Julian Assange and WikiLeaks paid for Snowden's lodging and travel in Hong Kong. Free Software Foundation "Germany blocks Snowden — why we advised Snowden to take Russia. Not safe elsewhere." —WikiLeaks on Twitter

WikiLeaks just tore a huge hole in the narrative surrounding Edward Snowden.

Up to this point, Snowden and his closest supporters have contended that the 30-year-old American left Hong Kong for Moscow with the intention of flying to Latin America.

"I was traveling with him on our way to Latin America when the United States revoked his passport, stranding him in Russia," said Sarah Harrison, the WikiLeaks adviser who met Snowden in Hong Kong and accompanied him to Moscow on June 23.

There had already been issues with this assertion, primarily that the U.S. revoked Snowden's passport on June 22, and the unsigned Ecuadorian travel document acquired for Snowden by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — ostensibly for safe passage to Latin America — was void when Snowden landed in Moscow. Consequently, he had no valid travel documents when he landed.

And now WikiLeaks, in response to Germany's refusal to host Snowden for a surveillance hearing, seems to have acknowledged that the "on our way to Latin America" story isn't true.

Assange told Janet Reitman of Rolling Stone magazine as much in December when the Australian publisher said he advised Snowden against going to Latin America because "he would be physically safest in Russia."

WikiLeaks then told Business Insider that the Ecuadorian document was meant to help Snowden leave Hong Kong, even though Snowden's camp says that his passport was still good when he left Hong Kong.

WikiLeaks has not explained why it believes Russia was the only place in the world that Snowden could go, but it's noteworthy that WikiLeaks and the Kremlin share a bizarre alliance.

In any case, we now have a better idea of how and why Snowden, a valuable intelligence asset, ended up in the hands of Russia's security services.



(h/t Wilson_Valdez)