Is it illegal for the U.S. to block Edward Snowden’s asylum claim?

[Tx4obama]

Is it illegal for the U.S. to block Edward Snowden’s asylum claim?

Is the United States illegally trying to block Edward Snowden’s right to seek asylum in other nations?

That’s what the National Security Agency leaker asserts. In a meeting Friday at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, he told representatives of human rights groups that the US has revoked his passport, placed him on no-fly lists, demanded that Hong Kong return him “outside the framework of its laws,” and threatened sanctions against “countries who would stand up for my human rights and the UN asylum system.”

-snip-

Snowden’s problem is that the US government considers him a common lawbreaker and not a human rights case, and thus he has no claim for asylum in other nations.

White House spokesman Jay Carney made that clear Friday when asked if the US was illegally denying Snowden his right to claim asylum.

“No, it’s not,” Mr. Carney said. “He has been charged under the law with three felonies, very serious crimes. And every aspect of the United States system of justice is available to him upon his return to the US to face those charges. And that’s how our system works.”

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/13/is-it-illegal-for-the-u-s-to-block-edward-snowdens-asylum-claim/

[leveymg]

1. Carney is wrong. UN Convention on Refugees says "serious nonpolitical crimes" are a bar to asylum.

What Snowden did is a prima facie political crime, and as such the US is in violation of the Convention by blocking his flight from persecution.

I know it still sounds bizarre in the context of an American citizen, but that's what international refugee law says. http://unterm.un.org/dgaacs/unterm.nsf/8fa942046ff7601c85256983007ca4d8/0e18b7f0bba6fb63852572740071891d?OpenDocument

Refoul, refoulement; principle of non-refoulement Note Eng Verb. To turn a refugee or immigrant back, refuse to grant him or her asylum. International law term from French, refouler, used in English in the context of refugees.
Cf..article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees which reads as follows:

"No contracting State shall expel or return ("refouler&quot a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."


Examples:

no country may expel or return (“refoul”) refugees to the frontiers of territories where their life or freedom would be threatened;
to refoul the refugee populations against their will;
bound by customary international law not to refoul refugees to persecution;
signatories obliged not to refoul refugees to a country where they will be persecuted or tortured.

[Tx4obama]

3. Stealing federal classified documents (PROPERTY) is a federal crime, period.

He was not charged with protesting, speaking, etc.

[leveymg]

6. Bank robbery can be a political crime. It's all contextual.

[Tx4obama]

7. LOL. You're funny. n/t

[leveymg]

8. I've prepared hundreds and hundreds of asylum applications. I know.

Scoff if you like. But, if this guy were Russian, Carney would be saying just the opposite.

[Tx4obama]

5. And the question is...

And the question is: Is it illegal for the U.S. to block Edward Snowden’s asylum claim?

The answer is NO.

[Purveyor]

2. Because "Carney" says...LOL!

[dipsydoodle]

9. He should've stuck with his circus.

.

[PDJane]

4. Yes, it is. However, when has that ever been a barrier to the US doing what the US wants?

[Downwinder]

10. Blowing up an airliner is a political act.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles

[struggle4progress]

11. It's a pointless debate. The US naturally seeks to enforce US law with respect to a US citizen

for alleged criminal acts in the US

Other countries are sovereign entities, and are not only free to offer asylum if they believe asylum is warranted but may actually have a moral duty to do so, if they are actually convinced by evidence that Mr Snowden is subject to persecution in the US

In reality, of course, such cases frequently involve a substantial amount of political and diplomatic grandstanding about what the actual facts are and what the actual facts mean

I am not impressed with Mr Snowden and his international showboating, but I could be wrong

[treestar]

12. block how?

ultimately the US cannot stop it. Trying to influence it would not be illegal.

Snowden does not qualify for asylum anyway. Most countries have some standard by which they decide, and what he did does not qualify him.