Washington threatens.....

It's all a bit of a worry now for Snowden, still holed up in the departure lounge of the airport in Moscow. Many countries have flatly rejected, or politely rejected, his applications for asylum. Dunno where he goes from here if no country will offer it. Russia just says he's not on their turf, technically, and they're not going in there to arrest him illegally. 

However, perhaps there's much going on behind the scenes. It appears Washington is using it's tentacles of influence to close doors on Snowden. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Moscow seemingly is happy for Snowden to sit it out at Sheremetyevo International Airport, arguing that the transit lounge does not constitute Russian territory, which would allow it to get on with its bigger-ticket agenda with a furious Washington. 

Smaller fries like Bolivia and Venezuela, which thrive on the scratchiness of their relationship with the US, can take as long as they like to decide if they will shelter Snowden. 

At the same time, the Russians keep repeating two things – one of which seems to be believed more than the other. 

First, they will not go into the transit lounge and snatch Snowden for the Americans; and second, their intelligence services are not trying to bleed Snowden or his four laptops of all they know and or contain. 

The language of some US reporting on the Snowden case is intriguing. Tuesday's edition of The New York Times reports: "...the US has engaged an array of countries that have considered granting [Snowden] asylum, making clear that doing so would carry big costs." 

Oddly, the word 'threat' does not appear in such reports. Read more

Well I'd call that a "threat". If it looks like a duck.....