The US Inadvertently Handed Moscow A Pretense To Detain, Search Snowden

[FarCenter]

And the U.S. may have handed Moscow the means to detain Snowden while the FSB has their way with him.

The Obama administration's voiding of Snowden's passport may cause a snag as he tries to leave Russia for his "final" destination. Especially if he hasn't gotten a "transit" visa, the paperwork needed for using Russia as a stop-off to somewhere else.

An unnamed "well-informed source" who talked to Russian news agency Interfax noted that the voided passport may give Moscow a pretense to detain Snowden in order to "establish the circumstances" of his arrival.

The FSB would likely separate Snowden from his belongings while he's "interviewed." The lack of a passport gives them the cover they need to rifle through those belongings for anything useful.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-intelligence-takes-snowdens-info-2013-6

[still_one]

1. Lets blame Obama on this also, why not

[dipsydoodle]

2. Did the Obama administration klutz up the play to nab Snowden before he left Hong Kong?

The blogger Marcy Wheeler argues that the aggressive pursuit of Snowden by the White House may have made the whole problem of US state secrets ending up in the wrong hands worse:

Wheeler writes that Snowden "could do great damage to the US, but may not have yet, and certainly hadn’t by the time he first revealed himself in Hong Kong":

If that’s right, then it seems the Obama approach has been precisely the wrong approach in limiting potential damage to national security. The best way to limit damage, for example, would be to get Snowden to a safe place where our greatest adversaries can’t get to him, where we could make an eternal stink about his asylum there, but still rest easy knowing he wasn’t leaking further secrets. Indeed, if he were exiled in some place like France, we’d likely have more influence over what he was allowed to do than if he gets to Ecuador, for example.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/25/edward-snowden-russia

nb posted on the live update c. 1 1/2 hours before this post on DU.

[Democracyinkind]

3. Only if Russia really wants him.

There's still the option of simply waving passort requirements, if they just want him to leave.