An Irish MEP has joined the call to allow US whistleblower Edward Snowden to be granted asylum in Ireland.
Edward Snowden is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets he gathered while working as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s electronic spying agency.
Speaking in the European Parliament on Thursday 4th July, Paul Murphy MEP said Edward Snowden, must be ‘commended’. “He should be welcome and granted asylum in any European country, including Ireland,” said the MEP.
The leaking of documents by Edward Snowden has apparently revealed the scale of the US surveillance programme
On Monday, Snowden released a statement through whistleblowing website Wikileaks in which he wrote:
“For decades the United States of America has been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country”.
-Edward Snowden
Snowden continued that although he was convicted of nothing, the US administration has ‘unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person’.
” Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum,” he wrote.
Mr Snowden is believed to be in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, from where he is seeking asylum.
On Sunday 30th June, WikiLeaks’ legal advisor in the Edward Snowden matter, Sarah Harrison said she submitted by hand a number of requests for asylum and asylum assistance on behalf of Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower.
The requests were delivered to an official at the Russian consulate at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow late in the evening, according to Wikileaks.
The site claimed that the documents ‘outline the risks of persecution Mr Snowden faces in the United States and have started to be delivered by the Russian consulate to the relevant embassies in Moscow’.
Countries for asylum
The requests were made to a number of countries including:
The Republic of Austria, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Federative Republic of Brazil, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Republic of Finland, the French Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of India, the Italian Republic, the Republic of Ireland, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Nicaragua, the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Poland, the Russian Federation, the Kingdom of Spain, the Swiss Confederation and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The requests join or update others previously made including to the Republic of Ecuador and the Republic of Iceland.
The presidents of Nicaragua indicated his country could offer political asylum to US fugitive Edward Snowden, while Venezuela has offered asylum on Saturday.
On Friday 5th July, Wikileaks said Mr Snowden had applied to six additional countries but would not name them ‘due to attempted US interference’.
The status of those applications are:
Rejected: India, Poland, Brazil
Considering: Bolivia, Italy
Pending: Cuba
A spokesman for the Irish Foreign Affairs has said any asylum application can only be considered once the applicant is in that country.
This is also the policy for The Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Ecuador, and Germany.
China and France, are ‘unconfirmed’ while the application for Russia was withdrawn after President Putin stipulated that no more leaking was allowed to occur by the fugitive.
Arrest Warrant
The Irish Times reported on Friday 5th July that the Irish government received an arrest warrant for Edward Snowden should he land in the country.
Paul Murphy said the government should offer Smowden ‘asylum or safe passage through Ireland should he need it’.
“He has lifted the veil on the spying networks across Europe with Britain and France having been exposed as using similar systems and should be given assistance by the Irish government,” added the Socialist MEP.
‘Do the right thing’
A TD, who tried to get debated in the Dáil, said the Irish Government should now ‘do the right thing and offer him the asylum he has asked for’.
Richard Boyd Barrett TD said:
“Wouldn’t we be in a far better position in this country now if we had had people with the bravery of Edward Snowden in the banks during the period of the property and lending madness that has crashed our economy. We must send a clear signal that whistle-blowers will get the support of our state. This has wide implications for a whole range of important issues.”
-People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett
Green Party Spokesperson for Communications, Ossian Smyth today said law enforcement officials should have the power to monitor suspicious people where they have obtained a court order, but ‘mass surveillance is simply not compatible with democracy’.
“This Government must find the courage to protect persecuted whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Offering asylum to Snowden would be a powerful statement that Ireland is a free and neutral country,” concluded Ossian Smyth.
Whistleblowing Bill
Labour Senator Lorraine Higgins has welcomed the enactment of the Protected Disclosure in the Public Interest Act 2012 which was produced by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin.
The Senator said they were ‘necessary reforms’ to the law and will ‘protect whistleblowers who speak out against wrongdoing, or cover-ups, whether in the public or private sector’.
“When a person who knows something about wrongdoing in their workplace, they are confronted with a plethora of reasons not to disclose details further: the prospect of isolation or more seriously the risk of prosecution for breaching laws relating to government secrets.
“Indeed, the response to the actions of Edward Snowden serve as very public demonstrations to whistleblowers as to why they shouldn’t reveal their secrets,” added the Senator.
