Protesters supporting Edward Snowden. Photograph by Mike Herbst
Iceland’s politicians have proposed a bill that would grant NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden immediate citizenship in the country, circumventing the issue of him needing to be on Icelandic soil to claim asylum.
The bill is being backed by the Left-Green Party, the Pirate Party, and the Brighter Future Party, although it received very limited support when put before the Judicial Affairs Committee, with only six members of minority parties supporting measure.
Snowden has applaied for asylum in a number of countries, but is currently believed to be in the transit area of Moscow airport, with the US putting pressure on nations around the world not to provide him with a safe harbour. The US even managed to reroute a commercial jet over Europe carrying Bolivian leader Evo Morales to land in Austria to let them search for the fugitive, much to the chagrin of other nations around the world.
leaks by for NSA systems analyst Snowden, published in The Guardian newspaper, demonstrated the extent of US spying on its own population and that of “friendly” countries such as Germany and France where they monitor phone and internet traffic and have agreements with leading internet companies to share data on their users.
