Memo to Snowden: Don't Try This in Ecuador (or Russia or Cuba or Venezuela or Hong Kong)
Edward Snowden is trying to escape the long arm of U.S. law by flying in and out of countries that clearly don't mind annoying us, and just as clearly are not the exemplars of democracy, transparency and civil liberties he wishes his own country to be.
Snowden's itinerary appeared to be evolving throughout much of Sunday. He left Hong Kong, landed in Russia and was reportedly bound for Cuba and then Venezuela. Later, the foreign minister of Ecuador tweeted that his country had received an asylum request from Snowden.
So say you're a citizen of Hong Kong, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela or Ecuador, and you want to protest against your government, maybe even leak some big secrets. What kind of conditions and treatment might you expect? Nothing close to Snowden's standard for his own country, that's for sure. Here's what Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch conclude in their 2013 world reports:
HONG KONG: The island does not have universal suffrage, police use "overly restrictive methods" in controlling assembly, and the government is not investigating claims that China is monitoring and intimidating Beijing critics based in Hong Kong, says Human Rights Watch. The group says that in a first, two people from mainland China were sentenced to "reeducation through labor" after participating in the annual July 1 pro-democracy demonstration in Hong Kong.
http://news.yahoo.com/memo-snowden-dont-try-ecuador-russia-cuba-venezuela-145434317.html
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