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A woman
walks past a banner displayed in support of former US spy Edward
Snowden in
Hong Kong on June 18, 2013 (AFP/File, Philippe Lopez)
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HONG KONG —
Former spy Edward Snowden flew out of Hong Kong on Sunday, reportedly bound for
Moscow and onwards to a third destination, momentarily escaping the clutches of
US justice in a shock development sure to infuriate Washington.
Confirming
his departure, the Hong Kong government said it had "no legal basis"
to prevent the 30-year-old leaving because the US government had failed to
provide enough information to justify its provisional arrest warrant filed on
Friday.
"Mr
Edward Snowden left Hong Kong today (June 23) on his own accord for a third
country through a lawful and normal channel," it said in a statement,
without confirming his destination.
The former
National Security Agency (NSA) contractor was aboard Aeroflot flight SU213,
according to the South China Morning Post, which has carried exclusive
interviews with Snowden in Hong Kong. The plane was due to land at Moscow's
Sheremetyevo airport around 5:15pm (1315 GMT), according to flight tracking
websites.
The latest
interview on Sunday contained new revelations about US cyber-espionage against
Chinese targets that drew a stinging response from China's official news
agency. The foreign ministry in Beijing had no immediate comment, either about
the revelations or about Snowden's plans.
"Moscow
will not be his final destination," the SCMP said, citing "credible
sources", and raised the possibility of Iceland or Ecuador as Snowden's
ultimate port of call.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said he had no information that Snowden
was flying to Moscow. Russian media reports said he could be heading on to
Cuba.
On its
Twitter feed, Julian Assange's WikiLeaks operation claimed credit for helping
to arrange "Mr Snowden's political asylum in a democratic country, travel
papers and safe exit from Hong Kong", without revealing the final
destination. It said he was currently in Russian airspace.
Snowden
came to Hong Kong on May 20 to begin a damaging series of leaks on NSA
eavesdropping of phones and computer systems that has triggered concern from
governments around the world. President Barack Obama's US administration
insists the surveillance was legal and had foiled a number of extremist plots.
Snowden's
departure could bring US repercussions against Hong Kong but more broadly will
be a shock to the Obama administration, which just on Friday had unveiled
charges including theft and espionage against him in a bid to force his return
from Hong Kong.
White House
National Security Advisor Tom Donilon had said the charges "present a good
case for extradition under the treaty, the extradition treaty between the
United States and Hong Kong".
"Hong
Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law
enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this
case," he told CBS Radio News on Saturday.
The
government of Hong Kong, a "special administrative region (SAR)"
under Chinese rule that has maintained its own British-derived legal system,
said it had informed Washington of Snowden's exit.
"Since
the documents provided by the US government did not fully comply with the legal
requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR government has requested the US
government to provide additional information so that the Department of Justice
could consider whether the US government's request can meet the relevant legal
conditions," its statement said.
"As
the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the
request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict
Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."
The
statement also pressed Washington for answers "on earlier reports about
the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies".
China's
official Xinhua news agency on Sunday attacked the United States as an
espionage "villain" after Snowden detailed new allegations of NSA
activity targeting mainland and Hong Kong interests.
In the
latest revelations published by the South China Morning Post, Snowden said the
NSA was hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to gather data from millions of
text messages.
He said US
spies have also hacked the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing -- home
to one of six "network backbones" that route all of mainland China's
Internet traffic -- and the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet, which operates
one of the Asia-Pacific region's largest fibre-optic networks.
"These,
along with previous allegations, are clearly troubling signs," Xinhua said
in a commentary.
"They
demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent
as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our
age," it said.
Prior to
Snowden fleeing Hong Kong, Xinhua noted that Washington had set the extradition
process in train.
"But
for other countries, Washington should come clean about its record first. It
owes too an explanation to China and other countries it has allegedly spied on.
It has to share with the world the range, extent and intent of its clandestine
hacking programmes," it said.
Abandoning
his well-paid job as an intelligence technician in Hawaii, Snowden came to Hong
Kong with a cache of documents detailing the reach of NSA operations around the
world.
"The
NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cell phone companies to steal
all of your SMS data," Snowden said in the Post interview, which the
newspaper said was conducted on June 12 and released after it had scrutinised
and clarified his claims.
His claims
about Pacnet followed a Guardian report in which he claimed the British
government's electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ had gained secret access to
fibre-optic cables carrying global Internet traffic and telephone calls, and
was sharing the information with the NSA.
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