General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIceland-Bound Jet for Edward Snowden 'Could Take Off Tomorrow'
An Icelandic businessman is offering to transport Edward Snowden to the island nation aboard a chartered jet if Iceland's government grants asylum to the man who exposed the National Security Agency's massive harvesting of Internet and phone records.
"Everything is ready on our side and the plane could take off tomorrow,'' DataCell executive Olafur Sigurvinsson told Iceland's Channel 2 television station, Agence France-Presse reports.
"We have really done all we can do. We have a plane and all the logistics in place. Now we are only awaiting a response from the [Icelandic] government," he said. "It would be stupid to come here only to be extradited to the United States. In that case he'd be better off where he is."
Sigurvinsson said the jet is owned by a Chinese company and was chartered for $240,000, which was raised with donations to DataCell, a Web company that processes credit card payments to WikiLeaks. His Twitter page says he's the company's chief operating officer.
"We could fly Snowden over tomorrow if we get positive reaction from the Interior Ministry," Sigurvinsson told Reuters. "We need to get confirmation of asylum and that he will not be extradited to the U.S."
<snip>
http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/06/21/iceland-bound-jet-for-edward-snowden-could-take-off-tomorrow
Iceland: 'Informal Talks' About Snowden Asylum
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=193486050
Catherina
(35,568 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)And divert it to a US-friendly site.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)...for the much smaller, unassuming plane that will actually be carrying Snowden.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Snowden's probably already on a boat to somewhere.
struggle4progress
(118,340 posts)Snowden assistance with his asylum bid, said he should first obtain Icelandic citizenship before attempting to travel to the country, since "political backing for him is not secure" ...
WikiLeaks Offers Snowden Flight To Iceland
Mathew J. Schwartz
SamKnause
(13,110 posts)I hope Iceland gives him asylum !!!!!
struggle4progress
(118,340 posts)Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir have responded to Edward Snowdens request for a political asylum in Iceland ...
18.06.2013 | 17:00
http://www.icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/Icelandic_Ministers_Said_to_Ignore_Snowden%E2%80%99s_Plea_0_400893.news.aspx
Icelandic Ministers Said to Ignore Snowdens Plea
cali
(114,904 posts)struggle4progress
(118,340 posts)Snowden charged with espionage for NSA leaks
8:11 PM, Jun 21, 2013
I don't consider the Wikileaks spokesman a reliable source: earlier he was saying that Wikileaks had raised the money; now we're seeing that it's from Datacell
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)THROUGH Datacell. "The company that processes credit card payments to Wikileaks."
struggle4progress
(118,340 posts)Icelandic businessman says plane ready to take Snowden to Iceland
REYKJAVIK | Fri Jun 21, 2013 12:49pm EDT
struggle4progress
(118,340 posts)By Omar R. Valdimarsson
June 21, 2013
... WikiLeaks said it needs a reply from Iceland on whether former U.S. national security contractor Edward Snowden will be granted asylum before it transports him to the Nordic island.
We dont want to fly him to Iceland if it only means that hell be thrown into an Icelandair plane heading toward Washington or Guantanamo Bay, Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson, a representative of WikiLeaks, said in a telephone interview ...
Johannes Thor Skulason, an adviser to Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson , said today in a phone interview that there conflicting reports on whether Snowden has left Hong Kong. The premier declined to comment on Snowden today.
Gunnlaugsson said on June 19 that Snowden would have to be on Icelandic soil in order for the country to consider an asylum case ...
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-06-21/wikileaks-says-needs-reply-from-iceland-before-flying-snowden
More double-tongued bullshit games from Wikileaks, cuz they want to be the center of this story: Wikileaks already knows Iceland has taken the position that an asylum application must be submitted by the applicant IN ICELAND, but they're demanding a decision from Iceland before the application has even been submitted
KoKo
(84,711 posts)I think this is Hype...and he will consider before moving. Of Course...I could be WRONG!
struggle4progress
(118,340 posts)noting the case of chess champion Bobby Fischer, who was also granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005. At the time, Mr. Fischer was languishing in a Japanese jail after allegedly violating UN sanctions by playing a chess match in Yugoslavia ...
June 21, 2013, 8:22 PM
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/06/21/private-jet-on-standby-for-snowden/
Private Jet on Standby for Snowden
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)DURHAM D
(32,611 posts)I think someone is just blowing smoke...
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)will seem not just insincere but downright duplicitous.
If we need an open conversation about this, Obama should have started it long ago and saved Snowden the risk of having to come forward and open our eyes.
Snowden has told the truth and revealed just enough to start this conversation. I for one am grateful to Snowden.
It is very, very sad that Obama did not have the courage that Snowden showed. If Obama really wants dialogue, he should order actions against Snowden to stand down and invite Snowden to the White House as an honored guest.
This spying has to stop.
DURHAM D
(32,611 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)want Snowden's problem. Remember, Iceland is the country that told the bankers to wait for their money. Icelanders are not easily pushed around. Nobody wants their country, so they are pretty safe from invasion. Have you ever been to Iceland? Everybody used to fly Icelandic Airlines to Europe way back when.
Unlike many who have Iceland on the list of countries they have "been to" because they spent a few hours in the airport in the 60s and 70s I have actually "been" to Iceland.
Also, my signature line is a tribute to Iceland. When the citizens had had enough of the psycho men who had turned the country into one big failed hedge fund they elected women to clean it up. The U.S. needs to do the same.
OilemFirchen
(7,143 posts)is superior to enforcing the law.
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)No there is purity above the law! We all know how war criminals need coddling.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)be in jail. Obama prosecutes whom he wishes. It is arbitrary. He has prosecuted more whistleblowers than any prior president.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/05/24/jon_stewart_rips_obama_for_prosecuting_whistleblowers_and_not_bankers.html
So, Obama and enforcing the law??? I don't know.
Siegelman is still in jail, but bankers -- mostly only the outsiders have been prosecuted. The little guys.
And that, even though we know that various benchmarks were fixed and foreclosure papers were forged, and the list of wrongs goes on and on.
randome
(34,845 posts)They mean two very different things.
He has greatly expanded and enhanced whistleblower protections.
Obama has prosecuted more leakers than any other President because...there are more leakers!
A lot of people with fantasies of being the next Ellsberg and, in the process, bringing down Obama.
[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font]
[hr]
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)dregstudios
(48 posts)Snowden is a hero and a patriot in my book. We live in an age where the civil liberties our forefathers fought so hard for are being eroded by the day. Freedom of Press, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly are mere ghostly images of their original intent. Weve woken up to an Orwellian Society of Fear where anyone is at the mercy of being labeled a terrorist for standing up for rights we took for granted just over a decade ago. Read about how were waging war against ourselves at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-in-society-of-fear-ten-years.html
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)welcome to DU
Interesting blog BTW.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)Normally that would be a sin of "the banksters."
Aerows
(39,961 posts)criminal charges filed against?
treestar
(82,383 posts)Let's say a bankster, Joe Richbody, is charged under 18 USC 1344
18 USC § 1344 - Bank fraud
Current through Pub. L. 113-13. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)
Whoever knowingly executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice
(1) to defraud a financial institution; or
(2) to obtain any of the moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities, or other property owned by, or under the custody or control of, a financial institution, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises;
shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
So he gets on a private plane and flies to the Cayman Islands. This is cool? He of course thinks he is being unfairly prosecuted.