u.s. national security agent whistleblower edward snowden. is currently in transit for the night at a moscow airport after flying in from. ecuador and diplomats met him after he landed he's now expected to fly to cuba. international safety from the u.s. . and before he even left hong kong snowden's passport reportedly revoked the u.s. which is told russia deported human rights activists. with new allegations even. while he was running for the senate.

from. twenty four hours a day and it's a whistleblower edward snowden who is wanted by the u.s. has formally applied for political asylum in ecuador and that's according to a tweet by the country's foreign minister snowden is currently in a moscow airport waiting to board his next flight on. well let's cross now to. the airport tell us what has happened since snowden landed here in moscow. speculation. fifteen

pm local time. he was greeted by diplomats from the ecuadorian embassy he was greeted by the ecuadorian he was here to meet him upon his. flight from hong kong. he has not been spotted and we have. is that he is indeed in the building behind me. still remain. but edward snowden is having problems with his papers. but america has called for his passport to be revoked. and it's not clear whether snowden did indeed intend to spend the evening hay. whether he's had to rearrange because of those problems with his paper his next move.

tweet that. minister of foreign affairs saying that snowden has indeed applied for asylum in the country so that looks likely to be his nation or at least his target destination for the meantime it looks like he's going to hold. until his next flight. which is. to cuba. thanks very much indeed for that. as paul was saying there was of course speculation that perhaps he was going to go to venezuela but now it's being concerned that he has indeed applied to quito to the ecuadorian. to go to that country. reported to. the ecuadorian embassy a lot of people now saying why has he chosen ecuador. well

bill you know a lot of the speculation this often you know was because it has been known in the pos with the one particular whistleblower to have given asylum for him because of the same reason that snowden finds themselves in now let's just take you through what we've gone through now we know that the confirmations and for sure his next the third stop on his travels is a to ecuador that application has been confirmed by the foreign minister what we just want to remind everybody is that but the reason equitable halves is at the center of this is because of one particular world famous whistleblower julian assange choose in the ecuadorian embassy in london he's been holed up there for over a year now and it was about almost a year ago where he could dorrian government to grant him asylum of wish they didn't parky because one he was all going to be extradited to sweden a full charges against sexual assault of which he has denied till now he was afraid that once upon he arrives in sweden you will be then extradited to the united

states where he will face charges against him of all those who leaked documents of military and diplomatic cables which will lead to to the media now ecuador then decided to grant him asylum and then had said that the reasons for granting him that asylum was that one that they believe that he will not receive a fair trial in the united states and two they believe that he will face a really really scrutiny as well as uncomfortable conditions in the united states and therefore they felt that he is much safer in their realm that they will give him that asylum not supposed to snowden given the fact that he's had a little bit of time to think about he must of thought of his options he's had the whistleblower himself julian assange to helping him in the background there so whether they did come to the conclusion this decision that ecuador was in fact the right place for him to go to him. is not only he knows as well as he could during

an ambassador who's at ad that right now who. four o'clock this afternoon we did see the ambassador leaving the ecuadorian embassy i'm routed to the airport he did not give us any indication that he was going to see snow day so right now really it's all a question of when will he leave ma school to his next transit area and whether he will be coming back into the back door and. whether he is indeed going to spend the night in. back to you bill thanks very much indeed for that let's say reporting live from central well a little earlier i spoke to james petras he's from being hampton university in new york and he said that ecuador would be a safer choice for snowden for a student career was recently unliked it with the resounding majority well the president in venezuela was elected with a small majority and the country is fairly polarized so it may be the case

that even though venezuela would grant refugee status to snowden he would feel more secure in a government in a state where are the opposition is very weak and most of the opposition actually is from the last ardley likely to pressure the government to deny him refugee status and i think president correa has demonstrated with the case of a son he's willing to stand up to pressure from the u.s. in a very forthright way the u.s. has reportedly revote edward snowden's passport and notified hong kong and russia but it didn't stop him from traveling let's cross live now to washington and talk to con going to do we know what washington was trying to achieve by revoking his passport. well from travel from they wanted

to prevent him from traveling the u.s. reportedly revoked edward snowden's passport yesterday but apparently it was too late for hong kong officials to stop him from flying in moscow snowden is in the transit area at the airport where he doesn't need his passport where he's heading that we still don't know but the u.s. has already showed it's ready to go to great lengths to get its hands on snowden the speed with which they stripped him off his passport is astonishing release not clear how they managed to do that from the legal standpoint shows how much the u.s. wants to get him the government is clearly afraid of more revelations that the raid in the media has shifted to to this chase molt it's not all about how are we going to catch him so right now the media is on the sympathetic to edward snowden although just a week ago many of the same journalists who are almost sure leading for his capture now we're grateful for snowden's revelations which were indeed eye opening policymakers here are doing everything to shift the attention away from his

revelations by focusing on snowden himself or even by attacking other countries like russia senator chuck schumer was on one of the news channels this morning saying president putin has aided and abetted those militants escaped and adding that quote putin always seems almost eager to put a finger in the eye of the of the united states now although we don't know where snowden is heading from russia but he did say this that he would see seek asylum in a country that would not be easily pressured by the u.s. we know that the u.s. has put a lot of pressure on hong kong to arrest noda not to let him leave the country but in a statement the government of hong kong says u.s. documentation did not quote fully comply with the legal requirements under hong kong law but also in the same statement the government of hong kong adds that they want more information about the hacking of computer systems in hong kong by u.s. government agencies something that was part of snow. and revelations so in this official statement we see how hong kong shifts the focus from the messenger edward

snowden back to the message to the revelations that he has made demanding an explanation from the u.s. government more on how the u.s. government is going out of its way to keep the focus on the messenger to blackout the missing my report america's split on edward snowden traitor hero mix in between but regardless of 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. people what they did to me and some others bradley manning to is being prosecuted

as a traitor although it's so here's your logs that the public learned about the. collateral murder 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 manning is known you know psychological stories what is wrong with these people cause 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 in terrorism peter king calling to punish the journalists who expose the government surveillance programs in its hunt for me the obama administration has already targeted it's it's trying to set the precedent for the communicating with the media is the same as communicating with the enemy and it's a death penalty offense recession doesn't have to go after each other or he certainly it's enough to create an environment of fear but will that fear stop information from coming out here's edward snowden to answer that question even stations kone in response is simply build better whistleblower he said in washington i'm going to take on. a most k. leader of the u.k. pirate party believes the u.s. will try to convince the public that edward snowden is a traitor to distract attention from his revelations. 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 fact is a distraction what we need to focus on is actually the core of this story which is his read the revelations about mass surveillance 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 and the fact is that the more that's collected about us the more we have to fear and r.t. contributor if she returned to the believes no developing nation would agree to just hand snowden over 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 well as developing nations would they realize that the united states and the way it's been operating is something like a deleterious trade and so many ways i suppose averse turbulent estates really are back journals dry to get through to xi jinping saying what murder is going on gong they released this. complaint what is it unauthorized communication international defense information and immediately the journeys government cooperate with edward snowden perhaps cooperate with the russian government and everyone is trying to desperately spirit him away because we know president obama wants to get him by any means necessary. we'll hear more on edward snowden including more on the reports of

washington revoking his passport love reaction to that after this break stay with us. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

just turn sixty minutes past the hour hand russian capital this is r t live from moscow an update now on our top story america's most wanted n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden has formally applied for political asylum in ecuador now that's according to a tweet by the country's foreign minister snowden is currently in a moscow airport reportedly waiting to board his next flight on monday afternoon while snowden's passport has reportedly been revoked by u.s. authorities which should prohibit him from crossing borders well let's get more

analysis on this move from american author and academic talk to mark mason is what all the legal grounds for revoking somebody passport just like that. u.s. federal law it does permit the federal government to revoke a passport when an individual has had a warrant for a felony arrests lyall's so this is the legal basis i think is sound i'm not an attorney but. this is part of right out of several federal laws that allow federal government not only to revoke but also to revoke also for a good or a so-called near deucedly call to national security issues so they don't have a legal basis you know doing that and apparently though that passport was revoked before he stepped on the plane to fly to hong kong so how did he fly. well the international community may be sort of just looking over their shoulder at this

point and pretending that they haven't i'm speculating at this point we're now dealing with politics rather than law we have a government that is a vision of ignoring the rule of law we have the u.s. government that's basically it's a government in crisis a constitutional crisis by letting the first and fourth amendments violating the fifth amendment by leading a due process and so here it is attempting to use federal law to stop it's not and that's hong kong ignoring this in effect having a blind eye sight how to with the u.s. react to hong kong that can for that. i think this tempest in a teapot. the u.s. is going to try to make a big deal out of the revocation of snowden. passport but all he needs to do at this point as i understand is just to get on one airplane

headed towards a country that has offered him political asylum so the fact that he's got an invalid possible now sitting in the airport in moscow will make no difference he's on the way and to keep or as everybody is speculating. i don't have that information i think that we're going to find out in the coming hours but i might's my belief is that the revocation of his password snowden's passport will not delay his movement to a country that has offered him asylum i'm not what about the fact that he's now to fish only for asylum in ecuador and if that is accepted is that game over for the u.s. when he simply guy when they they will lose him. i think it's been game over for the u.s. for eight years or ten years it's been game over for the u.s. we see as we say here the proverbial chickens are coming home to roost we have a government that is illegitimate it's violating the first inforce amendments it's violating due process it's operating in

a torture chamber in one tata motors piloting. a i so many rights i can't have a list in front of me we have a president who's trimming war crimes with a drone assassinations and what i don't say about what the u.s. actions are that here's a man who's in effect a traitor and he said he's got to be brought to account he's edward snowden is a civil rights hero he will go in the pantheon with. daniel ellsberg and many many others going back really to nineteen nineteen to eugene the debt suit was imprisoned under the same. same lot merely for speaking out against u.s. involvement will war what edward snowden is a civil rights hero if the a.c.l.u. american civil liberties union has filed a lawsuit against the u.s. government claiming first and fourth amendment rights violations if this prevails in courts we have grounds for impeachment of the president of the united states

that's where we are all for an academic bottom up mason joining us live from the u.s. thank you very much indeed my privilege thank you well there are fresh turns in the . a spy scandal whistleblower russell tice who released his secrets to in the george w. bush era says that former cia head general petraeus and even barack obama wants targets for an essay snooping and he confirmed that data is being stored james colbert in japan based independent journalist believes tyson's revelations didn't get the attention they deserved while the snowden drama unfolds something that's being swept under the rug are these new revelations from n.s.a. whistleblower russell tice who is in fact one of the people who was one of the sources for the original two thousand and five new york times story on the n.s.a. wiretapping scandal at that time but now russell tice to step forward with more information into explosive interviews from the last few days he talked about how the n.s.a. is in fact storing not just the metadata which has been the talking point in the

news so far but the content of all electronic communications that are going across the u.s. servers from e-mails to faxes to phone calls all of it being stored now at the new data center and in utah he also went on the record to name names of some of the specific targets of n.s.a. spying and with the implication that this information was being used for blackmailing purposes on including senator then senator barack obama including general david petraeus and others who he mentioned by name including supreme court justices and top ranking military and republican congressional officials so this is being specifically avoided right now and the implication is that the news outlets are as we've seen with the snowden story and other stories collaborating with the intelligence agencies behind the scenes to repress this information but this is this is absolutely explosive and again coming from a key n.s.a. whistleblower who is right now being ignored with these allegations and would snowden is the seventh person the a-bomb administration has sought to punish for

leaking classified data and you can best of jenna's tony goals lee he believes that snowden's revelations a bigger than many think. the real impact of what he's done here is only now starting to be realized it's not only is he exposing criminality q the signals intelligence part of the british intelligence services also the national security agency but he's also showing that much of that intelligence contains information which may bring criminal prosecutions for example of war crimes criminal criminal prosecutions against for example bankers but this is what people don't necessary understand is there will be information that edward snowden has that can actually bring some of these people to trial eventually and that's why the west is so afraid if britain was really serious about any kind of real justice we would be able to invite him to london and say yes you can tell all your secrets or your stories to people here in britain you'll be safe here he's actually exposing

criminals and the criminals are going for him now. the unwavering support of many u.s. companies for the government surveillance program is leading to some difficult questions or he's losing couple of looks at what might be in it for the big firms. we know now that thousands of companies have been sharing sensitive information with the u.s. government in exchange for various benefits now this raises concerns about the extent of the private sector collaboration with the u.s. government not to mention questions about what exactly those benefits were now the details may be murky at this point but let's go over exactly what information we have now companies who did hand over data to the government got a big thank you that's according to michael hayden who used to head the cia as well as the national security agency which runs of course the prism program and mr hayden told bloomberg this if i were the director and had a relationship with a company who was doing things that were not just directed by law but were also

valuable to the defense of the republic i would go out of my way to thank them and give them a sense as to why this is necessary and useful all right well what kind of thank you exactly are we talking about here well again not a lot of details but anonymous sources did tell bloomberg that leaders of the companies who handed over data to the government were showered with attention and information by government agencies in fact in some instances that meant quick warnings about the threats that could affect their bottom line for example serious internet attacks and who's behind them of course this exchange of information is supposed to be voluntary and well at this point we don't exactly have evidence that this is not the case but well most of the companies seem to have participated simply because the government asking for help one former c.e.o. paints a slightly different picture in two thousand and one when some telecom giants allegedly were asked to participate in an n.s.a. information sharing program one company qwest initially refused to play ball and

according to court documents filed by its then c.e.o. joseph nacho as a result of that decision the company was denied lucrative n.s.a. contracts he believed to be worth fifty to one hundred million dollars retaliation he says for refusing to partake in the government's spy program. so to sum it up companies that share data earned government goodwill information about threats possible classified information and of course there's concern that those who did not play along could could have been left out of lucrative government contracts course we don't have more information on this but that's personally the point the lack of transparency about this data swap is a major concern now it's done in the name of security but at what cost and to whom we seek out for reporting for our tea in moscow. and there's whistleblowers such as snowden revealed government's appetite for personal data interested in how you feel about your private information being collected by security agencies and this is how

you've been voting so far on our website r.t. dot com and we can see that the overwhelming majority of you think that collecting private data without any warning whatsoever is totally unacceptable and then significantly less people are saying they can't provide their orders online because they could easily be tracked by security agencies right now seven percent of you assure that snooping is justified but only in cases for spying on terror suspects and averting atrocities without mass tracking of everybody and we can see that the minority there three percent so what's a problem if you've got nothing to hide and that this sort of monitoring and surveillance continue there's a you all thought to be good to get involved you haven't done so already cost your vote dot com it's on our home page. well we'll have more hop dates on the edward snowden story in about thirty minutes from now when i return with the news team but coming up next it's the latest edition of interview show worlds apart stay with us for that you can.

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