White House Says, Snowden To Return To U.S., Wikileaks Confirms Venezuela Asylum Not Final
According to recent reports, Edward Snowden, ex-U. S. National Security Agency agency has not formally accepted Venezuela's offer for asylum.
Reports that surfaced late Monday said that he had responded positively after Russian officials had indicated that Venezuela was the best option o him.
WikiLeaks, a group against secrecy, said on Tuesday that a Russian politician, Alexei Pushkov, had made a statement alluding to Snowden's move to Venezuela on Twitter. However, the lawmaker later deleted the statement from his account.
The anti-secrecy group announced on Twitter that the countries offering asylum to the Snowden, "will make the announcement if and when the appropriate time comes."
On its Twitter feed, Wikileaks later said: "Tomorrow the first phase of Edward Snowden's 'Flight of Liberty' campaign will be launched. Follow for further details," The Associated Press reported.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was reported as saying that he had offered asylum to Snowden but he has yet to confirm it.
Six other nations have presumably made the same offer. And Latin American countries have also made him 'collective asylum', backed by three countries.
Elias Jaua, Venezuela's Foreign Minister said, "He has to be on Venezuelan territory ... The reality is that he is trapped in the airport's transit zone," said an online report by Reuters. She was speaking to reporters in Caracas.
Nicaragua and Bolivia also have said they would take in Snowden, who has appealed to about 20 countries for asylum.
Reports say that Snowden is stuck in a Russian airport but Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said that he should go to the Latin American country of his choosing as soon as possible.
Sarah Harrison, legal researcher representing Wikileaks is in Moscow, assisting Snowden. She cleared the confusion on Snowden after she tweeted, "Edward #Snowden has not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela," newser.com reports.
The White House has made it clear that snowden should be traveling to the U.S and that he should not be assisted in traveling to another country.
Jay Carney, White House spokesman made the position clear when he said, "And we've communicated that position with our Russian counterparts and with every country, broadly speaking, that has been discussed as a possible either transition point or destination point for Mr Snowden," Yahoo News reported.