{"id":55387,"date":"2013-08-03T00:04:14","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T23:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/snowdens-asylum-and-double-standards\/55387\/"},"modified":"2013-08-03T00:04:14","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T23:04:14","slug":"snowdens-asylum-and-double-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/snowdens-asylum-and-double-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"Snowden\u2019s Asylum and Double Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"usat-snowden\"<\/a><\/div>\n

By Peter Hart<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum by Russia, which has generated coverage focusing on the U.S. outrage at Russia\u2019s decision. \u201cDefiant Russia Grants Snowden Year\u2019s Asylum\u201d is the headline at the New York Times<\/strong> (8\/2\/13<\/a>), where readers were told of the \u201crisk of a breach in relations with the United States\u201d and that the Russian move \u201cinfuriated American officials.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/strong> reported (8\/2\/13<\/a>) that Russia\u2019s decision \u201copened a fresh wound in Moscow\u2019s battered relations with the United States.\u201d And USA Today<\/strong>\u2018s cover, as shown at the right, read \u201cWelcome, Comrade Snowden\u201d\u2014 Russia\u2019s decision was a \u201csnub.\u201d<\/p>\n

But journalism that wanted to take a more independent look at issues like who is granted asylum by a given country, or how countries refused to extradite those wanted on serious charges, might consider cases where the United States has protected suspected criminals\u2014people who have caused actual harm in the world.<\/p>\n

As Dan Beeton pointed out (CEPR Blog<\/strong>, (7\/11\/13<\/a>) one might consider the U.S. government\u2019s ongoing refusal<\/a> to extradite Bolivia\u2019s former president Gonzalo (\u201cGoni\u201d) S\u00c3\u00a1nchez de Lozada for serious human rights crimes<\/a> related to the shooting of protesters in 2003. Goni lives comfortably just outside Washington, D.C. in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and as a member emeritus<\/a> of the Inter-American Dialogue is close to Washington foreign policy circles. The worst allegations that pundits have leveled at Snowden are that his leaks could endanger Americans \u2014 allegations for which there is no evidence. The case against Goni, however, is serious: he is believed to be responsible for ordering the military to attack protesters, resulting in the shooting deaths of over 67<\/a> and injury to over 400.<\/p>\n

Or, Beeton points out,<\/p>\n

\n

The U.S. continues to shelter Luis Posada Carriles, a convicted (and admitted) murderer and terrorist believed by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies to be responsible for blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976, killing 73 people, including the entire Cuban fencing team. Posada surfaced in the U.S. in 2005; he was tried on immigration charges several years later, but was acquitted and has been allowed to stay in the U.S. since.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The New York Times<\/strong> mentioned some of this history at the bottom of a July 12<\/a> piece\u2014 saying that \u201cWashington\u2019s push for extradition has poked at a sore spot for several countries that have sought the extradition of people wanted by their justice systems.\u201d The Times<\/strong> mentioned Carriles, and also noted that Ecuador has been unable to extradite two bankers who were \u201cat the center of a huge Ecuadorean financial scandal in the 1990s.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not as if those are the only examples, of course. Haitian death squad leader and CIA informant Emmanuel \u201cToto\u201d Constant was living in New York City while authorities back home wanted to try him for his role in scores of deaths, rapes and torture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d be having a more interesting\u2014and honest\u2014discussion about Snowden\u2019s asylum if journalists could try to see this issue from the perspective of those outside the United States.<\/p>\n

Republished from: Global Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Peter Hart NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum by Russia, which has generated coverage focusing on the U.S. outrage at Russia\u2019s decision. \u201cDefiant Russia Grants Snowden Year\u2019s Asylum\u201d is the headline at the New York Times (8\/2\/13), where readers were told of the \u201crisk of a breach in relations with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55387","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}