![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/sites\/commondreams.org\/files\/imagecache\/headline_image\/article_images\/snowden_6.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
NSA whistleblowerEdward Snowden has reportedly been granted temporary asylum in Russia and has now left the airport.(Photograph: The Guardian) <\/span><\/span>Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told<\/a> BBC news<\/em> that his client had received permission from authorities to leave the transit area where he has been stranded since the US revoked his passport in June following the former security analyst’s disclosure of details about the vast global surveillance network run by the US National Security Agency.<\/p>\nAccording to Russia’s Interfax news agency, Snowden “has already left the airport.”<\/p>\n
His location now appears unknown. Kucherena indicated Snowden’s whereabouts would be kept secret “for security reasons.”<\/p>\n
The Associated Press<\/em> reports that Snowden has “been granted one year’s temporary asylum in Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n The Guardian, which first broke the NSA\/Snowden story, is offering live updates<\/a>.<\/p>\n Follow updates on twitter:<\/p>\n _________________________________<\/p>\n This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<\/p>\n