Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 109, No. 325, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 23, 2013 Page: 5 of 42
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Denton Record-Chronicle
NATIONAL
Sunday, June 23, 2013
5A
U.S. to Hong Kong: Don’t delay Snowden extradition
By Pete Yost and Julie Pace
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The
Obama administration on Satur-
day sharply warned Hong Kong
against slow-walkingthe extradi-
tion of Edward Snowden, reflect-
ing concerns over a prolonged le-
gal battle before the government
contractor ever appears in a U.S.
courtroom to answer espionage
charges for revealing two highly
classified surveillance programs.
A formal extradition request
to bring Snowden to the United
States from Hong Kong could
drag through appeal courts for
years and would pit Beijing
against Washington at a time
China tries to deflect U.S. accusa-
tions that it carries out extensive
surveillance on American gov-
ernment and commercial opera-
tions.
The U.S. has contacted au-
thorities in Hong Kong to seek
Snowden’s extradition, the Na-
tional Security Council said Sat-
urday in a statement. The NSC
advises the president on national
security.
“Hong Kong has been a his-
torically good partner of the
United States in law enforce-
ment matters, and we expect
them to comply with the treaty in
this case,” NSC adviser Tom Do-
nilon said in an interview with
CBS News. He said the U.S. pre-
sented Hong Kong with a “good
case for extradition.”
However, a senior adminis-
tration official issued a pointed
warning that if Hong Kong
doesn’t act soon, “it will compli-
cate our bilateral relations and
raise questions about Hong
Kong’s commitment to the rule
of law.” The official was not au-
thorized to discuss the matter by
name and insisted on anonymity.
Hong Kong’s government
had no immediate reaction to the
charges against Snowden, a for-
mer National Security Agency
contractor who admitted provid-
ing information to the news me-
dia about the programs. Police
Commissioner Andy Tsang told
reporters only that the case
would be dealt with according to
the law. A police statement said it
was “inappropriate” for the police
to comment on the case.
A one-page criminal com-
plaint against Snowden was un-
sealed Friday in federal court in
Alexandria, Va., part of the East-
ern District of Virginia where
his former employer, govern-
ment contractor Booz Allen
Hamilton, is headquartered, in
McLean. He is charged with un-
authorized communication of
national defense information,
willful communication of classi-
fied communications intelli-
gence information and theft of
government property. The first
two are under the Espionage
Act and each of the three crimes
carries a maximum sentence of
10 years in prison on conviction.
The complaint is dated June
14, five days after Snowden’s
name first surfaced as the person
who had leaked to the news me-
dia that the NSA, in two highly
classified surveillance programs,
gathered phone and Internet re-
cords to ferret out terrorist plots.
Snowden told the South Chi-
na Morning Post in an interview
published Saturday on its web-
site that he hoped to stay in the
autonomous region of China be-
cause he has faith in “the courts
and people of Hong Kong to de-
cide my fate.”
A prominent former politi-
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AP/The Guardian
This photo provided by The Guardian newspaper in London
shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee
at the National Security Agency, in Hong Kong on June 9.
cian in Hong Kong, Martin Lee,
the founding chairman of the
Democratic Party, said he doubt-
ed whether Beijing would inter-
vene yet.
“Beijing would only intervene
according to my understanding
at the last stage. If the magistrate
said there is enough to extradite,
then Mr. Snowden can then ap-
peal,” he said.
Lee said Beijing could then
decide at the end of the appeal
process if it wanted Snowden ex-
tradited or not.
Snowden could contest extra-
dition on grounds of political
persecution.
Hong Kong lawyer Mark
Sutherland said that the filing of
a refugee, torture or inhuman
punishment claim acts as an au-
tomatic bar on any extradition
proceedings until those claims
can be assessed.
“Some asylum seekers came
to Hong Kong 10 years ago and
still haven’t had their protection
claims assessed,” Sutherland
said.
Hong Kong lawmakers said
that the Chinese government
should make the final decision
on whether Snowden should be
extradited to the United States.
Outspoken legislator Leung
Kwok-hung said Beijing should
instruct Hong Kong to protect
Snowden from extradition be-
fore his case gets dragged
through the court system.
Leung urged the people of
Hong Kong to “take to the streets
to protect Snowden.”
The Obama administration
has now used the Espionage Act
in seven criminal cases in an un-
precedented effort to stem leaks.
In one of them, Army Pfc. Brad-
ley Manning acknowledged he
sent more than 700,000 battle-
field reports, diplomatic cables
and other materials to the anti-
secrecy website WikiLeaks. His
military trial is underway.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a
member of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, welcomed
the charges against Snowden.
“I’ve always thought this was
a treasonous act,” he said in a
statement. “I hope Hong Kong’s
government will take him into
custody and extradite him to the
U.S.”
But the Government Ac-
countability Project, a whistle-
blower advocacy group, said
Snowden should be shielded
from prosecution by whistle-
blower protection laws.
“He disclosed information
about a secret program that he
reasonably believed to be illegal,
and his actions alone brought
about the long-overdue national
debate about the proper balance
between privacy and civil liber-
ties, on the one hand, and nation-
al security on the other,” the
group said in a statement.
Michael di Pretoro, a retired
30-year veteran with the FBI
who served from 1990 to 1994 as
the legal liaison officer at the
American consulate in Hong
Kong, said “relations between
U.S. and Hong Kong law en-
forcement personnel are histori-
cally quite good.”
“In my time, I felt the degree
of cooperation was outstanding
to the extent that I almost felt I
was in an FBI field office,” di Pre-
toro said.
The U.S. and Hong Kong
have a standing agreement on
the surrender of fugitives. How-
ever, Snowden’s appeal rights
could drag out any extradition
proceeding.
The success or failure of any
extradition proceeding depends
on what the suspect is charged
with under U.S. law and how it
corresponds to Hong Kong law
under the treaty. In order for
Hong Kong officials to honor the
extradition request, they have to
have some applicable statute un-
der their law that corresponds
with a violation of U.S. law.
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Cobb, Dawn. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 109, No. 325, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 23, 2013, newspaper, June 23, 2013; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1102498/m1/5/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .