Article content

WASHINGTON — An apparent international cat-and-mouse game was in play Monday following the confession of Edward Snowden, a former CIA tech expert who leaked details of top-secret American surveillance programs to two news organizations and then hunkered down in a Hong Kong hotel.

Snowden, 29, stepped forward over the weekend as the source of leaks to Britain’s the Guardian and the Washington Post about the U.S. government’s sweeping monitoring of cellphone logs and Web servers in apparent counter-terrorism efforts.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Hong Kong tells NSA leaker Edward Snowden he’d be wise to leave Back to video

Hong Kong, a former British colony returned to China in 1997, has an extradition treaty with the United States. But China has the ultimate say over extradition requests in cases where the country’s foreign interests could be at stake.

Snowden said he chose Hong Kong because of its “strong tradition of free speech.”

“The only thing I can do is sit here and hope the Hong Kong government does not deport me,” Snowden told The Guardian.