What Happened This Week – 1. In Russia, the BBC reports Edward Snowden landed in Moscow today, after the U.S. filed criminal charges against him at the end of the week. The Justice Department charged Snowden with theft, the “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person.” A source at the airline company that flew Snowden to Moscow said Snowden is bound for Venezuela. Some believe he will then travel to Ecuador, where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has urged him to seek asylum. Meanwhile, the Guardian published a story revealing the existence of a massive British surveillance program codenamed “Tempora.” Under the program, U.K. intelligence officials collect data from cables that transmit the world’s telephone calls and internet traffic. The Guardian says the cables contain transfer data “equivalent to sending all the information in all the books in the British Library 192 times every 24 hours.” The revelation is based on documents leaked by Snowden.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 23:00:30 +0000