Former CIA employee Edward Snowden has carried out one of the biggest leaks in US history, exposing a top-secret NSA surveillance program to the media.

Leading tech companies were revealed to be involved in intelligence gathering through PRISM spy tool.

RT has developed an interactive map showing the countries being spied on, those aiding the US in their surveillance operations.

Thursday, September 12

GMT 23:58: Edward Snowden’s leaks revealing mass data collection by the National Security Agency “probably needed to happen,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Thursday. Speaking at a conference in Washington, Clapper acknowledged the revelations had sparked a needed debate that “perhaps” should have happened earlier. Yet Clapper maintained he was concerned about the disclosures’ “impact, frankly, on our national security and the damage caused by these continuous stream of revelations.”

Wednesday, September 11

GMT 23:52: Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins University, was asked to remove a blog post he wrote regarding the latest leak, which revealed that the NSA is capable to subverting internet encryption. While university administrators eventually allowed Green to re-post the article onto school servers, the incident prompted more questions than it gave answers. Green told RT he is unsure of where the take-down request originated and jokingly gave advice to any future cryptographers.

“Somebody somewhere made a decision that there might be classified material on this blog. The instinct was to shut the blog down rather than investigate that. I think that was a mistake. I don’t think I’ll ever know exactly where that came from and I hope it never happens again,” he said.

“Move down to the basement, buy a computer, and never, ever use the internet. That’s the best advice I can give you.”

Tuesday, September 10

GMT 21:02: A majority of Americans oppose the National Security Agency’s data collection programs as well as the secret federal court that has oversight over NSA surveillance, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.



Nearly 60 percent of those polled said they were uncomfortable with the amount of telephone and Internet data collected by the NSA. Fifty-three percent said the government does an adequate job protecting civil liberties, down from 60 percent two years ago. And 6 in 10 Americans said it was sometimes justified to sacrifice freedoms for security.



Also of note, Americans age 18-29 believe whistleblowers like Edward Snowden are justified in leaking classified documents if they show the government broke the law. Only 54 percent of those over age 45 agreed.

Monday, September 9

GMT 21:32: Yahoo joined Google and Microsoft Monday in filing legal action against the US government over the NSA surveillance programs revealed by Edward Snowden.

The tech giants filed motions in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves government requests to gain data from the companies, asking for the ability to share more about the extent of NSA demands for their customers’ information.



In its motion, Yahoo said it “has been unable to engage fully in the debate about whether the government has properly used its powers, because the government has placed a prior restraint on Yahoo's speech."



Yahoo also criticized news coverage of NSA revelations, saying the PRISM program - the subject of the first reports which resulted from Snowden leaks - does not allow the NSA to access their servers for information.



"Yahoo's inability to respond to news reports has harmed its reputation and has undermined its business not only in the United States but worldwide. Yahoo cannot respond to such reports with mere generalities,” the company claimed in its motion.



Microsoft and Google also filed legal briefs on Monday for the ability to provide more information about data requests.

GMT 01:00: The NSA intelligence agency spied on Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras, reports Brazil's biggest television network Globo TV, which said it received the information from Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who first published secrets leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

A 2012 NSA presentation aired by the network included a slide citing an ‘economic’ motive for spying, along with diplomatic and political reasons. Earlier the US gave assurances that the Department of Defense, under jurisdiction of which the NSA operates, “does not engage in economic espionage in any domain, including cyber.”

An official from the NSA told Globo that the agency gathers economic information not in order to steal secrets, but to monitor financial instability.

Saturday, September 7

GMT 20:19: The NSA can access data on smart phones using the world’s most popular systems including iOS, Android, and BlackBerry, Germany’s Der Spiegel reported. The agency can access contact lists, SMS traffic, notes, and users’ current and past locations.

The agency has also organized a working group for each operating system. The groups are responsible for clandestine operations to gather data saved on phones.

Der Spiegel noted that spying on smart phones has not been a mass surveillance operation. It said the tactic was only used on specific individuals and was done without the knowledge of smart phone companies.

GMT 17:28: Thousands of people took to the streets of Berlin, Germany, on Saturday to protest against NSA surveillance activities and fight for their right to privacy. Demonstrators carried banners which read, “Stop spying on us,” along with the phrases “NSA killed by internet” and “Thanks to PRISM the government finally knows what the people want.”

The protest was mounted by Germany’s Green party, together with the Left and Pirate parties. The event hosts claimed the rally was attended by around 20,000 people. However, police declined to confirm the numbers, only stating that their “tally differs from that of the organizers.”

Friday, September 6

GMT 21:45: Tech giants Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google expressed their concern over reports that US and British spy agencies have the capability to bypass the encryption of online communications.

"We are unaware of and do not participate in such an effort,” a Yahoo spokesman said on Friday, referring to the reports of the multi-million programs of the two countries (US and the UK) to beat encryption. “Yahoo zealously defends our users' privacy and responds to government requests for data only after considering every applicable objection and in accordance with the law.”

A Microsoft spokesperson said, "We have significant concerns about the allegations of government activity reported yesterday and will be pressing the government for an explanation."

GMT 18:47: The US defended its ability to use backdoors secretly inserted in various online services to bypass communication encryption. The office of James Clapper, director of US national intelligence, said his government would simply not be doing its job if it did not use these legally dubious techniques to quietly monitor Americans’ everyday communications.

“It should hardly be a surprise that our intelligence agencies seek ways to counteract our adversaries’ use of encryption,”read the statement issued on Friday. “Throughout history, nations have used encryption to protect their secrets, and today, terrorists, cyber-criminals, human traffickers and others also use code to hide their activities.”

The report detailing the intelligence agency’s efforts was published on Thursday by The Guardian, and is the latest result of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

GMT 01:41: US President Barack Obama has pledged to work with Brazil and Mexico to address their concerns over US spying revealed in recent NSA leaks. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff appeared to climb down from her earlier position and told reporters on Friday that a planned visit to Washington next month may proceed as planned

"My trip to Washington depends on the political conditions to be created by President Obama," said Rousseff according to the Brazilian presidency's Twitter feed.

The two leaders had an exchange over the NSA spying scandal during the G20 summit in Russia.

Thursday, September 5

GMT 15:57: American NSA and British GCHQ have the tools to bypass sophisticated encryption methods used to secure most Internet traffic that was previously thought to be protected from prying eyes.

The Guardian says the US alone spends around a quarter of a billion dollars each year on this capability. It involves not just intricate code-breaking, but also maintaining partnerships with the tech companies that provide seemingly secure online communication outlets.

“The files show that the National Security Agency (NSA) and its UK counterpart GCHQ have broadly compromised the guarantees that Internet companies have given consumers to reassure them that their communications, online banking and medical records would be indecipherable to criminals or governments,” James Ball, Julian Borger and Glenn Greenwald reported for the Guardian.

GMT 09:12: Brazil has canceled preparations for the visit of President Dilma Rousseff to the United States over reports she was the target of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance. A Brazilian official told Reuters that Rousseff “is completely [sic] furious” over the revelations and described the situation as “a major, major crisis”.

Wednesday, September 4

GMT 07:33: Brazil’s relations with the US are damaged after it was found the US had been spying on Brazilian President Rousseff. The country’s government accused the US of lying about NSA surveillance programs.

“[The US has] not given any reasonable explanations. In fact, all the explanations that have been given so far are false,” said Minister of Communications Paulo Bernardo after an emergency cabinet meeting called by Rousseff.

Brazil launched a probe into telecommunications companies to see if they illegally shared data with the US intelligence agency.

Meanwhile Brazilian lawmakers asked for federal protection for the American journalist Glenn Greenwald and his partner David Miranda, saying they are key witnesses in the investigation of NSA spying on Brazilians. Greenwald’s reports on American surveillance are based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Monday, September 2

16:30 GMT: It has emerged, according to new documents seen by German publication Der Spiegel, that the NSA directly targeted the French Foreign Ministry in its surveillance operations. The document from June 2010, marked 'Top Secret' states that gaining access to their VPN computer network was considered a 'success story.' The NSA was especially interested in foreign policy objectives, such as weapons trade and economic stability.

Sunday, September 1



01:16 GMT: New batch of NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden suggest that Russian Aeroflot airlines and news broadcaster Al Jazeera were spied on by the NSA, the German Der Spiegel claims.

The publication states that based on a 2006 document, the NSA hacked into Al Jazeera's internal communications system to read communication by "interesting targets."

The new data also revealed that reservation services for Russian airline Aeroflot, was also being surveyed. The NSA said these selected targets had "high potential as sources of intelligence."

Saturday, August 31

13:00 GMT: Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald has released a video honoring Snowden upon his reception of the 2013 'Whistleblower Prize' in Berlin.









11:00 GMT: Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said that former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden did not stay at the Russian consulate in Hong Kong prior to his arrival in Moscow, as previously reported by Kommersant newspaper.



"Edward told me that he never visited any diplomatic missions and that all this is inaccurate. He never had any talks with our diplomats while in Hong Kong," Kucherena said.



On Monday, the same paper declared that Snowden had spent his 30th birthday at the consulate, citing a Western source as having provided confirmation.



However, Kucherena did say that "he and his friends stayed at a hotel there... He understood he was being chased, so he moved often." A Russian government source said that Snowden turned up uninvited for two days before leaving for Hong Kong.

05:04 GMT: US intelligence agencies carried out 231 cyber-operations in 2011, The Washington Post reported in detailing a more aggressive, expanding cyber-attack architecture than was previously known. In addition, a $652 million program named GENIE helps the US break into foreign networks to plant sophisticated malware in computers, routers and firewalls in tens of thousands of machines every year. Almost three-quarters of the 231 attacks in 2011 were against top-priority targets including Iran, Russia, China and North Korea, and activities including nuclear proliferation. The disclosure of US cyber-ops, defined by the US “to manipulate, disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy information resident in computers or computer networks, or the computers and networks themselves,” were provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Friday, August 30

21:00 GMT: Edward Snowden has refused to meet with American diplomats in Russia, his lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena said Friday.



“A few people approached trying to negotiating the meeting, including US diplomats. I related the message to Edward, but he refused to meet with them. His decision, he explained, was based on the campaign launched against him by the US State Department, which shows only a prejudice against him and his human rights stance. I passed this message on to the diplomats,” the lawyer said.



Kucherena, who is in constant contact with the whistleblower, said that his client was undergoing an adaptation period and is learning Russian. He also told the press that he will not violate client-attorney privilege, and would not disclose Snowden’s whereabouts. What Snowden might do next might be decided once his father arrives in Russia, Kucherena said.

The lawyer said that Snowden was still in danger. “The level of danger threatening him to this day remains high. While in the transit area, he knew he was being hunted by a huge country that can use any of its methods and tools to catch him,” Kucherena said.



Regarding the revelations of Snowden-leaked wires that appeared recently in Western publications, Kucherena said that the material was handed over to the editors before Snowden left Hong Kong. Therefore, he has not violated his pledge to President Putin not to harm US interests.

18:58 GMT: The New York Times was asked by British authorities to destroy classified intelligence files leaked to the media by former national security contractor Edward Snowden.

Wednesday, August 28

19:27 GMT: President Obama has revealed the members of a new review panel that will assess how the US handles issues of technology in the realm of foreign policy and intelligence gathering.

The panel, originally announced on August 9 by Obama to be an independent check on federal government tech initiatives in the wake of the NSA spying revelations, will consist of four former White House and intelligence community staffers -- Michael Morell, Richard Clarke, Cass Sunstein and Peter Swire -- and academic Geoffrey Stone, who has close personal ties to Obama.

Tuesday, August 27

13:17 GMT: Mass tracking and collection of Americans' phone call data violates the US constitution, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a court motion. The National Security Agency’s surveillance program "permits the government to assemble a richly detailed profile of every person living in the United States and to draw a comprehensive map of their associations with one another," the motion says.



ACLU argues that part of the basis for the FISA court's approval of the NSA's mass collection of phone metadata involved Smith vs Maryland 1979 case, surveillance directed at a specific criminal which does not suggest “that the constitution allows the government's mass collection of sensitive information about every single phone call made or received by residents of the United States over a period of seven years."



The motion is part of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on 11 June 2013, accusing NSA director Keith Alexander, the director of intelligence James Clapper, defence secretary Chuck Hagel, the attorney general Eric Holder and FBI director Robert Mueller of violating the first and fourth amendments.

Monday, August 26

18:05 GMT: The United Nations said it plans to contact the US officials regarding the Der Spiegel report that the NSA bugged its New York headquarters. "We're aware of the reports and we intend to be in touch with the relevant authorities on this," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said, adding that “member states are expected to act accordingly to protect the inviolability of diplomatic missions."



11:00 GMT: On of Merkel's key rivals has threatened to scupper EU-US trade talks over the NSA spying program.

Peer Steinbruck, leader of the Social Democrats, says he will delay EU trade negotiations over the NSA bugging of German government offices.

Edward Snowden was forced to stay in Russia after the US threatened Cuba with “adverse consequences” should the NSA whistleblower get on board Aeroflot’s Moscow-Havana flight, Kommersant newspaper has learnt.

Under US pressure the Cuban authorities informed Moscow the Aeroflot plane would not be able to land in Havana, a source told the Russian newspaper.

The paper also pointed out that Russian authorities did not contact Snowden or issue an invitation to take refuge on its territory, however were aware that he would arrive to Moscow en route to Latin America.

Sunday, August 25

The United States was not just busy spying on the European Union, according to documents obtained by Der Spiegel, but had its surveillance apparatus trained on the international body as well. The US National Security Agency (NSA) successfully cracked the encryption code protecting the United Nations’ internal videoconferencing system.

Within three weeks of initially gaining access to the UN system, the NSA had increased the number of such decrypted communications from 12 to 458, the report revealed.

“NSA pickup lines” trended on Twitter worldwide. Posts sarcastically referenced NSA intrusions as they envisaged how the agency might flirt with an unsuspecting user.

Friday, August 23

National Security Agency officers have engaged in spying on their love interests. It is a popular enough practice to have its own Orwellian label within the agency called “LOVEINT”.

“LOVEINT” is deemed a ‘wilful violation’ and “very rare” misconduct by the organization. “NSA has zero tolerance for wilful violations of the agency’s authorities” and responds “as appropriate,” the agency said in a statement on Friday, published in WSJ.

Wednesday, August 21

19:30 GMT: Speaking about Army Pfc. Bradley Manning’s sentence announced on Wednesday, Edward Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told RT that he is “confused.” He believes the US intelligence leaker was given a 35 year sentence as a “warning to others” who might want to “blow the whistle.”



In light of the ruling, “[we can see that] nobody will consider Edward [Snowden’s] position concerning human rights” in the United States , Kucherena stated, hinting that the NSA leaker is not keen on returning to his home country.



Meanwhile, the lawyer noted that Snowden has not yet met with his father, but is “eagerly waiting” for the reunion.



9:55 GMT: The UK’s Labour Party has called for Parliament’s intelligence watchdog to investigate Prime Minister David Cameron’s role in asking The Guardian to destroy their Snowden documents. This follows reports in the Independent and the Daily Mail that the order to destroy the files originated from Number 10.

Clearly the government does have a responsibility to protect national security. However, I think this may be another area where an inquiry by the intelligence and security committee [ISC] may be the right way forward in terms of this particular case and what the prime minister's role was," said Labour MP Yvette Cooper on BBC Radio 4.

Tuesday, August 20

12:20 GMT: Britain has defended its actions against the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald David Miranda, who was detained for nine hours under anti-terrorism legislation at Heathrow Airport.

"The government and the police have a duty to protect the public and our national security," a Home Office spokesman said in a statement. "If the police believe that an individual is in possession of highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism, then they should act and the law provides them with a framework to do that."

"Those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what they are condoning."

09:48 GMT: Russia has not received any official requests from the US concerning extradition of former CIA employee Edward Snowden, who on August 1 was granted temporary asylum in Russia, Deputy Prosecutor General Aleksandr Zvyagintsev told media. “They only informed us that his passport is annulled,” he said. Earlier the US President Barack Obama canceled a meeting with his Russian counterpart, reportedly because of the situation with Snowden. US Secretary of State John Kerry intends to address Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss the case of Edward Snowden.

08:00 GMT: On Tuesday Greater London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said the detention of Miranda was both “legally and procedurally sound.”

Saying the detention of the 28-year-old was “necessary and appropriate”, the MET continued that contrary some reports, Miranda had been offered legal representation and was attended to by a lawyer.

"No complaint has been received by the MPS at this time," the police statement read.

The statement continued that Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which grants police the power to stop and question people traveling through British ports and airports to determine whether they are involved in planning terrorist plots, was used "appropriately and proportionately".

Monday, August 19

19:00 GMT: On Monday, Glenn Greenwald promised to release more documents, saying the UK would be “sorry” for detaining his partner David Miranda for nine hours.

"I have many more documents to report on, including ones about the UK, where I'll now focus more. I will be more aggressive, not less, in reporting," said Greenwald, speaking in Portuguese to reporters at Rio de Janeiro's international airport, Reuters reported.

On Sunday, Miranda was detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows police to stop and question people travelling through British ports and airports to determine whether they are involved in planning terrorist acts.

Miranda said he was treated like a terrorist during his detention.

“They treated me like I was a criminal or someone about to attack the UK…they were threatening me all the time and saying I would be put in jail if I didn't cooperate,” Miranda told the Guardian. “It was exhausting and frustrating, but I knew I wasn't doing anything wrong."

17:19 GMT: France’s CNIL agency says that European data protection agencies have written to the European Commission, calling for help in obtaining information needed in order to “assess independently to what extent the protection provided by EU data protection legislation is at risk and possibly breached” by the US intelligence-gathering program PRISM, AFP reported.

In the letter written to Vice President and Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, the agencies have said “they should evaluate the exact impact of the PRISM program on the privacy and data of European citizens,” adding that "many questions as to the consequences of these intelligence programs remain.”

Sunday, August 18

11:50 GMT: David Miranda, partner of the Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald who broke several stories based on information from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, was detained for almost nine hours by British authorities on his way home to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Miranda was detained under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows police to stop and question people travelling through British ports and airports to determine whether they are involved in planning terrorist acts.

The 28-year-old was held for the maximum amount of time allowable by law, having been detained at 8:05 am and released without charge at 5 pm, according to a Scotland Yard statement.

Electronics in Miranda’s possession, including his cell phone, laptop, memory sticks, and “various video game consoles” were confiscated.

The Guardian said it was dismayed at the detention of Miranda and was “urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities” as to why it happened.

Thursday, August 15

23:30 GMT: It is now believed that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden actually began downloading documents of US electronic surveillance programs while working for Dell Inc in April of 2012, about a year prior to what has been reported so far, according to Reuters which cited US officials and other unspecified sources.



Snowden worked for Dell from 2009 until earlier in 2013 as a contract worker for the NSA both in the US and Japan. Snowden downloaded information while employed by Dell regarding surveillance programs led by the NSA and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, and evidently left behind electronic evidence of when those documents had first been accessed.



This new information could shift scrutiny away from Snowden’s later employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, which has received the bulk of scrutiny from the whistleblower’s unauthorized leaking of classified intelligence info. Snowden was with Booz Allen for three months. According to Reuters, the material Snowden downloaded in April 2012 while a Dell employee included NSA collection from fiber-optic cables, including transoceanic cables, of large quantities of internet traffic and other communications.

Wednesday, August 14

10:33 GMT: Now everybody can help Edward Snowden escape the clutches of Uncle Sam, at least in the digital world of game technology. German game developer Binji has announced the release of a free online videogame entitled, “Eddy’s Run: The Prism Prison,” Time magazine reported. The creators of the game, which takes its cue from “Mario Brothers,” is “a bow” to Snowden, the former NSA contractor who revealed the details of the agency’s vast global surveillance program.

Players are able to help Snowden escape from cameras, drones and government agents with the assistance of reporters and exploding laptops.

It’s not all virtual fun, however. One of the game’s more interactive features involves the “Take Action” button, which directs players to sign a petition on AVAAZ.org, demanding that Snowden be “treated fairly, humanely and given due process.”

Monday, August 12



23:09 GMT: US President Barack Obama has appointed James Clapper, the current head of National Intelligence, to oversee a board which monitors NSA surveillance policies. Obama asserted that the board would be put in place to “maintain the trust of the people,” although Clapper was previously accused of lying to Congress under oath when questioned on the existence of a domestic surveillance database.

The exact duties of the oversight group remain unknown, although Obama said on August 9 that it will consist of “a high-level group of outside experts to review our entire intelligence and communications technologies.”

22:10 GMT: The US Charge d'Affaires in Madrid, Luis G. Moreno, has been summoned to the Spanish Foreign Ministry for "clarifications" over a report published by Der Spiegel on Sunday, Spanish state television reported.

Der Spiegel revealed that Spain had received a mid-priority rank in the NSA’s list of surveillance targets. Moreno said he understood the “given reasons and concerns expressed” by Spain and that he would seek to gain more information regarding the surveillance.

21:09 GMT: If the Russian capital was hosting one of the NSA servers used for surveillance by US intelligence, it would be located in the US embassy in Moscow, an unidentified Russian special services member told Vedomosti daily. The source said that he is "practically 100 percent sure" that one of the XKeyscore servers is located inside the embassy. The existence of such servers, along with NSA spying capabilities, was revealed on July 31 in the Guardian newspaper through information provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The leaks detailed more than 700 XKeyscore servers worldwide. One of the dots on a marked map points to Moscow.

John Graham, a former US diplomat, told RT it is no secret that world powers spy on each other, but the news that really shook the world is that America spies on its own citizens.

Friday, August 9

14:18 GMT: Edward Snowden's father plans to fly to Russia from his home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to meet with his son next week, a representative of Lon Snowden’s lawyer said.



“First thing is for Lon and Ed to be reunited," Mattie Fein, spokeswoman and wife of Lon Snowden's attorney, Bruce Fein, is cited as saying by Wall Street Journal. "He wants to make sure he is healthy and safe and then to get him a lawyer [to defend his interests in the US]."



The spokeswoman added that elder Snowden isn’t planning to make any comments until after he had seen his son, despite media onslaught expected on his Moscow arrival.



"We won't say anything until Lon sees Ed face to face with [his Russian legal advisor Anatoly] Kucherena," she stressed.



08:04 GMT: Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden hasn’t notified the Migration Service in Moscow about his registration in the capital, which means the whistleblower most probably lives outside the city.



"We have no such information. I haven’t received such information - he is not in Moscow," head of the Moscow branch of Russia’s Federal Migration Service Olga Kirillova told RIA Novosti.



The head of FMS for the Moscow Region earlier told reporters that Snowden, who has received a temporary residence permit in the Russian Federation, can notify the Migration Service about his registration anywhere in the country. In case of his request to move to another Russian region, he will have to wait for official permission.

03:11 GMT: The NSA wants to prevent future security breaches by replacing the position once held by whistleblower Edward Snowden with computers, the secretive intelligence agency director revealed.



The National Security Agency, which currently employs up to 1,000 systems administrators, is planning to drastically cut back on the number of people holding this position, Gen. Keith Alexander said during a cyber-security conference in New York City.



“What we’re in the process of doing – not fast enough – is reducing our systems administrators by about 90 percent,” Alexander informed.



“We’ve put people in the loop of transferring data, securing networks and doing things that machines are probably better at doing,” he added.

Snowden, a former employee of government-contracted consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, worked for the NSA for over a year before his role changed to systems administrator. It was while holding this position that he leaked classified details about surveillance programs to the media.

While the leaker has been referred to as a systems administrator, he told The Guardian that his job was actually to work as an “infrastructure analyst,” spending his days searching for new methods to infiltrate the internet and telephone networks.

Thursday, August 8

16:14 GMT: Lon Snowden, the father of the former CIA employee Edward Snowden, has filed documents applying for a Russian travel visa, a representative of Snowden Sr.'s lawyer Mattie Fein told Itar-Tass news agency. Snowden Snr. is planning to come to Russia later this month. He will be accompanied by his US lawyers. It’s not clear yet how long it will take the Russian authorities to a visa to the whistleblower’s father.



Edward Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, earlier informed that he had sent an invitation to Lon Snowden to visit Russia. The invitations were also sent to some of the leaker’s friends and his lawyer.

21:10 GMT: The highly-encrypted email service reportedly used by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has gone offline, and its administrator claims the company is legally barred from explaining why. The homepage of Lavabit.com was changed Thursday to a letter from the company’s owner announcing that the site’s operations have ceased following a six-week long ordeal that is prompting the company to take legal action in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Wednesday, August 7

03:07 GMT: The whistleblower’s father Lon Snowden expressed gratitude to Vladimir Putin for granting his son political asylum despite pressure from the US, which is outraged by Russia's decision. On the same day the US President Barack Obama canceled a planned trip to Moscow.



“President Vladimir Putin has stood firm. I respect his strength and courage,” Lon Snowden told Reuters. “He has stood firm against the face of intense pressure from our government and I have to believe that he will continue to stand firm.”

Snowden Snr. said that he has not spoken to his son since Edward traveled from Hawaii to Hong Kong and then on to Russia after revealing the existence of secret government programs that routinely monitor the telephone and electronic communications of millions of Americans. Other revelations included American spying on foreign diplomats and international metadata interception.

19:40 GMT: Barack Obama has canceled a meeting with Vladimir Putin scheduled for September, largely over the Snowden asylum decision.

"Russia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship," the White House said in a statement.

The Kremlin says it is "disappointed" with the decision, saying the Snowden situation "was not created by us".

“All this situation shows that the US is still not ready to build relations with Russia on equal footing,” presidential aide Yury Ushakov told the media.

13:00 GMT: Obama claimedthat there was no domestic spying program in the US, and called covert surveillance operations a “critical component to counter terrorism.”“We don’t have a domestic spying program,” he said.

03:49 GMT: Glenn Greenwald, the journalist involved in the publication of leaks provided by Edward Snowden, said in a testimony to the Brazilian government that he possesses up to 20,000 secret US government files.



"I did not do an exact count, but he [Snowden] gave me 15,000 to 20,000 documents. Very, very complete and very long," Greenwald revealed.



The Brazil-based American reporter, who was approached by Snowden while the latter still worked as a contractor for the NSA, has published details of US electronic surveillance programs taking place domestically and abroad.



"The stories we have published are a small portion. There will certainly be more revelations on the espionage activities of the US government and allied governments...on how they have penetrated the communications systems of Brazil and Latin America," he added.

Media figures discussing Obama/Putin/extradition should Google these: Robert Seldon Lady, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, Luis Posada Carriles — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 7, 2013

12:51 GMT: The former head of CIA and NSA hypothesized that a massive hacker attack on the US was possible from "sex-starved" activists, “nihilists, anarchists” like Anonymous in retaliation for any future prosecution of leaker Edward Snowden.



"If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?"Michael Hayden asked in a speech to Washington group, the Bipartisan Policy Center.



The retired Air Force general speculated that Snowden supporters would have a hard time attacking ‘dot-mils’, the well-protected military computer networks in the .mil internet domain.



"So if they can't create great harm to dot-mil, who are they going after?" he pondered, according to the Guardian. "Who for them are the World Trade Centers? The World Trade Centers, as they were for Al-Qaeda."

Tuesday, August 6

20:04 GMT: Over 150 civil society organizations from across the world have called on President Barack Obama to end the prosecution of the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.



“All of us ask that he is protected and not persecuted,” the executive director of the Article 19 campaign for freedom of information, Dr. Agnes Callamard, stated on behalf of numerous international organizations.



According to civil rights activists, Snowden's disclosures have triggered a “much-needed public debate” about online mass surveillance.



However, “rather than address this gross abuse, the US government has chosen to shoot the messenger,” Callamard noted, adding that “the knock-on effect will be to encourage others to follow by example.”



“States that have even less regard for their citizens will justify attacks on those who put themselves at significant risk to expose wrongdoing and corruption or raise matters of serious public concern,” she warned, urging President Obama to protect Snowden and other whistleblowers and initiate a public investigation into the legality of the NSA's actions.

Saturday, August 3

07:00 GMT: British spies working from the government’s GCHQ eavesdropping station will have to answer to MP’s about payments made by the US government and what was expected in return, according to Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the parliamentary spy watchdog the Intelligence and Security Committee

Friday, August 2

15:33 GMT: Lon Snowden, father of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, has not yet applied for a Russian visa, Russia’s embassy in the US reports.

“So far he has not applied to us,” Yevgeny Khorishko, press-attaché of the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington, told the Interfax news agency. Edward Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, said earlier that an official invitation for Lon Snowden to visit Russia would be sent to the Russian Embassy in Washington by the evening of August 2.

14:06 GMT: Edward Snowden’s legal representative Anatoly Kucherena said the former CIA employee still cannot go out or move freely because of security concerns.

“The level of threat that he [Snowden] is under does not let him calmly go out and walk on Red Square, or go fishing somewhere,” Kucherena stressed, refuting rumors that Snowden has already visited a night club.

However, Snowden has free Internet access as an “absolutely free man, not restrained in his rights,” the lawyer added.

Kucherena also said he does not rule out that Snowden might seek medical attention.

“He certainly needs to undertake some course of treatment, but the decision is up to him,” Kucherena said, adding that Snowden’s condition is “overall normal.”

12:55 GMT: A new photo of Edward Snowden leaving Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport has appeared in Russian media.

New #Snowden photo from the Russian newspaper "Izvestia" pic.twitter.com/ltbBuLAQmL — Pierre Côté (@pierrecote) August 2, 2013

12:10 GMT: Russian Presidential aide Yury Ushakov met with US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul to discuss the new status of former CIA employee Edward Snowden, who was granted temporary asylum in the Russian Federation.

McFaul and Ushakov also discussed other issues pertaining to Russian-American relations, such as the present situation in Syria, missile defense, nuclear arms reduction, human rights and bilateral trade, the US embassy in Moscow reported.

11:02 GMT: Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden feels good and is absolutely safe, says his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who refused to disclose Snowden’s whereabouts.



“He’s on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Kucherena said, adding that the time has not come to disclose Snowden’s location due to “security matters.”

Snowden has everything he needs, Kucherena stressed, and so far “he needs neither new shirts, nor trousers.”

Thursday, August 1

23:43 GMT: The numerous reports in the US press of members of Congress going on TV and expressing their outrage was a quite predictable outcome of Russia's decision to grant Snowden asylum, Daniel Wagner, CEO of Country Risk Solutions told RT.

“This is predictable, it’s to be expected. And in a sense there is no other response that many of them would have. That said, there was a poll that came out just this week by Quinnipiac which said that 55 per cent of the American people view Mr. Snowden as a whistleblower rather than a traitor, and that fits very well with a poll that was just released in Moscow where more than half of Russian people view him favorably,” Wagner said.

“So, I think that there’s going to be some stomping of feet on the other side of the Atlantic, but if you ask the average person they’re probably going to say he’s doing more good than harm.”





19:48 GMT: US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, has discussed Washington’s position on the Snowden standoff with the Russian government, Marie Harf, State Department spokeswoman, said.



She stressed that the US government didn’t want the issue “to broadly negatively affect our bilateral relationship,” but added that the current situation “behoves us to evaluate where the relationship is.”



Harf also said that Russia didn’t notify the US in advance of its decision to grant asylum to Snowden.



18:55 GMT: The EU has declined to comment on the situation around Edward Snowden’s asylum in Russia.



“All I can say is that it’s a bilateral issue between the US and Russia,” Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told Interfax.



18:53 GMT: Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist responsible for publishing some of Snowden’s first leaks, has slammed the mainstream media for making groundless accusations that the NSA leaker has provided information to Russia and China.



We have zero evidence that China or Russia got any data from Snowden - & he denies it - but we'll just keep saying it anyway #USJournalism — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 1, 2013

18:42 GMT: US Democratic senator, Charles Schumer, says the G20 summit, which is scheduled to take place in Saint Petersburg on September 5-6, should be moved from Russia after it granted asylum to Snowden.



"Russia has stabbed us in the back, and each day that Mr Snowden is allowed to roam free is another twist of the knife," Schumer, the Senate's third-ranking Democrat, said in a statement. "Given Russia's decision today, the president should recommend moving the G20 summit.”



18:20 GMT: Next week’s talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, are “up in the air” after Moscow granted temporary asylum to Edward Snowden, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.



18:15 GMT: US Senator John McCain expressed his outrage with Snowden’s Russian asylum and demanded Washington re-examine its relations with Moscow and “strip away the illusions that many Americans have had about Russia.”



“Russia’s action today is a disgrace and a deliberate effort to embarrass the United States,” he said. “It is a slap in the face of all Americans. Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Putin’s Russia. We need to deal with the Russia that is, not the Russia we might wish for.”

Snowden stays in the land of transparency and human rights. Time to hit that reset button again #Russia — John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) August 1, 2013

McCain’s proposed countermeasures include, expansion of the Magnitsky Act, completion of all phases of the US missile defense programs in Eastern Europe and support for Russian “dissidents” like Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Aleksey Navalny.



18:07 GMT: The White House is re-evaluating if US President, Barack Obama, needs to participate in the autumn summit with Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, White House spokesperson, Jay Carney, said.



He stressed the US is “extremely disappointed that the Russian government” has granted temporary asylum to Edward Snowden, adding that the “unfortunate development” undermines the record of law enforcement cooperation between the two states.



Carney also said that Washington doesn’t want “Mr Snowden to become a problem” in US relations with Russia, which cover “important and broad” issues.



The govts US has threatened over Snowden: China, Hong Kong, Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, now Russia https://t.co/XpfAc5JRpt — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 1, 2013

17:59 GMT: The NSA has made hush-hush payments of at least $150 million to Britain’s GCHQ spying agency over the past three years to influence British intelligence gathering operations, new Snowden leaks published by The Guardian revealed.



17:02 GMT: It was “very difficult” mentally for Edward Snowden to stay at in Sheremetyevo airport’s transit zone for over a month, whistleblower’s lawyer told the reporters.



Anatoly Kucherena also promised the NSA leaker would personally talk to the media as soon as he gets the chance.



“He [Snowden] asked me to thank everyone, and to ask the journalists personally not to take offence at him, and to understand that the question of security is his priority at the moment,” he said. "As soon as he gets the opportunity to do an interview, we will surely organize it. We have already discussed this issue."



17:01 GMT: Snowden’s legal representative, Anatoly Kucherena, urged the media not to “confuse notions” by saying the NSA leaker was granted “political asylum” in Russia.



“First of all, I’d like to tell you that this is not a political asylum, because today, and I regret to say this, the mass media sometimes confuses the notions and people can’t understand what the issue is about,” he stressed. “Today Edward Snowden has received the papers, which guarantee him a temporary, one-year asylum on the territory of the Russian Federation. It means, that during this time Snowden will be able to live on the territory of the Russian Federation wherever he wants to – from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad, for example, because he himself choses the place to live.”



16:16 GMT: WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has called Russian asylum for Edward Snowden “another victory” in the fight against the Obama administration, which is waging a war on the whistleblowers.



"This is another victory in the fight against Obama’s war on whistleblowers. This battle has been won, but the war continues,” Assange told WikiLeaks website. “The United States can no longer continue the surveillance of world citizens and its digital colonization of sovereign nations. The public will no longer stand for it. Whistleblowers will continue to appear until the government abides by its own laws and rhetoric."



16:15 GMT: A statement by the WikiLeaks reveals the words Edward Snowden said after he was handed the Russian asylum certificate.



"Over the past eight weeks we have seen the Obama administration show no respect for international or domestic law, but in the end the law is winning,” the NSA leaker stressed. “I thank the Russian Federation for granting me asylum in accordance with its laws and international obligations."

WikiLeaks Statement Giving Details on Edward #Snowden’s Successful Russian Asylum Bid http://t.co/w23PUwOTkj — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 1, 2013

14:36 GMT: Latest roundup on NSA scandal:

15:30 GMT: Edward Snowden’s father, Lonnie Snowden, told the Rossiya 24 news channel that he’s “thankful to the Russian nation and President Vladimir Putin” for granting one-year asylum to his son, who is wanted on espionage charges in the US.



14:28 GMT: Russia’s biggest social network, VKontakte (VK), has offered Edward Snowden a job in personal data protection.



“We invite Edward Snowden to Saint Petersburg and we’ll be happy if he decides to join the star-team of VKontakte programmers,” the network’s founder, Pavel Durov, wrote on his VK page. “After all, VK is the most popular European Internet company. I think it’ll be interesting for Edward to be engaged in the protection of the personal data of our users.”



14:22 GMT: An image is released of Edward Snowden leaving Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after being granted a one-year asylum in Russia.





14:01 GMT: Republican senator for Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, believes that Russia’s decision to grant Snowden temporary asylum would harm relations between Moscow and Washington.



“I think it probably hurts the relationship, you know he’s undoubtedly in my mind a traitor to our country and probably most of what he knows, the Russians already know… It’s a goldmine for them,” he said on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’.

13:29 GMT: Russia’s Federal Migration service officially confirms that Edward Snowden has been granted a temporary asylum in Russia.



13:00 GMT: Edward Snowden can’t be extradited to the US, even if with an official request from Washington, after he has received one-year asylum in Russia, the source in Russian law enforcement agencies tells the Itar-Tass news agency.



"Receiving temporary asylum protects Snowden from deportation because, by law, the person receiving asylum can’t be returned against his will to his former place of residence or to the country whose citizenship he previously held,” the source said.



12:42 GMT: Ties between Moscow and Washington will not be affected by Edward Snowden being granted one-year asylum in Russia, Vladimir Putin's aide Yury Ushakov said.



"Our president has expressed the hope many times that this will not affect the character of our relations," Ushakov tells reporters, adding that there is no sign that US President Barack Obama will cancel his planned visit to Moscow in September.



"This situation is rather insignificant and won’t influence political relations," Ushakov says.



12:30 GMT: WikiLeaks thanks everybody who has assisted the NSA whistleblower in Russia.



We would like to thank the Russian people and all those others who have helped to protect Mr. Snowden. We have won the battle--now the war. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 1, 2013

12:22 GMT: Snowden’s lawyer Anatoly Kucherena shows a copy of his client’s Edward immigration services release paper to the press.



The document allows the whistleblower to stay in Russia until at least July 31, 2014. His asylum status may be extended annually on request.

11:55 GMT: Edward Snowden has left the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport where he has been holed up since June 23, RT’s crew at the scene confirms.



The whistleblower was unaccompanied when he left the airport in a regular taxi, Snowden’s legal representative Anatoly Kucherena says.



Snowden’s place of residence in Russia won’t be disclosed to the public as he is among the most wanted people in the world, Kucherena adds.



11:53 GMT: The NSA leaker has been granted one-year asylum in Russia, Snowden’s legal representative Anatoly Kucherena announces.

FLASH: Edward Snowden has successfully acquired refugee status in Russia and will shortly leave the airport. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 1, 2013

11:51 GMT: Edward Snowden has been issued papers, allowing him to enter Russian territory, according to his legal representative in the country.



“I have just handed over to him papers from the Russian Immigration Service. They are what he needs to leave the transit zone,” Interfax reports Anatoly Kucherena as saying.

Wednesday, July 31

16:13 GMT: On the same morning that the United States Senate grilled the nation’s top investigators about domestic surveillance, the Director of National Intelligence declassified three documents detailing those programs “in the interest of increased transparency.”

14:42 GMT: No one has been fired and no one offered to resign in light of the fact that former security contractor Edward Snowden was able to take large amounts of classified data from US National Security Agency computers, the deputy director of the NSA said on Wednesday. “No one has offered to resign. Everyone is working hard to understand what happened,” Reuters quoted John Inglis as saying. The official was speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

05:20 GMT: If the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden returned to the US for prosecution, he will not be granted the constitutional right of due process, his father, Lon Snowden, fears.



“The fact is no assurances have been made that he will be given a fair trial, that he deserves, or any citizen of this nation is given by our Constitution,” he told Rossiya 24 news channel during an interview in the US.

According to the elder Snowden, his son would be maltreated in US custody in the run up to the trial, similar to the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was recently found guilty on 20 offences linked to the leaking of classified US information to WikiLeaks.



“I just don’t have a high level of trust in our justice system, not only because of what has happened to my son,” Lon Snowden said.



Russia is currently considering Edward Snowden’s request for temporary asylum, while the whistleblower still remains in the transit zone of the Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.



“I feel Russia has the strength and resolve and convictions to protect my son,” Edward Snowden’s father wrapped up.

Tuesday, July 30

14:15 GMT: US whistleblower Edward Snowden was thrilled by a novel from one of Russia’s most eloquent wordsmiths, Dostoevsky. The author’s most renowned work, "Crime and Punishment", was given to the former NSA contractor by his legal representative in Russia, Anatoly Kucherena, a source close to the Public Chamber member told Interfax, adding that Snowden continues to study the Russian language and Russian history.



The 30-year-old leaker, who has been in the transit zone of the Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for over a month, asked Kucherena for a complete collection of works by the prominent historian Nikolay Karamzin.



Apart from food for thought, Kucherena has recently given Snowden a new set of clothes – clean shirts and shoes.



"Anatoly was deeply disappointed when he learned that his guess of Snowden’s shoe size was wrong, and he had to buy a new pair of shoes of a smaller size," the source said.

10:00 GMT: The Russian Justice Ministry has sent a formal response to a letter from US Attorney General Eric Holder detailing America’s position on Edward Snowden. The ministry did not provide details of its reply.

Holder’s letter was aimed at clarifying some points regarding the US case against Snowden, including the statement that the US would provide a legal guarantee that the whistleblower would not be subject to capital punishment if tried on US soil. The document did not include any requests to extradite or deport him.

09:10 GMT: The Russian Orthodox Church supports Russia’s decision to formally review Snowden’s request for political asylum despite pressure from the US to hand him over. Moscow should “defend true freedom from the global ideological dictate, the electronic concentration camp,” believes the spokesman for the Church Vsevolod Chaplin.

He lashed out at what he described as creeping rise of electronic surveillance and the control over individuals it brings, which “may become more rigid than any totalitarian system of the 20th century”.

Sunday, July 28

12:34 GMT: The thousands of people who marched in protest of a new bill that would grant the New Zealand’s government sweeping spy powers, were misinformed, Kiwi Prime Minister John Key has said playing down the nationwide protests.

"At the risk of encouraging them to have more protests, I would have actually said those numbers were quite light – it wasn't anything like what we saw for mining or anything else," he told TVNZ's Q&A program on Sunday.



"Secondly, a lot of people that would go along would be either A, politically aligned, or B, with the greatest of respect, misinformed,” he stressed.

9:30 GMT: The Russian Ministry of Justice has announced it is working on a reply to a letter it received from US Attorney General Eric Holder, in which he assured that Edward Snowden will not be tortured or given the death penalty if he is returned to the US.



The Ministry does not specify what the answer will be or when it will be sent to the US.

Saturday, July 27

17:00 GMT: The Russian Ministry of Justice said in a statement that according to the country’s laws, former CIA employer Snowden can stay inside the international transit zone for as long as he pleases, even though his travel documents were revoked by the United States.



The ministry also replied to US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul’s earlier tweet that the US was not seeking Snowden's extradition, but was instead asking for his return. The ministry explained that it could not comply with such a request, simply because the term “forced return” does not exist in international law.



"As a rule, the term 'return' in Russian law and practice is applied to voluntary entry of individuals from abroad into the country whose citizens they are," the ministry said.

14:00 GMT: Thousands of people have protested in 11 cities and towns across New Zealand against the new surveillance bill that would enable the country’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to spy on its citizens.

MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom joined the rally. He told the crowd that the government had invaded his privacy and "if they can do that to me they can do that to any of you."



Prime Minister John Key defended the bill, saying that it would give greater oversight and was "a strengthening of the previous legislation.”



12:00 GMT: Anti-NSA protests have been organized in at least 40 German cities, including Hamburg, Munich, and Berlin, with the largest rally taking place in Frankfurt. Participants responded to calls for demonstrations, which were initiated by a loose network calling itself #stopwatchingus.

The Germans have been outraged by the news that the country’s secret services helped the NSA in its massive spying, as was exposed by Der Spiegel magazine.

04:42 GMT: The US State Department does not believe that imposing international sanctions because of Snowden would be of any use, said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has recently proposed that the US State Department set penalties against those nations that seek to help former NSA contractor Edward Snowden avoid extradition to the US.

The Senate Appropriations Committee has already approved the proposal unanimously by voice vote as an amendment to 2014 diplomacy and international aid bill.

“We have not seen the text of the proposed bill, but we feel that in general legislation imposing sanctions under these circumstances would not be helpful,” Psaki shared, adding that she is not going “to make a prediction about any step we may or may not take.”

“Our focus in this specific case is having Mr. Snowden returned to the United States, and we still feel Russia has the opportunity to do that and to take the right steps,” the spokesperson stressed.

The Obama administration also has no intention to repeat the major scandal of 1980 and boycott Winter Olympic Games in Russia’s Sochi in 2014.

“That’s certainly not what we’re calling for,” the spokeswoman told journalists at a daily press briefing.

Friday, July 26

23:50 GMT: Edward Snowden’s father, Lon Snowden of Allentown, Pennsylvania, told the AP on Friday that he believed his son’s best option was now to remain in the Russian Federation. Lon Snowden had been working with attorneys to arrange for a fair trial of his son in the US, allowing for his return, but on Friday said that he had lost faith in the Obama administration and Congress after his son had been vilified. Mr. Snowden had echoed that sentiment during a Friday appearance on NBC's Today Show stating that there was a concerted effort by some members of Congress to "demonize" his son.

"If it were me, knowing what I know now, and listening to advice of sage people like [Pentagon Papers leaker] Daniel Ellsberg ... I would attempt to find a safe haven," Snowden said.

The elder Snowden, a US Coast Guard veteran, and his attorney, Bruce Fein, said they were “disgusted” by Attorney General Eric Holder’s Friday letter to Russian officials promising that Snowden would not face execution if he were extradited to the US. According to the two, that letter reflected a mindset that Snowden is presumed guilty, and that 30 years to life imprisonment is considered a reasonable punishment.

"He sacrificed everything and gained nothing," the elder Snowden told the AP. "He's done what he's done. The consequences are unavoidable, and I don't know if I can mitigate those."

16:42 GMT: US Attorney General Eric Holder has promised Moscow that Snowden will be given a fair trial, and will not be tortured or sentenced to death. The pledge was made in a diplomatic letter Holder sent earlier this week.

“The United States will not seek the death penalty for Mr. Snowden should he return to the United States. The charges he faces do not carry that possibility, and the United States would not seek the death penalty even if Mr. Snowden were charged with additional, death penalty-eligible crimes,” said the missive, which was addressed to Russian Justice Minister Aleksandr Konovalov.

In the letter, the US also promised that Snowden would receive a public jury trial in the civil courts, and would not be subjected to anything but “voluntary questioning” in the lead-up to his trial.



“Mr. Snowden will not be tortured. Torture is unlawful in the United States,” wrote the attorney general.

13:57 GMT: German President Joachim Gauck expressed concern over NSA wiretapping, called for a binding international agreement to safeguard civil rights, and said that whistleblowers like Edward Snowden deserve “respect.”

“I never thought that the fear that secure communication was no longer possible could ever arise in Germany again,” Gauck said in an interview with the Passauer Neue Presse regional newspaper, adding that he now has to question the safety of talking on the phone and sending emails openly.

“We have to make sure that even our allies’ secret services respect the boundaries we find necessary here. A binding international agreement – if that was what was needed – should be created urgently to safeguard civil rights,” the president added, urging the German government to work on such agreement.

Referring to Snowden, Gauck said: “Whoever brings information to the public and acts on grounds of conscience deserves respect.”



13:30 GMT: Russian security agency FSB is in talks with its American counterpart the FBI over Edward Snowden, but Russia has no plans to extradite the former NSA contractor to the US, said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“Russia has never extradited anyone, and will not extradite,” Peskov stressed.

When asked if Snowden will continue harming the US if granted asylum in Russia, and if the situation is going to undermine Moscow’s ties with Washington, Peskov stressed that “the head of state has expressed strong determination not to allow this.”



09:00 GMT: Germany has announced its intention to update UN data protection regulations in the wake of Edward Snowden revelations. Some top officials are also calling for a suspension of the data exchange treaty between Washington and the EU. Skeptics, though, suspect it might be little more than general election campaigning, as RT’s Peter Oliver reports from Berlin.

08:00 GMT: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, one of the three Latin American leaders to offer asylum to Snowden, exclusively told RT why the whistleblower would be welcome in his country.

“I think the threats coming from the United States work against them. It’s ridiculous. A power like the United States threatening a young man who’s had enough courage to tell the truth about something that went against his principles. A man who realized at a certain point that he could cross the line of what is called intelligence work. He understood where intelligence ends and the lawlessness begins and that lawlessness has nothing to do with secret operations or War on Terror or protecting the state interests or with the search for scientific information. A point when he saw that this is sheer madness, because it isn’t normal, it’s not like the US are forcing the Europeans’ hand in this. It’s just that they have something in common, common positions, common strategy and the same desire for global domination.“





Thursday, July 25

19:00 GMT: US district court in New York dismissed the request by US Justice Department to delay hearings concerning a lawsuit filed by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), arguing NSA surveillance program is unconstitutional. The court set a schedule according to which motions must be filed by August 26 and oral arguments will begin on November 1.

18:00 GMT: US lawmakers voted to introduce trade or other sanctions against any country offering asylum to Edward Snowden.



It was initiated by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) who earlier urged President Obama not to go to September's G20 summit in Russia - and called for a boycott of Winter Olympics in Sochi.

“I don’t know if he’s going to stay in Russia forever. I don’t know where he’s going to go... But I know this: That the right thing to do is to send him back home so he can face charges for the crimes he’s allegedly committed,” Graham said.

12:46 GMT: Google denies granting access to its data to any governments, according to the company’s Vice-President of Southern, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Carlo d'Asaro Biondo.



"We do not provide access to our systems to any governments anywhere. We believe that the debate and discussion of the issue of the protection of security data and private data is a very important matter, and we believe that in a world that is increasingly globalizing, assistance to various cultures to better understand each other is a very noble task,” he said after meeting Russian Senator Ruslan Gattarov, the head of the investigative group over possible violations of Russian legislation in the user agreement of the company.

"We heard this position, and are very pleased that we have once again built a constructive dialogue with Google," said Gattarov.

Wednesday, July 24

20:34 GMT: The NSA will continue collecting the phone data of individuals not currently under investigation. The US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to reject an amendment introduced by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan) aimed to stop domestic spying by the National Security Agency. The 205 to 217 vote in the House was preceded by a storm of lobbying by the White House against the measure.



18:50 GMT: France denies having a surveillance program similar to the NSA’s PRISM mass electronic surveillance data mining program, according to the French General Directorate for External Security (DGSE). "Allegations that the DGSE was involved in surveillance of citizens are unjustified," Senator Jean-Pierre Sueur said in a statement. He referred to reports published by Le Monde newspaper in July, which stated that the French intelligence agency intercepts and analyzes all email messages and text messages, as well as monitors social networks and telephone conversations.

18:30 GMT: The White House says the US will be deeply disappointed if Russia allows NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who is wanted in America, to leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. “Any move that would allow Mr. Snowden to depart the airport would be deeply disappointing," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. She added that US Secretary of State John Kerry took part in a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Psaki said the Obama administration wants clarification of reports stating that Snowden may leave the airport after his political asylum documents are issued.

17:55 GMT: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has been awarded the "Whistleblower Prize" by the German branch of human rights organization Transparency International. Established in 1999, the prize comes with 3,000 euros of prize money. It is given to those who "reveal grave abuses and dangerous developments for people and society, democracy, peace and the environment in the public interest.” The organization’s representatives say the award money will be passed on to Snowden.

14:20 GMT: Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena says Snowden's asylum bid is still being reviewed by immigration authorities and that the whistleblower will have to stay at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, but confirmed that the NSA-leaker will live in Russia. He assured that Snowden is staying in good conditions.

However, Kucherena did not give any specific date when documents should be issued. Asked about reasons for that, he explained that the delay in issuing all necessary documents to Snowden is due to the uniqueness of the situation.

13:55 GMT: Watch more from RT’s special coverage from Sheremetyevo Airport:

13:21 GMT: Snowden has produced documents to Sheremetyevo border control, Interfax source says.



"Documents have been taken from Snowden, most likely for border control registration," the source said.

13:07 GMT: Snowden has been issued his travel documents from Russia’s Immigration Service, the source told Interfax.

“They talked and Mr. Kucherena handed Snowden a package with documents, among which was the certificate that now allows him to leave the transit zone and go through Russian customs.”

13:02 GMT: Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena has entered the transit zone at Sheremetyevo Airport and has met Edward Snowden.



“Mr. Kucherena is in the transit zone, currently talking to Snowden,” Interfax news agency quoted its source as saying.

12:39 GMT: Anatoly Kucherena said he will not comment until he talks to Snowden.



“I am now walking to Snowden and after the consultation with him I will be able to tell you something,” he said.

12:38 GMT: Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena walking through Sheremetyevo Airport:



12:36 GMT: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who has been stranded at a Moscow airport since last month, is expected to be issued his travel documents. Russia’s Immigration Service, however, is declining to comment if such a paper has been issued for Snowden. Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena is currently at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, where the documents have reportedly been brought.



11:06 GMT: Russia is surprised by US statements that there are grounds for extradition of the NSA leaker Edward Snowden, diplomatic sources told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.



"The Secretary of State said that in 2007-2012, the United States gave us some 1,754 people and was ready to extradite another 101 offenders. But when we contacted the State Department and other US agencies with a request to provide comprehensive lists, they only made a helpless gesture,” the source noted.



The source added that in Snowden’s case Washington has confused routine extradition with deportation of foreigners who have violated US laws.

Tuesday, July 23

21:22 GMT: An Iranian NGO named “Justice-Seekers without Borders” has invited former CIA employee Edward Snowden to visit Iran in order to reveal the details of the US intelligence operations against Iran.



"Since one of the United States' illegal actions disclosed by you is spying on the Iranian citizens, we invite you to visit Iran and elaborate on the US administration's measures in this regard in detail," the NGO said in a letter to Snowden.



‘Justice-Seekers without Borders’ expressed pleasure in the US failure in detain Snowden, and stressed that the Iranian people will remain beside those who fight for truth and pay the price for their resistance, Fars reported.



Tehran slammed the US for conducting espionage operations against Iran after Snowden’s revelations according to which Iran was the country where the largest amount of intelligence was gathered.



"...Iran has always been one of the targets of the US espionage operations and the US officials have repeatedly pointed to this issue," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi said earlier this month. "This move is not acceptable at all," he added.

Monday, July 22

17:30 GMT: RT has developed an interactive map showing the countries being spied on, those aiding the US in their surveillance operations, and those both being surveilled and helping the US simultaneously.



15:50 GMT: Edward Snowden has expressed hope that he will be granted documents which will allow him to leave the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport by Wednesday, according to his Russian lawyer who spoke to Reuters on Monday.

"He should get this certificate (allowing him to leave the airport) shortly," Anatoly Kucherena said. Kucherena helped the former NSA contractor file a request for temporary asylum in Russia on July 16. If successful, Snowden will be able to finally leave for the city center after a month-long stay at Sheremetyevo which has strained US-Russian relations. His bid for temporary asylum could take three months to process, but the preliminary response to his request will allow him to leave through customs.

Sunday, July 21

16:33 GMT: Der Speigel magazine has revealed German intelligence operated one of NSA’s spying programs. Chancellor Angela Merkel had denied any previous knowledge of NSA’s tactics, adding that she first learned about them through the media.

Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, along with the domestic intelligence agency the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), used American National Security Agency’s (NSA) XKeyScore program, according to Spiegel which claims to have seen the US intelligence service’s secret documents.

Saturday, July 20

06:20 GMT Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega advised Barack Obama to beware of the FBI, which might be spying on the US President. "I tell President Obama to take care...for sure they are spying on him," Ortega said during a speech to mark the 34th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution.

Ortega extended his warning to other high-level officials in the Obama Administration as well as lawmakers, saying there is nothing new in the FBI keeping tabs on America’s top political figures since the agency’s very first director J. Edgar Hoover “spied on those who were candidates for the Presidency”.

The FBI is filing dirty laundry on every American politician so once a candidate wins the presidency, he has a talk with the FBI chief, who reveals what dirt he has on the president-elect, Ortega explained. This system of blackmail is why a new president has no real power over the ‘intelligence apparatus’.

Ortega also slammed the US for its disproportionate reaction to Edward Snowden's revelations.

"I wonder what else he [Snowden] knows? How much horrifying information is there that they want to prosecute and convict him in the US, where the death penalty is an option?" Ortega asked

Wednesday, July 17

17:20 GMT: A recent poll carried out by 'All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion' showed that thirty nine percent of Russians think that Russia should not extradite Snowden to the US, while 18 percent believe Moscow has to hand him over to Washington. Fifty nine percent out of 1, 500 people questioned could identify the whistleblower. According to the poll, twenty seven percent state that Russia should grant political asylum to Snowden, twenty three are against it, while every second respondent found it difficult to answer this question.

13:15 GMT: Senator Lindsay Graham, suggestets that the USA shoud boycott the winter Olympics in Sochi because of the Edward Snowden affair. Several Russian MPs and members of the country’s National Olympic Committee have harshly criticized the senator's proposal and said they are sure that the US authorities would ignore senator Grahams words.

"Graham: US should consider Olympic boycott over possible #Snowden asylum" Last boycott was re Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Irony? #tlot — Gov. Gary Johnson (@GovGaryJohnson) July 17, 2013

09:10 GMT: According to Anatoly Kucherena, the lawyer who is assisting Snowden, the whistleblower has no plans to leave Russia yet and he doesn’t exclude the future possibility of “asking for Russian citizenship.”

In an interview to RT , Snowden’s lawyer stressed that the Russian decision to review the asylum request was based on the “human rights” aspect of the issue, as the US still administers capital punishment and torture.

“When asked a question by the FMS agent why he chose to file a petition in Russia and why he came here, he replied that he fears for his life and wellbeing, that he is also afraid of torture, and that he could get executed.”

Snowden applied for a temporary asylum, and if the Russian Migration Service rules in favor, then he will receive asylum status for one year, Kucherena said adding that Snowden could leave the confinement of the airport after he receives proper paperwork, meaning that “he does not have to wait for a final decision on his petition.”

08:25 GMT: Russian President Vladimir Putin said that relations between Moscow and Washington are more important than the intelligence service spat, especially regarding Snowden affair. Putin reiterated the whistleblower was aware Moscow would not tolerate any activity aimed to damage US-Russian relations.

When asked how the Russian authorities would control the NSA leaker’s activity, the President said , "I won’t give you any details. We have warned Snowden that any activity of his that could damage US-Russian relations is unacceptable for us.”

08:04 GMT: The US has sent extradition requests for Edward Snowden to Bolivia, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Ireland and Iceland, WikiLeaks wrote via Twitter.



07:43 GMT: The White House has warned that Russian-US relations could suffer if cooperation in the Snowden affair is not forthcoming.



“The Russian government has an opportunity here to work with us,” press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing. “This should not be something that causes long-term problems for U.S.-Russian relations.”

Tuesday, July 16

23:58 GMT: White House officials made it clear Tuesday that the administration’s frustration with Russia playing host to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is mounting. Press Secretary Jay Carney said that, no longer allowing Snowden to stay in the Moscow airport, Russia could “resolve this situation that they have been dealing with now for three weeks.”

He added, ominously, that that two countries been “engaging on a number of important issues, both economic and security issues, and we want to continue that relationship unimpeded by this issue.”

“The Russian government has an opportunity here to work with us,” Carney said. “This should not be something that causes long-term problems for US-Russian relations.”

19:55 GMT: A long-serving United States senator Gordon Humphrey has sent a letter of support to the NSA contractor, according to correspondence published by the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald, saying “you have done the right thing in exposing what I regard as massive violation of the United States Constitution.”

19:41 GMT: Microsoft has asked US Attorney General for more freedom to disclose how it handles requests from national security organizations for customer data, the Corporation said. It follows the Guardian newspaper report, citing Edward Snowden leaked documents, that the world's largest software company allowed US security agencies to break an encryption of Outlook emails and capture Skype online chats, Reuters reports. Microsoft said there were "significant inaccuracies" in media reports last week and argued that it does not allow any government direct or indirect access to customers' emails, instant messages or data.

17:39 GMT: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration concerning the NSA surveillance program. The company’s attorneys are demanding the White House stop the dragnet surveillance programs operated by the NSA.

16:10 GMT: The mother of Konstantin Yaroshenko, the pilot found guilty of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the US and sentenced by an American court to 20 years in prison, has asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to exchange Edward Snowden for her son. Lubov Yaroshenko told RIA Novosti that she believed that the US will agree to such an exchange, because America needs Snowden more than her son.



“Why do we need this Snowden,” she said.

Lubov Yaroshenko believes that for Russia, Snowden will mean deterioration of relations with the US. Earlier the leader of the populist-nationalist party LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky suggested the same exchange, but he said that Russia could ask to return both Konstantin Yaroshenko and another Russian citizen Viktor Bout, who is serving 25 years prison term for attempting to sell heavy weapons to a Colombian terrorist group. Russia has slammed sentences to both its citizens, calling the cases “groundless” and “politically motivated” and vowed to take measures to return the men home.

14:18 GMT: The multinational Internet corporation Yahoo! has won a court case ordering the release of US intelligence records in a bid to prove the firm attempted to resist handing over customer data to be used in the NSA surveillance program PRISM.

"The Government shall conduct a declassification review of this Court's Memorandum Opinion of [Yahoo's case] and the legal briefs submitted by the parties to this Court," the ruling read.

13:00 GMT: The Russian Migration Service (FMS) confirmed it has received whistleblower Edward Snowden’s application for temporary asylum. The FMS promised to review his application within a three month period. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin has expressed hope that Russian-US relations will develop in a positive manner despite the latest development, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

09:33 GMT: The former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is going to submit his application for asylum to Russia in the upcoming days, said lawyer and Public Chamber member Anatoly Kucherena.

Snowden will be able to submit the application in person as the office of the Federal Migration Service is situated in the transit zone of the Sheremetyevo Airport, where he has been holed up for more than three weeks after the US government revoked his passport shortly before departing for Moscow.

On July, 12, Kucherena, together with other human right activists, met the whistleblower in Sheremetyevo Airport. Kucherena, who consulted Snowden and provided legal aid to the former NSA contractor regarding his asylum bid, continues to actively support the whistleblower.

Monday, July 15

19:33 GMT: The people must join the likes of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange in their fight against Big Brother if they want to have some privacy in the future, software freedom activist and founder of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, said in an interview with RT’s SophieCo program.



“Thanks to Snowden, we know that in some cases, specifically phone calls, the US government is actually doing this [digital surveillance], and we know that there are other governments that do surveillance without even the flimsy limits of the US government – so I’m tremendously happy to see that Snowden has called the public’s attention to this injustice, because our cause now has more momentum. We might, maybe, be able to stop this,” he said.



12:30 GMT: Europe needs stronger data protection laws to win back the trust of citizens damaged by the revelations of the NSA's PRISM and other spying programs, EU Vice President Viviane Reding said at DLDWomen, a conference bridging media, technology and women's issues. Reding called the NSA-leak by whistle blower Edward Snowden “a wakeup call” that will spark even stronger regulations in Europe to protect personal data from government surveillance.

“We do not want the US government to listen to every phone call we make and read every email," Reding said. “Data protection in Europe is a fundamental right… Strong rules allow trust and, in the internet world, without trust you cannot go ahead.”

“Big data can be big business only if the trust of the consumers comes back,” she added.

12:15 GMT: Human Rights Watch Russia’s Tatyana Lokshina says she has been getting flooded with letters of support and offers of assistance for Edward Snowden, since being part of a meeting between the whistleblower and Russian civil society representatives.



“I have been inundated with letters from Snowden’s fans. One man wrote to me that he is a re-location specialist, and has asked me to pass his details onto Snowden.”

11:56 GMT: Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) knew about US surveillance and used the data collected by National Security Agency (NSA) to get information about Germans kidnapped abroad, according to Bild daily. The paper’s sources in the US government said the BND had requested the NSA for the email and telephone records of German citizens kidnapped in Yemen or Afghanistan to set their location. The problem became widely discussed as German Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed during her third re-election campaign that she had never known of NSA spying on German citizens. A poll last week by the Forsa opinion research institute indicated four out of five Germans think the government deceived them by claiming it wasn’t aware of NSA spying.

11:33 GMT: Edward Snowden has decided not to make public "literally thousands of documents" that could “harm the US government,” The Guardian newspaper columnist Glenn Greenwald told AP. The disclosure of the information "would allow somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it," the columnist said. He previously said the documents had been encrypted to help ensure their safekeeping.

Sunday, July 14

19:44 GMT: The chairman of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, Michael McCaul, urged the Obama administration to exert "any and all pressure" on Russia - including economic measures - to persuade Moscow to hand over Edward Snowden.



The Republican congressman told Fox News Sunday that he believes that Russia is "making a mockery" of US foreign policy, extracting “more and more information” from the NSA leaker on a daily basis.



He also accused Obama of failing to develop an acceptable relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has prompted Russia to “thumb their nose at the United States.”

19:40 GMT: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused to compare US electronic surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden last month with the activities of the defunct East German security agency Stasi.

“Such comparisons only lead to a trivialization of what the Stasi did to people,” the politician told Die Welt magazine.

The parallel has been widely drawn by German journalists and politicians, and internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom collaborated with visual artist Oliver Bienkowski to project the words 'United Stasi of America' onto the walls of the American embassy in Berlin earlier this week.

Saturday July 13

23:50 GMT: Bolivian President Evo Morales has said that the US government has access to the correspondence of top authorities in his country, adding that he has shut down his own email.

"Those US intelligence agents have accessed the emails of our most senior authorities in Bolivia,” Morales said in a speech at the Mercosur regional summit in Montevideo.

"It was recommended to me that I not use email, and I've followed suit and shut it down," he said.

Speaking at the summit, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman also said that more than 100 of his country's officials were under electronic surveillance from a nation he did not name.

07:47 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that to obtain political asylum in Russia, former-CIA employee Edward Snowden must apply to the Federal Migration Service (FMS). "Russian laws require a certain procedure, and the first step is to appeal to the Federal Migration Service," Lavrov told the journalists on Saturday.



"We are not in contact with Snowden; the issues that he discussed with the Russian activists yesterday were widely covered by the media, and I learned from them just like anyone else," he added.



08:08 GMT: Edward Snowden has not appealed to the Russian Migration Service for asylum, the head of the organization, Konstantin Romodanovsky, told Interfax on Saturday. "To date, there have been no appeals submitted by Snowden yet. If an application arrives, it will be considered in accordance with the law," Romodanovsky added.



03:49 GMT: In accordance with Russia’s stipulation for granting Snowden temporary asylum, the NSA whistleblower has indicated he is willing to stop leaking documents that would 'damage the US.' Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who has been in contact with Snowden and was the first to publish the disclosures, has said he still has yet to publish all of the information the former NSA contractor turned over.

“There are many, many more domestic stories coming, and big ones, and soon,” Greenwald wrote in an email to Politico on Friday. “I’d deal with that hypothetical only in the extremely unlikely event that it ever happened, but I can’t foresee anything that would or could stop me from further reporting on the NSA documents I have.”

03:48 GMT: South American countries belonging to the Mercosur trade bloc have announced they will withdraw their ambassadors for consultations from European countries involved in the grounding of the Bolivian president’s plane, which came after a US ambassador told several countries he thought Snowden was aboard. The decision to recall European ambassadors was agreed upon by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, and Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica during a summit meeting on July 12.

Friday, July 12

19:00 GMT: Russia’s pro-Snowden activists came out to demonstrate against US secret eavesdropping methods and the hunt for the whistleblower.

18:20 GMT: South America’s leading trade bloc Mercosur responded to recent allegations of US spying in the region by issuing a statement rejecting telephone bugging and Internet espionage as a violation of human rights, Reuters reports.

18:18 GMT: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has made her first comment on the Snowden case.

She said people need to be sure their communications are not being unduly scrutinized, and called on all countries to respect the right to seek asylum.

“While concerns about national security and criminal activity may justify the exceptional and narrowly-tailored use of surveillance programs, surveillance without adequate safeguards to protect the right to privacy actually risk impacting negatively on the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” Pillay stated, as quoted by Reuters.

17:20 GMT: President Barack Obama will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin later Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. The phone call has been scheduled for several days. According to Carney, the Obama administration has been communicating with different nations, letting them know that the US would like Snowden to be returned to face charges in the United States, Reuters reports.

17:18 GMT: Washington says that Russia granting political asylum to Snowden would be on par with providing the NSA leaker with a “propaganda platform” to further harm the US.

White House spokesperson Jay Carney said the administration’s position on the whistleblower remains the same, believing that Snowden should be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage.

17:02 GMT: Washington denies that US diplomats asked Human Rights Watch to deliver a message to Snowden.



“We simply explained our position on Snowden to a representative of Human Rights Watch,” a source at the US Department of State told Interfax.



15:21 GMT: Prior to the Friday meeting, the American Embassy in Moscow called some of the meeting’s participants, asking them to deliver the US position to Snowden, Public Chamber member Olga Kostina told journalists. Washington considers Snowden to be a law violator rather than a rights advocate, she said.



Human Rights Watch representative Tatyana Lokshina said she was also contacted via telephone on behalf of the US Ambassador to Moscow.



14:59 GMT:

14:53 GMT: Russia should grant Snowden political or temporary asylum, believes the State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin.

“I consider Edward Snowden a human rights activist, who advocates for the rights of millions and millions of people in the whole world,” he said, as cited by Interfax.

The Duma speaker noted that in the US – which has been demanding the NSA leaker’s extradition – Snowden could face the death penalty.

“We simply have no right to permit that,” Naryshkin added.

14:26 GMT: If Snowden is given political asylum in Russia, the relations between Moscow and Washington are likely to worsen, political analyst Dmitry Babich told RT.

“Certainly it will have a negative impact. But any objective observer can notice Russia did not want this scandal. Russia did not want to have one more impediment in these relations with the US,” he said.

14:24 GMT: WikiLeaks website is to publish on Friday evening Edward Snowden’s address to human rights activists and lawyers he made earlier in the day at the Sheremetyevo Airport.

14:20 GMT: Edward Snowden has not yet submitted any documents to the Russian Migration Service, the organization’s representative Zalina Kornilova told Itar-Tass.

14:01 GMT: Edward Snowden has agreed to Moscow’s condition to stop activities harming the US, says Russian lawmaker Vyacheslav Nikonov, who took part in Moscow the meeting with the former CIA employee.

“He said he is aware of that condition and it would be easy for him to accept it. He is not going to harm the US because he is a patriot of his country,” Nikonov told journalists after the gathering.

Tatyana Lokshina of Human Rights Watch, answering a journalist’s question if Snowden has any more revelations replied: “He says that his job is done.”

13:59 GMT: The NSA leaker has already written a request for political asylum in Russia, and Russian law allows it to be granted, says the head of the Public Chamber’s commission Anatoly Kucherena. The lawyer added he is going to assist Snowden with his bid.

13:45 GMT: Snowden’s meeting with human rights activists and lawyers is over.

13:43 GMT: Kremlin has not yet received Edward’s Snowden application for political asylum in Russia, president Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov says. The conditions remain the same though, he added. Earlier, Putin said that Russia would grant the NSA leaker asylum if he stops activities aimed at “harming our American partners.”

13:24 GMT: Snowden announces he is going to ask for political asylum in Russia, says a participant of the meeting between the NSA leaker and rights advocates at the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, as cited by RIA Novosti.

“He wants to stay here until he can fly to Latin America,” Tatyana Lokshina of Human Rights Watch told Interfax. During the meeting, he asked the rights advocates to help him with the bid.

13:03 GMT: Edward Snowden is meeting with rights advocates and lawyers. The gathering is taking place behind closed doors at Sheremetyevo’s Terminal F transit zone, reports Itar-Tass. Thirteen representatives of public organizations are participating, according to the airport’s press service.

Эдвард Сноуден. Фото: Татьяна Локшина из " Human Rights Watch" (Guardian) pic.twitter.com/OsfTHxn16B — Rundschau (@Rundschau) July 12, 2013

12:59 GMT: Rights advocates and lawyers are being taken to the meeting with Edward Snowden at Sheremetyevo Airport.

“We were taken to the airfield and got on a bus,” Tatyana Lokshina of Human Rights Watch told Interfax.

12:15 GMT: Russian and international human rights advocates and lawyers are gathering at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport for a meeting with Snowden, which is scheduled for 5pm Moscow time (13:00 GMT). The NSA leaker is expected to speak out about the US persecution campaign.

Rights advocates, including representatives of Amnesty International, Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and other organizations, as well as well-known Russian lawyers, agreed to meet with the former CIA employee.

7:01 GMT: Edward Snowden will meet with representatives from Russian human rights organizations in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, report airport officials.

“Edward Snowden wishes to express his thoughts on the US campaign for his capture that has put other passengers heading to Latin America at risk as a result,” a source told Interfax.

#Snowden to express his thoughts on a campaign against him, unleashed by US, and to make a statement, details of which unknown right now — Irina Galushko (@IrinaGalushkoRT) July 12, 2013

02:30 GMT: A two-day US-China summit in Washington took a surprising turn when a US senior official used the opportunity to voice his disappointment with China regarding whistleblower Edward Snowden. The former CIA employee was allowed to fly out of Hong Kong despite a US extradition request.

"We were disappointed with how the authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong handled the Snowden case, which undermined our effort to build the trust needed to manage difficult issues," US Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns said.

China’s State Councilor, Yang Jiechi, responded by saying that Hong Kong’s actions had been in accordance with the law.

“Its approach is beyond reproach,” Jiechi said of Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous territory of the Chinese mainland.

Snowden fled Hong Kong for Moscow on June 23. At the time, Hong Kong authorities explained that despite a US request for a provisional arrest warrant, "there [was] no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

Thursday, July 11

18:20 GMT: Venezuela “has not received a formal reply from Snowden” regarding its offer of asylum, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua told Reuters on Thursday.

Snowden has to “ratify his wish to take asylum in Venezuela,” which should be followed by negotiations with the Russian government “to make the asylum possible,” Jaua previously said.



09:21 GMT: Millions of government employees will now be forced to spy on their colleagues for whistleblower tendencies - that's according to the 'Insider Threat Program', President Obama's initiative, which causes concerns, even among the officials, RT’s Gayane Chichakyan reported.

05:31 GMT: For the first time, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about the NSA spying scandal to German weekly Die Zeit, stressing that the work of intelligence agencies is essential to the safety of citizens.



She also sharply rejected comparisons of the US surveillance program with East German spying methods.



Preventing terrorist attacks is not possible "without the possibility of telecommunications monitoring," she told the weekly. "The work of intelligence agencies in democratic states was always vital to the safety of citizens and will remain so in the future."



04:37 GMT: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto indicated that if allegations were proven that the United States had spied on its southern neighb