and it's a whistleblower edward snowden reportedly about to touch down in moscow aboard a flight from hong kong our t.i.v. airport to find out of his next move in the search of political asylum. but exactly where is he headed we're tracking reports of his movements some sources suggest he's already checked in for a flight to havana they're heading on to venezuela. and artists and some other whistleblowers and washington's efforts to cap the torrent of secrets from being revealed. five pm in moscow i'm at treasure bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news n.s.a. whistleblower wanted by the u.s.

edward snowden may touch down in russia soon after reportedly boarding a moscow bound flight from hong kong as you can see on this map the flight that has reportedly has snowden aboard has almost almost reached its destination here in moscow scheduled to land in the russian capital within minutes it's said though that snowden won't be staying long in moscow a source at the airline aeroflot suggesting he's already checked in on a flight to cuba and that will only be in transit from there allegedly he could go on to venezuela there's been other suggestions though about his final destination or on those let's cross now to our tease paula scott who is standing by for us at sheremetyevo airport with the latest on what you are hearing paul. yes. developments in the last. reportedly says this is. the country that is going to give edward snowden asylum.

when he. jest. coming from hong kong which is. ten minutes. from the country that give snowden asylum. involved well they say that they have been helping. him. in an unnamed democratic state. we do not know whether. there is a suggestion. that he's already. on monday. where he will be granted. to the white house began extradition proceedings

over extradition proceedings. which is of course. the last fortnight since he blew the whistle on the n.s.a. surveillance. initially so they were prepared to work with the u.s. government to possibly. that they needed guarantees that the charges against him were not politically motivated seems that. russia's stance on the situation is that. his case would be treated the same. but the suggestion is he's going to use most. it was a transit as a stopping point before monday. and then down to venezuela all right artie's live for us as chairman of our airport thanks very much for your time. well it wouldn't be a big story if we didn't talk to r.t. contributor option return see about it he's joining us live from london so we've

got allegedly we have edward snowden flying to possibly venezuela via russia at this point why not just go the other way from hong kong make it a direct flight to caracas. i'm not a travel agent this is it is quite amazing that it was it could be within the next few minutes that he lands in moscow one thing is certain chinese american relations it just goes to show how poorly those relations are going because that arrest warrant went out the complaint under the espionage act and under international law as the united states might have it and of course the hong kong government ignored it as most developing nations would they realize that the united states and the way it's been operating is something like it to tell a tarion straight and so many ways has for edward snowden no direct flight would be possible for him so i understand that he has been receiving advice from wiki leaks let's hope it's better than the advice we get leaks gave one man last week the

f.b.i. denied it but michael hastings one of the greatest journalists in the world died at the age of thirty three just after getting advice from wiki leaks hopefully this time the advice that we get it's gave mr snowden will mean that he'll be safe and sound whatever his destination is. why do you think snowden has chosen moscow as kind of a transit point do you think there was a. diplomatic reason for that. mr putin last week around time of the g. eight already made clear that any request would be considered and presumably the russian government and different diplomats have said the fact that they would consider it was good enough their being back channels here presumably president obama would love to be listening in on it while he tries in his desperate attempt to destroy the lives of anyone who will explain to the world about president obama's continuous operation of drone strikes torture and kidnapping around the

world it seems the russian government and the chinese government only true only only two grateful to help in exposing the lie of an america that says in its mainstream media that it's something to do with the free world do you think moscow could be snowden's final destination. well i would be just getting different stories at the moment presumably snowden's people wiki leaks is people they will be trying to give this information to prevent and preempt any bomber attempted kidnapping or assassination which is the whole mock of his presidency you know we were going to remember what he's done to this other whistleblowers and it snowed and is a running for his life for doing what most americans presumably if they were given the right information would realize was protecting the united states constitution so you know the fact that we don't know at this moment where he's going to end up

is all part of a it's all good news because no one seeking the truth wants to know where he is in his final destination is until he gets there and when he gets that there's no way the united states can touch him a big contract. in cuba who president obama a few weeks ago said was a big terrorist as the aunt of two packs of cork was the rapper she was a member of the civil rights movement back in the sixty's president obama is chasing after whistleblowers all over the world when they know in america he can't get hold of them any re no reaction so far from the u.s. it's a fast moving story admittedly but why do you think they've been silent up to this point. i suppose vers stub united states will be using their back channels trying to get through to xi jinping saying what is going in hong kong they released this espionage act complaint what is it an authorized communication of

a national defense information and immediately the journey's government cooperate with edward snowden perhaps cooperate with the russian government and everyone is trying to desperately spirited away because we know president obama wants to get him by any means necessary all right r.t. contributor option rotund see there well we do have some late breaking word that the plane that allegedly has snowden on it has landed will have more on that aspect from paul scott i suspect as soon as we talk back with him but for now our two sources suggesting that it is possible that he's already here in moscow edward snowden this time though not arriving on a plane from hong kong as we speak but instead already holed up at the ecuadorian embassy here in russia's capital artie's to buying might say standing by outside the building for more on the possible aspect of the story. from the white vote is that right imagine we are indeed outside the ecuadorian embassy in moscow now they

say reports are not confirmed dead we do know that he is not in fact in the ecuadorian embassy here on right about four o'clock of moscow time we actually got there by the gate as of the ambassador of the adoring embassy left the premises and we did ask him is the about to go pick up snowden he did say to us no comment i cannot speak to you right now and he left with his motorcade now the reason has been so much speculation as to whether snowden in fact be going to ecuador as his final destination is because of course of this case reminds us as all the of another case of a whistleblower the world famous whistleblower julian assange is a locked up in. the ecuadorian embassy in london now let's just try to remind our viewers regional songes we know that he's been a whistleblower and he's a wanted by the swedish government to for the reasons of us sexual assaults now and

he's always denied those charges how the genocide has always said that the reason why sweden wants him is because they want to extradite him to the u.s. when the u.s. government wants to charge him with leaking those documents of military and diplomatic cables that he leaked it to the media now in june twelfth after going through numerous court. cases and going into court and saying you know i do not want to go to sweden they can come to me but he in fact he went into the ecuadorian embassy to seek asylum and was granted that asylum the reason that ignoring embassy said all the door in government said they granted him asylum was because they felt that his life he would not receive a fair trial in the e.u. as most so do is get that he would also be mistreated and humiliated under the u.s. government for for espionage now all at the moment we know that he's not here snowden has not arrived we know that the. ambassador has left so it begs the question really is all these deeds cause do they all timidly lead to quito well we

hopefully will find out soon enough and we'll keep you posted posted on that back to you that all right thanks very much art has to be let's say outside ecuador's moscow embassy. for more perspective on their son joining me live from manchester in the u.k. by loews k. who's the head of the u.k. pirate party thank you very much for joining us here on our t.v. so if you were in a word snow in the shoes right now what would your next movie. well it's clear that the united states raised the stakes hugely by filing espionage charges against edward snowden so we saw with with even though that the one cone said that they were willing to comply with the rule of law and that they also crucially they wouldn't extradite him on were politically motivated charges it was always clear that they were not able to offer him that actually the protection that he needs

against the might of the united states and that's the key thing right now he needs actually proper assurances hong kong had already come under huge diplomatic pressure there was talk of damaging of relations with even the questions as to whether hong kong was complying with the with the rule of law for as the united states put it what's clear is that he needs to go somewhere that can offer real assurances and real protection for whistleblowers and for what are essentially for the work that he's been doing to expose mass surveillance and the mass surveillance program that the united states and indeed ass here in the united kingdom are now subjecting our citizens to do you think snowden can continue to stay or one step ahead of the game so to speak. well it's clear that they have it's been vital for him to stay one step ahead of the game but the thing is there's been

a lot of speculation over the last few days is as to his final destination for example iceland has been named as a possible destination for him but this pirate party m.p. paid to be good to your ear it's pointed out that even iceland doesn't have a kind of spotless record in terms of the treating treating of asylum seekers so it's action and so it's vital that he actually seeks somewhere which is able to give proper assurances what we can be sure of is that the united states will continue to tar him with the brush of being a traitor whatever his final destination is but we have to remember that that is a distraction what we need to focus on is actually the core of this story which is his read the revelations about massive surveillance. do you think very there could be a happy ending in store for a snowden do you think you could make it to a country with no extradition treaty and just stay there indefinitely outside of

the reach of the us for example. well the real truth is that right now there is no good option for edward snowden for example i'm not not necessarily be the greatest fan of venezuela but the question is where can he go i think that's why it's vital that if m.p.'s in european countries for example start complaining about his final destination well then we need to step up and offer assurances that's why in the pirate party move it movement we're pressing for the e.u. to commit to actual real protection and asylum for whistleblowers remember this is about whistle blowing it's not espionage it's about actually revealing. a mass surveillance which is potentially illegal and is certainly has been kept in behind closed doors without proper democratic debate without proper democratic

oversight we're told all the time that if we've got nothing to hide we've got nothing to fear but that has now been blown out of the water by edward snowden's revelations the fact is that the more that's collected about us the more we have to fear and finally briefly if you could julian assange worried that the internet is turning into a quote military occupied space what do you think could be done to reverse that trend. well actually we all need to step up as citizens now is to say we need to put pressure on our governments we've seen this across the board whether it's the chasing of file sharers or whether or whether it's mass surveillance whether it's web filtering web blocking there is essentially a siege on the internet right now and we need to actually we need to say as citizens to stand up and say we will not we will not stand for it there's a lot of been

a lot of talk about it's time to upgrade surveillance capabilities well now what needs upgrading is our rights as global citizens. from the u.k. pirate party thanks for your time. well there is much more still to come here on r.t. stay with us after this short break. wealthy british style. is not on. the. market why not.

find out what's really happening to the global economy is a report on our. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks of the c.o.r.p. interview intriguing story for you. to find out more visit our big. dog called. thanks for staying with us we're continuing to keep you updated on our breaking news this hour n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden who is wanted by the u.s. reportedly in moscow after touching down on a flight from hong kong well now reportedly wait to board a plane to cuba and from there to an unknown destination meanwhile our teahouse learn ecuador's ambassador to russia has also arrived at the airport and could be

meeting snowden there our reporter standing by at the airport to bring you the latest on that but first gavin make faden director of the u.k. center of investigative judge. thanks for joining us here on r t so snowden's revelations of cyber spying has increased tensions between the u.s. and china hong kong and neither guaranteed his safety but also refused to arrest him so what message do you think is being sent in that case to washington and i think the the situation is complicated because the chinese clearly have of their own agenda but aren't prepared i think publicly to be pushed around in a sense by the united states and i think that would be a large factor in that in that decision. and julian a son jay explained to us earlier on our t.v. there is a way to blow a whistle and remain unknown so what why do you think snowden in this case chose to publicly come out with his statement i don't know his is entire reasons for it but do you think i think in his case he felt it was a moral imperative that he should publicly disclose and take courageous steps to.

not act anonymously but i publicly which is what he's done i think the of the laws that have been changing rapidly in the states have made him very aware as as many others were that it's that they're the largest campaign in probably modern american history against whistleblowers and what she has course the latest example there was something called the insider threat program which we learned about through mcclatchy which president obama isn't exponents of but which has caused some considerable difficulty for anyone who has any conscientious objection on the objection to the policies are being asked to work on now i remember several years back there was a cover of time magazine back when i was a lot of corporate malfeasance going on three women on the cover three was so blowers and it said is the age of the whistleblower these women in terms of corporate whistleblowing they were held as heroes now we have people government was so blowers and they're being sort of demonized especially by the obama

administration so what is the current status of the whistleblower hero or villain i think. in every way. measure there is in britain formed a new group called the whistleblowers u.k. which is designed to assist and support whistleblowers who stand up for ethical issues of this current and it's an expanding aggressive organization that has been very successful in what it's been trying to do even though it's a very short lived one but i gather similar organizations like the government accountability project in washington are doing many similar things and the effect has been to encourage what so blowing i think most of the people in the in the surveys that have been conducted it about sixty to seventy five percent of the populations of most industrial countries look towards whistleblowers as being fountains of truth that are not very difficult landscape where you can be treated very very badly for having the courage to stand up what we're fighting for of course our increased rights for whistleblowers and increasing support networks

because a lot of them face terrible problems as indeed mr snowden does for acting in what he feels would generally i think is in a charlie ethical objection to what a secret really has been going on now this prism program now that it's been brought to light what do you think should be the public reaction to what should be done about it well i think the public has to take a strong position against it against any further intrusion into into their private rights and their privacy and i think also it it has a course a terrible effect for journalists because with this kind of mess surveillance on the depth and scale that it is it's very hard for us as journalists to protect sources all sources who communicate with you electronically are now being observed and recorded it means that the the ability of a journalist to protect the people who provide it with critical information has been deeply compromised and that means that new techniques which like tor and encryption are now being widely used by journalists and we hope in fact will be

even more extensively used and they are now to protect their rights as independent commentators on society and the right of witnesses to come forward to expose crimes and no wrongdoing all right gavin make fade in from the center of the and for investigative journalism thanks very much for your time today. well snowden's are far from the first whistle blower to be pursued by the u.s. washington's attempts to prosecute traitors alleged traitors intensifying while the block list grows but as artie's guidance to kyon reports is encourages even more leaks of information america is split on edward snowden traitor hero mix in between but we guard lissa what anyone thinks about snowden his revelations have shed unprecedented light on the u.s. government's massive spying program even if you're not doing anything wrong you're being watched and recorded a former n.s.a. employee william binney was prosecuted as a traitor when he blew the whistle on the government's sweeping collection of data

and communications it's setting up a tele tarion state. when the government has that much information they can do those things they can use the i.r.s. to intimidate people or anything else they can send the f.b.i. . what they did to me and some others bradley manning to is being prosecuted as a traitor although it's still his war logs that the public learned about the. collateral murder it was committed in iraq the obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the espionage act than all previous administrations combined but it was a lower say it's not government persecution that they fear the greatest fear that i have regarding the outcome. for america of these disclosures is that nothing will change the administration is not trying to convince the american people that government secrets programs are a trade off they have to make in the name of national security they always have the same stories about you know science mannings known you know psychological stories

was wrong with these people it caused them to do this i mean the real question is what is wrong with everyone else from who doesn't see what they can see but whistleblowers are not the only targets there is an obligation both moral but also legal i believe against a reporter that was the chairman of the house committee on cutting teligent and terrorism peter king calling to punish the journalist who exposed the government surveillance programs in its hunt for meeks the obama administration has already targeted its it's trying to set the precedent for the communicating with the media is the same as communicating with the enemy and that's a death penalty offense the administration doesn't have to go after each other or he certainly isn't up to create an environment of fear but will that fear stop information from coming out here that we're snowden to answer that by. kone in response is simply build better whistleblower he said in washington i'm going to take our. course war is interested in what you think about the stories we're

covering here on our team you can log click on our two daughters. in take part in our online poll about the topic of global surveillance of data internet telephone usage what do you think is it justified is it not is it a violation well so far on our poll seventy three percent say spying on people is simply unacceptable for any reason seventeen percent don't want to give an opinion because they feel they're being tracked at this moment and they don't want to have their say seven percent saying it is justifiable as long as the surveyors are looking for the bad guys and trying to prosecute and pursue terrorists and three percent saying there is nothing wrong with it because they don't think they have anything to hide and it should be just used as a tool for law enforcement what do you think log on to our t dot com and cast your vote. we're still interviewing our guests here on our t.v. trying to get as much perspective as possible on this whole situation edward

snowden reportedly landing minutes ago in moscow and i'm joined by dara make dahle an international relations expert to get some more perspective you joining us live from london do you hear me mr mcdowell yes i can you do all right very good so hong kong moscow possibly vanna and possibly from there on to caracas why do you think show us no one has chosen this kind of unique route to take from hong kong well it's it's more or less a question of not whether he shows it but whether it was chosen for him we know he's been assisted by some of the people and. there's questions which airs in the travel over and you know when time yet to make these travel arrangements and i think the story of them leaking hong kong at this point it's pretty clearly that the chinese government didn't want to extradite him but they didn't want to have a fight about whether or not to extradite him so they asked him to move along i do something similar will happen in russia it's not a real plan very quick for him or. now ecuador's and from.

whether to russia has arrived at sheremetyevo airport do you think he's there to speak with snowden or do you think possibly to spirit him away to to ecuador moscow embassy possibly he could move on to the country. it's impossible to know at this point we don't know what communications that any snowden has had with representatives from ecuador you directly or through intermediaries this could be simply their first meeting and it could be the masters you are sounding out snowden or that in order to give more and more. to quito at this point however you know that you have to wait and see if he has just landed it's likely in the next couple of hours we'll know more that definitively we're all kind of going to destination is a man that you think there is any legal way at this point that he could be intercepted on or. i don't know that and here her

interpretation of international law. i think it's very unlikely that the russian authorities will prevent him from moving on to a third country where he would be highly unlikely to be extradited. there doesn't arise the question of that he goes to cuba he goes to venezuela he may end up flying over u.s. airspace and what if any actions the u.s. takes injuring that over flight well that's a question to them i'd say it's highly unlikely. realistically once he's on a commercial plane going to one of these countries that's it do you think that snowden will eventually be prosecuted in the u.s. or do you think that's something you could put off indefinitely. and again this is a question of how much the united states wants to go after and certainly they've shown that particularly in the area of cyber crime there have been quite aggressive and they've been. very harsh in sentencing and prosecution strategies for

people involved in the areas in cyber crime we've seen this with bradley manning on the domestic scene elsa's aaron swartz so i don't think that they'll give up pursuing him. but whether or not they were ultimately successful and that only time will tell all right international ations expert dara mcdowell thanks very much for your insight thank you for having me or you have more updates on edward snowden the search for asylum in a couple of minutes stay with us here on r.t. . i know they tracked the approval ratings of the presidents of various countries by did though they still research the approval ratings of former presidents twice like gallup poll that says that george w. bush has been slowly growing in his approval numbers since leaving off.