Fox NewsU.S. lawmakers fumed Thursday after NSA leaker Edward Snowden apparently was allowed to leave the Moscow airport and enter Russian territory on temporary refugee status.
“If these reports are accurate, Americans in Washington should consider this a game changer in our relationship with Russia,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement, calling Russia’s decision “provocative” and “a sign of Vladimir Putin’s clear lack of respect for President Obama.”
Graham called for the U.S. government to meet the decision with a “firm response,” which he did not describe.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called it a “slap in the face of all Americans.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, D-N.J., also said that Snowden “belongs in a United States courtroom, not a free man deserving of asylum in Russia.” He called the development a “setback to U.S.-Russia relations.”
Earlier Thursday, Snowden’s representatives said he had been issued papers that allowed him to leave Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, where he was stuck since his arrival from Hong Kong on June 23. He apparently has been given a one-year temporary asylum.
WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that is supporting Snowden, also confirmed the details of Snowden’s departure on its Twitter page, claiming Snowden “successfully acquired refugee status in Russia.”
The development comes more than a month after Snowden arrived at the Moscow airport from Hong Kong, and was effectively marooned in the airport’s transit zone while he and his supporters tried to sway a number of countries to accept his petition for refugee status.
Snowden has petitioned several Latin American countries hostile to the U.S. — including Venezuela — to take him in. However, the logistics of reaching any of those countries are complicated because his U.S. passport has been revoked.
Meanwhile, Russia has refused to grant requests from the Obama administration to hand over Snowden to face federal charges.
While Snowden was holed up in the transit zone at the Moscow airport, he continued to leak U.S. secrets to the media. In the most recent report based on Snowden’s documents, The Guardian reported on Wednesday on an NSA program that allegedly allows analysts to scour emails, browsing histories and online chats.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that Snowden could receive asylum in Russia on the condition he stops leaking U.S. secrets. Snowden lawyer Anatoly Kucherena has said Snowden accepted the condition. Kucherena said the material cited in The Guardian newspaper article was provided before Snowden promised to stop leaking.
The Snowden case has further strained U.S.-Russian ties already tense amid differences over Syria, U.S. criticism of Russia’s human rights record and other issues.
Snowden’s father said in remarks broadcast Wednesday on a Russian television that he would like to visit his son. Kucherena said he is arranging the trip.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
..John McCain is an effing” traitor and deserves to be hung with his good buddies the Bush Criminal Cabal and his friends the Obama’s…after conviction of course…traitors..all of them….impeach and convict the entire Senate and House of treason…arrest them all…arrest the Joint Chiefs of Staff…arrest all of them on treason..convict them and hang them…liars and traitors all around… …convict and hang them
Regards,
RJ O’Guillory
Author-
Webster Groves – The Life of an Insane Family
A pox on South Carolina and Arizona for voting these two clowns into office.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a statement, calling Russia’s decision “provocative” and “a sign of Vladimir Putin’s clear lack of respect for President Obama
Hey Lindsey news flash most true Americans don’t respect so called President Obama. Little suprise Putin doesn’t.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called it a “slap in the face of all Americans.”
Hey John everytime you speak it’s a “slap in the face of all Americans.”
Nice of you two to stop making out and make the idiotic comments. I would like to thank the morons vote for these two Jewish reps. Do us all a favor and refrain from voting next time they seek reelection.
McCain and Graham are slaps in the face of all Americans.
Who do they think they are they do not speak for me. I did not vote for them.
Crazy days when you side with Russia on this subject.
First you have to accept that the MSM and the above politicians are telling the truth. It could be that Russia or Putin did/said absolutely nothing implied in this article. And you also have to accept the MSM story that Snowden is in Russia at all. Personally, I don’t believe any of it.
Rich men are upset. Quick dab that sweat from their forehead. G.Bushes snit only cost a trill.
Awwwwww, did someone shit in the administrations cornflakes? I hope they all choke on them.
I’ll play along, and give Russia the thumbs up for spitting in Obamas eye. Although, it makes me wonder what they’re trying to slip through the cracks while nobody is looking.
John McCain, why don’t you tell V Putin, that you will hold your breath until V Putin give up Snowden to you? Or that you will shoot yourself & your death will be on V Putin’s head!
Our government is rife with eunuchs and invertebrates. Putin must laugh himself silly every time he thinks about the petulant man-child POTUS. Worse yet, we can only look forward to Shrillary to bring some ‘nads to the White House.