Runaway spy Edward Snowden 'has not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela' WikiLeaks reveals
Anti-secrecy group made announcement after Russia politician said Snowden had accepted political asylum from the South American country
Alexei Pushkov, who has acted as an unofficial spokesman for the Kremlin on the Snowden affair, tweeted the remarks earlier today
Snowden, who revealed details of a US intelligence program to monitor internet activity, went to Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on June 23
Venezuela has confirmed it received an asylum request from secrets whistleblower Edward Snowden - and offered him a safe haven there
U.S. diplomats are working to make it difficult for Snowden to find safe harbor in any of the nations that have offered him asylum
Tweet subsequently disappeared a few minutes after it was posted
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Wanted: Whistleblower Edward Snowden has not accepted an offer of asylum from Venezuela, Wikileaks said tonight
The anti-secrecy group made the announcement on Twitter this evening after a Russian politician tweeted earlier today that the former U.S. spy agency contractor had accepted political asylum from the South American country.
'Edward Snowden has not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela,' Wikileaks, whose British legal researcher Sarah Harrison is assisting Snowden and travelled to Moscow with him, later said on Twitter.
It added: 'The states concerned will make the announcement if and when the appropriate time comes. The announcement will then be confirmed by us.'
Unofficial spokesman for the Kremlin Alexei Pushkov had prompted the speculation today when he tweeted that the fugitive, believed to be in Russia and wanted by the US authorities for leaking security secrets, had accepted the offer from Venezuela.
The tweet was removed a few minutes after it was posted.
Soon after the tweet's disappearance he sent another message saying his claim was based on a report from the state all-news television channel Vesti.
However, no such information could be found on Vesti's website and no Russian news agency reported that Vesti had ever said it.
The TV channel could not immediately be reached for comment and the Kremlin declined comment on today's developments.
Mr Snowden, who revealed details of a US intelligence program to monitor internet activity, went to Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on June 23 and was believed to be headed for Cuba.
But he did not board that flight is believed to have been stranded in the airport's transit lounge ever since.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had already offered asylum to Mr Snowden while Bolivia and Nicaragua said they too would grant asylum to the American fugitive.
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has offered the fugitive a safe haven and 'humanitarian asylum'
Mr Maduro said it is perhaps the world's 'first collective humanitarian asylum' with various countries saying 'Come here!'
But the United States has cancelled Mr Snowden's passport and it is unclear if he has travel documents he would need to leave Moscow.
Mr Maduro said Mr Snowden 'will have to decide when he flies here, if he finally wants to travel here.'
On Friday he said: 'As head of state, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American Edward Snowden so that he can live (without) ... persecution from the empire,' Maduro said, referring to the United States.
He made the offer during a speech marking the anniversary of Venezuela's independence. It was not immediately clear if there were any conditions to Venezuela's offer.
'In the name of America's dignity ... I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden,' Maduro proclaimed during a military parade marking the country's Independence Day.
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Mother Jones
Snowden's Ticket to Venezuela: A Private Jet?
Here's how the former NSA contractor might elude US capture.
| Tue Jul. 9, 2013 3:00 AM PDT
Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua have offered asylum to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who is marooned in the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow while trying to avoid extradition to the United States, where he faces indictment under the Espionage Act. But if Snowden wants to go to one of those countries, will he be able to get there?
Cuba is the only country in which a commercial plane carrying Snowden could safely land without him facing the threat of US extradition—and en route he would have to pass through airspace belonging to the United States or one of its allies, whereby the US government could force his plane to land based on extradition treaties. There is a route that Snowden could take to avoid crossing the airspace of Canada, Norway, and the state of Florida, but he would need to charter a very expensive private plane to do so.
"A private plane certainly looks like the best bet to me," says former CIA analyst Allen Thomson. "It has the advantage of simplicity and minimum involvement by the Russian government." As Thomson told Foreign Policy, in order for Snowden to avoid US-influenced airspace, he would have to fly "North to the Barents Sea, thence over to and through the Denmark Strait. Continue south, steering clear of Newfoundland until getting to the east of the Windward Islands, then fly through some convenient gap between islands."
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