Obama downplays Snowden leak case
MOSCOW • President Barack Obama sought Thursday to minimize the significance of a fugitive former national security contractor wanted for leaking government secrets, calling him a “29-year-old hacker” and suggesting that U.S. frustration with China and Russia for apparently helping him evade extradition was not worth damaging relations with those countries.
Mr. Obama’s remarks — his most extensive comments on the fugitive, Edward Snowden — came as new confusion swirled over Mr. Snowden’s ultimate destination, with Ecuador’s government saying it could not decide on his request for asylum unless he was in that country or one of its embassies elsewhere.
Mr. Snowden, who turned 30 last week, has been ensconced out of sight at an international transit lounge in a Moscow airport since Sunday, when he arrived from Hong Kong despite a U.S. effort to extradite him on criminal charges. There had been speculation that he would board a Havana-bound flight Thursday but he did not, raising the possibility that his legal limbo could stretch into weeks in his odyssey to reach a third country.
Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters in Dakar, Senegal, at the start of a trip to Africa, said he had not personally called the presidents of China or Russia on the Snowden case, because he did not want to elevate its importance. He said other nations should simply be willing to return Mr. Snowden to the United States as a matter of law enforcement.
“This is something that routinely is dealt with,” Mr. Obama said. “This is not exceptional from a legal perspective. I’m not going to have one case suddenly being elevated to the point where I have to do wheeling and dealing and trading.”
He rejected the suggestion that he might order the military to intercept any plane that might be carrying the fugitive.
“I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” Mr. Obama said.
His remarks on the case followed similarly toneddown language by his aides on the severity of the problem, reflecting efforts by the administration to smooth relations with Russia and China. Earlier in the day, China’s Defence Ministry had accused the administration of hypocrisy, using Mr. Snowden’s disclosures about U.S. surveillance abroad as evidence that China is a victim, not a perpetrator, of cyberspying and hacking.
Mr. Snowden’s disclosures have embarrassed the administration and raised debate about the government’s invasion of privacy. Mr. Snowden and his supporters, including WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group, have called him a whistleblower and a hero. Federal prosecutors have charged him with violating espionage laws, and some U.S. legislators have called him a traitor.
Ecuador, which is protecting Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, at its London embassy, has confirmed that Mr. Snowden has requested asylum. But it said it could only make a decision on the request if he were on Ecuadorean territory.