U.S. publicly increases pressure on Hong Kong to arrest Snowden

[FarCenter]

Obama administration officials Saturday publicly increased pressure on Hong Kong to move more quickly to arrest Edward Snowden, a week after U.S. officials asked the Hong Kong government to detain the admitted leaker of documents about top-secret surveillance programs.

White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon said that U.S. officials “are in conversation” with Hong Kong authorities and have asked Hong Kong to not only arrest the former National Security Agency contractor but to extradite him back to the United States to stand trial on criminal charges.

“If Hong Kong doesn’t act soon, it will complicate our bilateral relations and raise questions about Hong Kong’s commitment to the rule of law,” said another senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The U.S. government, which has made the Snowden case a top priority and devoted significant resources to prosecute him, asked Hong Kong to detain Snowden on a provisional arrest warrant on June 14. That same day, federal prosecutors filed sealed criminal charges against him, including theft, “unauthorized communication of national defense information,” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-publicly-increases-pressure-on-hong-kong-to-arrest-snowden/2013/06/22/2254bbde-db66-11e2-9df4-895344c13c30_story.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. He chose well.