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WASHINGTON — U.S. sanctions against any country offering asylum to Edward Snowden advanced in Congress Thursday as the 30-year-old National Security Agency leaker remained in a Moscow airport while Russia weighed a request for him to stay permanently. The measure introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., demands the State Department coordinate with lawmakers on setting penalties against nations that seek to help Snowden avoid extradition to the United States, where authorities want him prosecuted for revealing details of the government’s massive surveillance system. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the proposal unanimously by voice vote as an amendment to next year’s...

Russian officials and human rights activists on Thursday slammed the U.S. for “threatening Russia” in a bid to have former NSA contractor Edward Snowden returned, as suspense mounts over the fugitive’s impending departure from Sheremetyevo Airport. “They [the U.S.] are asking Russia to discriminate against a U.S. citizen who has turned to Russia for temporary asylum and thus blatantly violate human rights,” Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer who is currently advising Snowden on immigration and other issues, told Interfax. In an unusual demonstration of solidarity with the government-connected lawyer, Svetlana Gannushkina, a prominent independent human rights activist who was nominated for...

Russia has not received extradition request for Snowden from the United States, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. The ministry did receive a letter from Eric Holder explaining some aspects of the U.S. position on the status of Snowden... The "document did not contain (a) request for the extradition or deportation of this individual," the statement said.

A Russian lawyer who is assisting fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden with his asylum request said Tuesday that he had brought Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 19-century classic novel "Crime and Punishment" to a meeting with him at a Moscow airport. "I bought him Dostoyevsky’s "Crime and Punishment," because I think that he should read about Raskolnikov," lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who arrived at Sheremetyevo airport Wednesday afternoon, said in an interview with Rossia 24 TV, referring to the novel's main character who repents after killing an elderly female pawnbroker and is sent to Siberia for punishment. "I am not saying there is...

Fugitive secrets-spiller Edward Snowden isn’t yet out of his monthlong Moscow airport limbo, but U.S. officials have warned that Russia is provoking a diplomatic crisis with its reported granting of refuge to the American charged with espionage and theft. Snowden, who arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport June 23 with a revoked U.S. passport, was reportedly informed Wednesday that the Federal Migration Service would provide him with documents that would allow him to finally cross into Russian territory. Because he arrived from Hong Kong with no valid travel documents, he was denied entrance by border officials and has also been unable...

Public attitudes have shifted against Edward Snowden, with more than half of Americans now supporting criminal charges against the former security contractor who’s disclosed details of surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency. And while most doubt that the NSA’s efforts enhance security, most also don’t see them as unjustified intrusions on privacy rights. The public by 57-39 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll also says it’s more important for the government to investigate possible terrorist threats than for it to protect privacy rights – a substantial margin, albeit the narrowest in polls since 2002. A plurality thinks...

Russia gives Snowden pass to leave airport RUSSIA'S migration service has provided fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden with a document that allows him to leave the Moscow airport transit zone where he has been holed up for the past month, the RIA Novosti news agency says. The document confirms that his application for asylum is being considered, but allows Snowden to cross the Russian border so long as border guards do not object, it said on Wednesday. The Interfax news agency said Snowden could leave the airport in the "next hours". The Interfax news agency added that the document...

Edward Snowden hopes to be granted papers by Wednesday that would allow him to leave Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, where he has been holed up since June 23, his Russian lawyer says. Anatoly Kucherena, who has assisted the fugitive American leaker in his bid for asylum in Russia, said Monday that Snowden’s application may take three months to process. The lawyer said the papers, which he expects to receive “shortly,” will permit Snowden to pass through immigration and travel to the city’s center in the meantime. The former defense contractor leaked National Security Administration documents revealing America’s worldwide surveillance apparatus....

WASHINGTON (AP) — A secret U.S. intelligence court renewed an order Friday to continue forcing Verizon Communications to turn over hundreds of millions of telephone records to the government each day in its search for foreign terror or espionage suspects. The order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has been in place for years but must be renewed every three months. It was exposed in June after former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked details of two top secret U.S. surveillance programs that critics say violate privacy rights. The order was set to expire Friday, and its renewal...

A Chinese amateur whistleblower, who spent his free time embarrassing Communist Party officials by posting pictures of their luxury cars on the Internet, has been blinded with acid and had two of his fingers hacked off. Li Jianxin, 47, is in hospital after being attacked earlier this month, it has emerged. His car was rammed from behind and he was taken by three men to a remote industrial park in the southern city of Huizhou, where they doused him with acid and hacked at him with knives. A woman in a worker’s dormitory nearby emerged to find Li lying on...

As an aside during testimony on Capitol Hill today, a National Security Agency representative rather casually indicated that the government looks at data from a universe of far, far more people than previously indicated. Chris Inglis, the agency's deputy director, was one of several government representatives—including from the FBI and the office of the Director of National Intelligence—testifying before the House Judiciary Committee this morning. Most of the testimony largely echoed previous testimony by the agencies on the topic of the government's surveillance, including a retread of the same offered examples for how the Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance...

WASHINGTON – The White House is considering canceling a fall summit between President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a move that would further aggravate the already tense relationship between the two leaders. The White House is dangling that option over the Russians as Moscow considers a temporary asylum petition from Edward Snowden, the American accused of leaking information about classified U.S. intelligence programs. But officials have privately signaled that scrapping the bilateral talks would also be retaliation for other areas of disagreement with Russia, including its continued support for Syrian President Bashar Assad's attacks against civilians.

Video: interview - Part 1Video: interview - Part 2Article: Cheney defends NSA programs, says Snowden a 'traitor,' Obama 'lacks credibility'

NSA leaker Edward Snowden is boasting that he’s immune from torture and can never be broken, even by the world’s most experienced interrogators. He made that odd claim in an equally strange e-mail exchange with former Sen. Gordon Humphrey (R-NH), The Guardian newspaper of Britain reported. Humphrey wrote a supportive note to Snowden, thanking him for doing the “right thing in exposing what I regard as massive violation of the United States Constitution.” The former lawmaker’s well-wishing letter came with a caveat: “Provided you have not leaked information that would put in harm’s way any intelligence agent.” Snowden wrote back...

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was “dead wrong” when he suggested the United States should boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics...House Speaker John Boehner said. ..“Listen, I love Sen. Graham. We’ve been close friends for 20 years..Boehner said.. “Why would we want to punish U.S. athletes who have been training for three years to compete in the Olympics... Graham said boycotting the Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, would “send the Russians the most unequivocal signal” ..what they’re doing is outrageous,... if they grant this guy asylum it’s a breach of the rule of law as we know it and is...

Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said that the United States should consider a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Russia if Moscow decides to grant asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Sen. Graham told The Hill Tuesday that the Russians' recent actions involving Snowden were “outrageous” and agreed that a boycott should be a possibility when asked. “I would. I would just send the Russians the most unequivocal signal I could send them,” Graham said. “We certainly haven't reset our relationship with Russia in a positive way. At the end of the day, if they grant this guy...

I thought the Snowden saga had become as much of a freak show as it could be. I was wrong. You know Graham’s too far into the deep end of the pool when even McCain’s calling him back to the shallow side. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said the U.S. should consider boycotting the 2014 Olympics Russia is set to host if Moscow grants NSA leaker Edward Snowden asylum.“I would. I would just send the Russians the most unequivocal signal I could send them,” Graham said Tuesday when asked about the possibility of a boycott.“It might help, because what they’re doing...

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for political asylum in Russia, a human rights lawyer revealed. As his application for asylum is considered, Snowden may be given special permission to enter the country and move around [within the country] freely. "Snowden has handed over his application to Sheremetyevo’s Federal Migration Service staff”, Russian human rights lawyer Anatoly Kucherena revealed. “I told him about all the intricacies of the procedure. It was decided that a staff member from the FMS office will come to the airport to accept Snowden’s temporary asylum request, as he is not allowed to leave Sheremetyevo’s transit zone”,...

GOGLAND ISLAND, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he wanted Edward Snowden to leave after three weeks holed up at a Moscow airport, but also signalled that the former U.S. spy agency contractor was moving towards meeting Russia's asylum conditions. Snowden flew to Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport from Hong Kong on June 23 in the hope of travelling on to a country that would offer him protection from the United States after he divulged details of U.S. government intelligence programmes. Putin said Washington had trapped Snowden by preventing him from reaching other countries that might shelter him but,...

Snowden Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize After ‘Disrepute Incurred’ for Picking Obama By Andrew Johnson July 15, 2013 11:49 AM A Swedish professor has nominated NSA leaker Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize for his revelations of the surveillance program, but also to redeem the award’s prestige after it was awarded to President Obama in 2009. In his letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Umea University’s Stefan Svallfors argues that Snowden, who would be the award’s youngest winner at 30, exemplified that “individuals can stand up for fundamental rights and freedoms.” Svallfors lauded Snowden’s “heroic effort at great personal...