flight to freedom n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden's now waiting for a plane to an eventual safe haven fled hong kong from moscow. and it's refuge it may be granted by that of ecuador which does say it's mulling over the thirty year old request for asylum all of it though being orchestrated by the whistleblower group wiki leaks. will chase him to the ends of the earth bring him to justice washington now on the white house warns the entire western hemisphere against helping the runaway a days after leveling the full wrath of the espionage against edward snowden.

thank you for joining us here on r t today we're coming to you live from moscow and it is a busy day for news let's get straight to it right now and i say contractor turned whistleblower edward snowden he's thought right now to be awaiting a flight out of moscow to cuba. has now begun he arrived in the russian capital on sunday having fled from hong kong with washington in a hot pursuit let's not cross over to. the airport indeed at the airport up for hello good to see you it seems now minutes away perhaps we're waiting for the big takeoff what can you tell us. that is what we understand rory sources close to r.t. have confirmed to us that edward snowden has checked in on the flight that he's bound for havana in cuba leaving at around five paula. to moscow times about an

hour's time now there is another flight twenty past four which leaves this very airports and also goes to have but at the moment all indication that edward snowden is on board will soon be on board the plane heading to cuba leaving here in around an hour's time now he is not we understand. he was traveling with a legal representative from wiki leaks by the name of not entirely sure whether she's going to be completing the journey with but we do understand that at least two seats in the books. appears not to be. thought that he's traveling in may raise questions by the news that the u.s. government revoked his passport when the charges against him. the way around the countries and with hong kong the chinese territory let him out of their territory just. because it can be seen and can be overrun.

if a country if the request comes from an official a sole official to be the case that's how he was able to. how he will be able to leave his passport. being. left hong kong quite interesting because there is an extradition agreement between hong kong and the united states and. to the u.s. about the possibility of handing him over however they wanted guarantees that the charges against him were not politically motivated. that the request was not made within the correct legal framework that is why the request actually was not granted by hong kong now it was on friday that the charges against edward snowden made public theft of government property communication of national defense. information

and willful communication of classified intelligence the last two of those charges both come under the espionage act and carry a maximum of ten years in prison so edward snowden is now fully aware of what he's up against and on saturday as i say the white house began extradition proceedings in negotiations with hong kong about trying to. extradite snowden back to the u.s. but he has since fled hong kong and all evidence points that within the hour it will soon also flee moscow to believe that his final destination will be ecuador where he is seeking political asylum. as we understand indeed mr edward snowden is where you are right now you said about an hour it's approximately one zero five moscow time take off to a five so we're right on the money with the timing will have to check in with you soon. thank you. has apparently spent the night at that airport we were talking about it is located

within the transit zone of moscow our correspondent you got pissed off is inside one of the top. we're in terminal now from moscow sheremetyevo airport the same exact terminal where edward snowden arrived at around five pm moscow time on sunday coming from hong kong and company my week elites and representatives now at this moment this is pretty much all the precise information we have about them since we were never seen exiting the airport reportedly because we don't have russian visas so most probably they're still in the transit zone and that's where we're heading as well. and we've passed the customs checkpoint right now we are in the zone this is basically where the gates to the airplanes or and on sunday the ecuadorian ambassador to russia beat a visit to a launch here spent a few hours there he didn't comment on when he was meeting but it's very likely that it was mr snowden and when the ambassador left he was accompanied by a group of people but nobody couldn't identify whether the former cia agent was one

of them there's also speculation that edward snowden spent a night in one of the capsule hotels also here in the zone. the rooms in this hotel are very small but perfect for someone who's trying to stay out of the public eye and stay low in general it's very possible that snowden stayed in a room just like this one or possibly even behind the small getting ready to continue his journey. did you go to prison off there to show me to the airport where we believe it was snowden is his journey though since he set off to expose the extent of washington's spying will almost be like a whistle blower odyssey of sorts may twentieth he departed hawaii from there he was working as an n.s.a. contractor flying straight over here to hong kong over the next month dominated headlines with revelations about the true scope of u.s. surveillance ultimately encompassing the whole planet from those from hong kong to moscow without warning he boarded a flight to moscow just

a day after washington requested his extradition next he's reportedly set to fly to the cuban capital of where he plans to go to venezuela and the last leg of his journey perhaps from caracas to quito on route however the plane it would have to cross u.s. airspace in the vicinity of the big apple and some fear that's when washington may attempt to lay its hands on snowden in the vicinity of new york now ecuador says it is considering edward snowden's request for asylum a plea reportedly organized by wiki leaks lindsey france who's at the ecuadorian embassy here in moscow reports on quito stake in all of this. as we have reported earlier this morning the foreign minister did confirm via twitter that edward snowden has officially sought asylum with that country that case is still in process right now now it's no secret that ecuador does shelter whistleblowers julian assad has been sheltered within the four walls of the ecuadorian embassy in

london for the past year so it's no surprise there that as noted is being assisted by wiki leaks that ecuador would be a target for his final destination now the united states has made no secret that it has warned western hemisphere governments likely to host but in that that they should not shelter him that they should in no way allow him to travel even over their borders unless it is to return him to the united states and also the united states and ecuador do have a joint extradition treaty although it does not apply to crimes and offenses of a political character the justice department though does say that will not prevent it from seeking snowden wherever hate he may be including ecuador it's been reported by wiki leaks that sarah harrison a very close advisor to julian assange himself and

a staff member for the last two years with wiki leaks is accompanying edward snowden on his trip wiki leaks it says has offered legal counsel and getting him safely out of hong kong into russia and then on to his his next destination so that's it that is one reason why wiki leaks says it has brought someone being sarah harrison along with snowden and wiki leaks has really flexed a lot of muscle in this situation its leader julian assange has been holed up within the ecuadorian embassy in london for the past year it's had funding blocked members prosecuted but it's asserted itself in this. to asian and it has really drawn a very close relationship with edward snowden and made itself very very known in this situation which is not characteristic of it in the recent past so it's really shown what an agile organization this really is and what the u.s. government is going to end up having to deal with when it comes to getting its

hands on snowden if indeed ecuador is his final destination. course want to lindsey france right there and while the american whistleblower is awaiting his asylum verdict. from the free bradley manning support network explain why it would or has become such a popular destination for those being prosecuted politically. have very large. numbers of asylum fifty some odd thousand not necessary political refugees but i think also that the genus one has also helped make a safe haven for those that are persecuted politically and i think it's a wonderful watershed moment were there was a big concert at africa to protect edward snowden i think it's a very good initiative is a great deal an irony of this whole story normally during the cold war they would be traveling to the u.s. and not via russia to countries like cuba and venezuela but this might perhaps set a couple things into motion and inspire ecuador to become more of

a safe haven for press freedoms i just don't think that you're going to silence this generation these these people are from the internet they're born there the they do digital natives and i think that this is a very very interesting trend very courageous young people stepping up and speaking truth to power and i think that they're just not be able to plug the leaks you know . the u.s. is doing all it can to derail snowden's quest for freedom as washington makes its moves on the global chessboard american officials confirmed the whistleblowers passport was revoked before he left hong kong perhaps a plan to try and thwart his travel issues artie's guy nature can now reports on the steps america is willing to take to put its talons around snowden. u.s. officials confirm that they have in fact revoked edward snowden's passport to stop him from traveling it didn't stop him from flying out of hong kong as we know not clear whether it was because hong kong officials did not receive the notification in time or because they made a decision to overlook it we know that the u.

was has put a lot of pressure on hong kong to arrest in those days and not to let him leave the country but in a statement the government of hong kong says u.s. documentation did not fully comply with the legal requirements on the hong kong law but also in the same statement the government of hong kong that they want more information about the hacking of computer systems in hong kong by u.s. government agencies something that was part of snowden's 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 for the u. was because these revelations show that the u.s. ally that it has been doing the same as what it accuses china of doing policymakers here in the u.s. are doing everything to shift the attention away from snowden's revelations by focusing on snowden himself or even by attacking other countries like russia is the freedom trail is not exactly china russia cuba venezuela so i hope we'll chase him

to the ends of the earth bring him to justice and let the russians know there will be consequences if they harbor this guy then i was listening to a former director of the cia saying over russia and china are going to use this meeting snowden to embarrass the west and what would argue it's his revelations that embarrass the u.s. not china or russia the u.s. government is clearly afraid of more revelations from snowden i want to get him caught and brought back for trial and i think we need to know exactly what he has. he could have a lot lot more the debate in the u.s. media has shifted to this chase mode to this captain. this game is not all about how we're going to catch him so right now the media is unsympathetic to edward snowden although just a week ago some of the same journalists who are almost cheerleading for his capture now were grateful for snowden's revelations which were indeed eye opening for all

of us as far as the prospect of being caught here's what edward snowden himself said i could be you know rendered by the cia i could have a people come after me or any of their third party partner you know they would they work closely with a number of other nations and that's that's a fear i'll live under for the rest of my life however long that happens to be you can come forward against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk because they're such powerful adversaries the no one can meaningfully oppose them. if they want to get you they'll get you in time edward snowden also said it's not government persecution that he fears he said the greatest fear that i have about the outcome of these disclosures is that nothing will change or to go swanning guy nature can and i we spoke to attorney and historian gerald horn he explained why he believes u.s. attempts to put a spoke in the wheels of the whistleblower will most likely prove unsuccessful.

listen to the congress persons appearing on sunday church to do united states mourn with thinks so they're breathing fine threatening measures just short of nuclear war mr snowden is not speedily dispatched back to new york or washington united states for example routinely excepts on its territories citizens fleeing cuba without passports i would also say the united states routinely receives on its soil those deemed to be political dissidents who do not have passports so i don't feel that moscow's hands are tied with regard to mr snowden not having a passport. and u.s. attempts to get its hands on edward snowden are actually turning against washington and helping to boost public support for the dissidents and that's according to medea benjamin

a co-founder of the group code pink. the way the government has reacted to this is making snow is a hero you're out there countries around the world they're making a huge deal out of this and they're giving him a platform to to new to expose what is supposed to be this great open free society has really turned into something very different so the government reaction is actually feeding what i hope will be the growth of a movement to pressure the u.s. government to. kind of activity. or it's going to be a very quick break here on r.t. following which will look at what edward snowden did to deserve such attention from u.s. prosecutors also learn about the whistleblowers predecessors whose lives have been shattered by the espionage act it's just a moment that. welcome

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live from moscow this is r t with me rule received. edward snowden's that reportedly now are standing by for a flight to cuba from moscow the n.s.a. leaker is on the move trying to avoid extradition to the u.s. where he's now wanted on espionage charges ecuador though expected to become his final destination the country now considering whether or not it will grant him asylum what exactly has he done to ignite america's outrage let's have a look here and see all the troubles on the shoulders of mr edward snowden he disclosed documents showing the n.s.a. has access to shoot streams of internet data including emails chat rooms and videos from large companies such as google and facebook and the u.s. government use the secret foreign intelligence surveillance court to gather an extensive range of information from phone service provider of arisan also revealed that the both the mainland china and hong kong have been the victims of massive amounts of cyber attacks by u.s. hackers and the latest details here the u.k.

is collecting and storing huge amounts of sensitive personal data from online telephone traffic and then they're sharing it immediately with washington d.c. now british human rights activist peter tatchell he believes is the u.s. government and not mr snowden who should at the end of the day be punished. but she will deny the states will be doubling its efforts to try and intercept him and to get an extradition from whatever country they can i think the context of this is that the united states spies on its own citizens it also spies on the citizens of millions of other countries i mean millions of people in other countries and this is done without the permission of those countries it is technically illegal and what is extraordinary is that it would snowden was employed by the united states as a spy yet now they are seeking to arrest him for spying it seems complete and utter

hypocrisy when. its own citizens and citizens around the world on a massive scale without proper governmental into strict oversight either within the united states or other countries around the world. now mr snowden's revelations of basically earned him the position of number seven on a list of other whistleblowers that have certainly ruffled the feathers in washington d.c. in fact as we know now the n.s.a. has been targeting a vast number of whistleblowers and well mr snowden is about number seven on the list let's take a look at the top six in number one bradley manning the case that shook the world ultimately he's on trial now for passing classified information to wiki leaks exposing america's controversial war tactics and number two thomas drake another man here a former n.s.a. employee revealed sensitive information about the illegal gathering of classified details as well number three on the list would be the one and only john kiriakou

a former cia agent he's currently in prison serving a sentence for leaking details about america's waterboarding and torture techniques as well nuclear proliferation expose steven kim a former cia agent as well he's currently awaiting trial after telling a journalist about north korea's plans to test a nuclear bomb off the him then we have moved a long shot my liebowitz a former f.b.i. hebrew translator ultimately received a prison sentence for sharing u.s. israeli conversations with a blogger and then finally jeffrey sterling another form a cia officer facing trial for leaking data about u.s. efforts to sabotage iranian nuclear research details as well so there we are mr snowden number seven on the list of wiki leaks and the whistleblowers i should say currently facing the wrath of america's n.s.a. and when it comes to issues of security when it comes to your e-mails your telephone calls and people now scurrying to protect their private personal data

it's created a boom in the downloading of equipment for example code encrypt equipment and now the chances you can encrypt your phone calls and your e-mails to stay private and personal away from the n.s.a. the details on this now to our tease marina portnoy. in a post prism world some are losing and others are gaining google over arise in facebook apple and other u.s. technology companies have lost credibility and the trust of their customers encrypted communications services on the other hand are seeing their businesses boom oh it's going crazy. you know a lot of people suspected these. the government u.s. government was spying on americans but now we have this confirmation and so everybody is contacting us now when we've had a huge surge in orders still zimmerman is the co-founder and c.e.o.

of silent circle a global encrypted mobile service that protects users' privacy from the u.s. and national security agency and big data companies we have created an architecture that doesn't share the keep cryptographic keys with the servers and servers that we control. so. if the government tries to persuade us to hand over something that we might have on our servers. we can't give them the keys and we can't give them the decrypted messages we don't keep logs of the of the connections between people so a court order can make us give them something we don't have however privacy doesn't come free and annual membership to silent circle cost one hundred twenty dollars the newest kid on the block is secret the mobile app encrypts voice calls and text messages the south african company has clients in two hundred countries with skyrocketing demands recently coming from the u.s. and u.k.

i mean it's not growing every day percentage of. growth. the application essentially allows you to create a new identity with a secure phone number or need to be every day. going forward not just in. other countries. as you could call it easy as you were the day meanwhile daily traffic at the search engine start page has doubled in less than a month jumping to nearly four million queries the netherlands based company doesn't store ip addresses search history or use tracking codes and it's not subject to us jurisdiction we strip out anything that would identify you and then we submit the search for you to google on your behalf and then we get the results back from google we strip out any kind of tracking cookies or anything that might

be included with that we serve the results to you privately and then we delete all records of your visit so we delete your ip address we delete your search terms and at the end of the day we have no record of anyone even having bet on our website while the global push for privacy is accelerating experts say encryption alone won't be enough the n.s.a. surveillance has is worse than mine were somebody's thought and. i think that the technology we provide is only part of the solution i think we also have to try to push back. with public policy debates in the u.s. and get the laws to change the exposure of america's global electronic surveillance program has also revealed alternatives to all those who want to secure their privacy however in most cases people will have to pay to protect their communication from a government that's been accessing and story data for years reporting from new york

. heartache. and he will activist he believes they would have to be a major overhaul in washington before i suppose anything would change on capitol hill and any motivation for washington to abandon its current spying take. well we should look back to the church hearings back in the seventy's when all kinds of illegal activity by the cia and the f.b.i. came to the white there were hearings there was legislation and then after that of course they continued to do with it upgraded their capacity to do so so unless there's a fundamental change in the actual power in the united states and unless there's a press that develops in the united states that's critical and interested in investigating what goes on we're going to know about it but it's going to continue . with the scary news is that the snowden leaks have proven that governments around the world particularly in america have an insatiable appetite for snooping on you stealing your private data and then doing whatever they want with it so we're

asking you right now on our web site on c dot com for example is it ok for governments around the world to snoop on you and to steal your private data lets see how your voting at all. well apparently it's not ok with you seventy four percent of all voters saying spying on people is absolutely unacceptable a very distant second position those sixteen percent of all voters analogy thought call me a saying we won't even vote for the risk of being tracked and ending up by edward snowden himself down to the bare minimum three percent here saying that's nothing to worry about if indeed you have nothing to hide from governments around the world will still gauging your pulse on this story the former cia agent turned whistleblower edward snowden due to be leaving moscow at approximately thirty five minutes from shouting match of the airport we've got our correspondents there life standing by for this takeoff with the with the understood destination of cuba and then perhaps ecuador as well or i would he were at all it's he's been a pleasure having you with us today you can hear more details about the global u.s.

spy program and its consequences in our next interview show with sophie shevardnadze. anyone who lives in the us knows that the i.r.s. does not play around one honest or dishonest mistake could get you in a lot of trouble even a longtime friend of mine got his entire life savings destroyed due to some simple honest error you think that workers in an organization that could punish you for your financial failings would be very sharp with their own money but that's sadly not the case according to an audit report from the treasury inspector general for tax administration at the very least one thousand iris employees have abused the charge cards they were issued to cover their official travel.