BREAKING: Tracking Snowden: Chartered Russian jet lands in Iceland early this morning
21st Century Wire says…
21:00 BST – Tonight the world learned that NSA whistleblower Ed Snowden is in fact waiting in a transit area at Moscow International Airport, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the NSA leaker will NOT be extradited by Russia. One might guess that the general feeling in Moscow is that Russia is not overly keen to host the high profile former CIA analyst Snowden.
But where is he headed to?
21st Century’s Wire’s man in Iceland has informed us that Hong Kong to Iceland via Moscow was Plan A for Snowden – and Reykjavik was being prepped politically – as Snowden’s final destination, but the whole plan ran into a snag when a Wikileaks founder and Representative, Olaf Sigurvinsson – apparently couldn’t hold his tongue and blabbed the plan to the Icelandic media on June 20th.
Did Wikileaks blow it, and intentionally at that? Either way, it looks like Wikileaks fumbled this one, and their involvement in this whole affair is looking more and more suspect. Hmm, and we hear talk of a limited hangout surrounding Snowden too…
It seems Wikileaks couldn’t help but leak this important operations to smuggle the whistleblower into scenic Nordic isle via a series of chartered private jets, and operation which would cost up to $1 million and change. The operation was to be funded, we are told, through an initiative funded through contributions by individuals using Wikileaks as a sort of intermediary.
We’ll cut Wikileaks some slack if this turns out to be a clever false start that eventually leads to Reykjavik.
Ecuador always seemed like a long-shot going that way from Hong Kong.
Snoops nosing around Moscow Airport also told us that Mr. Snowden was meant to get on a passenger jet to Cuba but balked at the last minute in what appeared to be a ruse, leaving loads of mainstream media reporters desperate for in-flight drinks with Ed – left holding the can with their non-refundable overpriced $10K Aeroflot tickets in hand (yes, that’s confirmed).
So, as of tonight he remains in Moscow Airport, probably knocking back a few vodkas, and why not?
… could he still be heading to Iceland?
READ MORE SNOWDEN NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Snowden Files