snowden unreliable in the since that no one trusts a person who betrays their own country, and that includes spies who flee their clients after betraying their country. Even left wing radicals who fled to Cuba found themselves welcomed with open arms for propaganda purposes but never received much in return from their host country.
At this point, I think only the Tuaregs would take him
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