Iceland-Bound Jet for Edward Snowden 'Could Take Off Tomorrow'

[cali]

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]

1. If it does, may it take off safely n/t

[MannyGoldstein]

2. I reckon a coupla F-16s will soon meet it in flight

And divert it to a US-friendly site.

[Cooley Hurd]

8. This public revelation might be cover...

...for the much smaller, unassuming plane that will actually be carrying Snowden.

[Catherina]

27. That's the impression I get too. Diversion lol

Snowden's probably already on a boat to somewhere.

[struggle4progress]

3. ... Birgitta Jonsdottir, a lawmaker for Iceland's Pirate Party and WikiLeaks ally who's offered

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]

4. Snowden

I hope Iceland gives him asylum !!!!!

[struggle4progress]

7. ... Neither Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson nor Minister of the Interior

Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir have responded to Edward Snowden’s 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 Snowden’s Plea

[cali]

13. uh, from 6/18 the op info is up to date. your info is not.

[struggle4progress]

15. Here's CBS News today:

... Iceland Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Tomasson said Snowden hasn't approached the ministry and could initiate an asylum request if he was already in Iceland. When asked about the reports of Sigurvinsson chartering a private plane to fly Snowden to Iceland, Tomasson said: "We don't object to that. But we don't have any knowledge other than what has been in the news. We can't comment any further on that" ...
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]

18. Donations THROUGH Datacell. THROUGH. I donated to Wikileaks for Snowden and it was processed

THROUGH Datacell. "The company that processes credit card payments to Wikileaks."

[struggle4progress]

20. Could be. That's not how Reuters is currently reporting it:

An Icelandic businessman linked to WikiLeaks said he has readied a private plane to take Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed secret U.S. surveillance programs, to Iceland ... "We have made everything ready at our end now we only have to wait for confirmation from the (Icelandic) Interior Ministry," Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson told Reuters. He is a former director of DataCell, a company which processed payments for WikiLeaks ... Neither a WikiLeaks spokesman nor the Icelandic government were immediately available for comment ...
Icelandic businessman says plane ready to take Snowden to Iceland
REYKJAVIK | Fri Jun 21, 2013 12:49pm EDT

[struggle4progress]

16. WikiLeaks Says Needs Iceland Reply Before Flying Snowden (21 June 2013)

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 don’t want to fly him to Iceland if it only means that he’ll 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]

5. He should stay in Hong Kong...their system is slower for him to wind way forward.

I think this is Hype...and he will consider before moving. Of Course...I could be WRONG!

[struggle4progress]

6. ... Iceland’s Pirate Party is also lobbying for citizenship for Mr. Snowden, says Mr. Sigurvinsson,

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]

9. He's not making it to Iceland. nt

[DURHAM D]

10. Why in the world would Iceland want this problem?

I think someone is just blowing smoke...

[JDPriestly]

12. If Snowden is arrested, Obama's talk of open dialogue, etc.

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]

14. This is in no way a response to my post.

[JDPriestly]

23. Yes. It is. I am explaining to you why the people of Iceland might

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.

[DURHAM D]

24. lol

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]

17. Yeah, because coddling a few confused Progressive Purity Internet Warriors...

is superior to enforcing the law.

[Luminous Animal]

19. He had no problem with letting Bush et. al. off the hook. A handful of 1%ers.

No there is purity above the law! We all know how war criminals need coddling.

[JDPriestly]

22. If Obama were all that keen on enforcing the law, more bankers would

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]

29. You really need to stop conflating whistlebowers with leakers.

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. He would get on an airplane?

[dregstudios]

21. Living in a Society of Fear

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. We’ve 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 we’re waging war against ourselves at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-in-society-of-fear-ten-years.html

[cantbeserious]

28. + 1

eom

[marions ghost]

30. Concur that We Are There.

welcome to DU

Interesting blog BTW.

[xchrom]

25. du rec.

[treestar]

26. Weird. So it's OK if someone buys their way out of legal trouble?

Normally that would be a sin of "the banksters."

[Aerows]

31. What banksters have there been

criminal charges filed against?

[treestar]

32. When a criminal charge is filed against a bankster

Let's say a bankster, Joe Richbody, is charged under 18 USC 1344

USC › Title 18 › Part I › Chapter 63 › § 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.