Oliver Stone on NSA Leaker Edward Snowden: 'I Would Give Him Asylum'

KARLOVY VARY – It doesn’t give Edward Snowden options, but director Oliver Stone wants to grant the National Security Agency leaker asylum.

"If I were a country, I would give him asylum. I wish I could be a country," Stone told The Hollywood Reporter from the Karlovy Vary Film Festival where he is to receive a lifetime achievement award.

The filmmaker added that he can do no more to protect Snowden from prosecution by the United States than joining fellow Hollywood stars like John Cusack, Roseanne Barr and Danny Glover to sign a petition that urges President Rafael Correa to grant Snowden’s asylum request.

Having fled the U.S., Snowden remains holed up in the transit zone at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport as a raft of international asylum requests so far go unanswered.

Stone said he was especially disappointed by leaders in Europe, and in Brazil and India, after they rejected Snowden’s asylum bids outright.

"I'm disappointed by Europe’s reaction, considering they are among the targets for the eavesdropping,” he said.

STORY: Edward Snowden: Hollywood Joins Asylum Petition to Ecuador

The director recalled the 1950s and 1960s, when an earlier generation of leaders like Indian prime minister Jawahartal Nehru, Ghanian president Kwame Nkrumah and French president Charles De Gaulle were more “neutral” about U.S foreign policy., and did not hesitate to voice criticism.

"That kind of independence has been lost in Europe,” Stone complained.

He was especially critical of German chancellor Angela Merkel who, while reacting angrily to claims of U.S. spying in Europe, has followed U.S. foreign policy as her country increasingly controls a beleaguered European Union framework.

"I do feel it has not been good for Europe," Stone said of the EU.

“It has led to the creation of a German financial empire. Now it’s just one big government out of Germany,” he added.

Stone, no stranger to political critique, is also in Karlovy Vary to introduce screenings of two episodes of The Untold History of the United States.

The 10-hour documentary series on Showtime was co-written by Peter Kuznick.

Stone said The Untold History captures an unrevealed history of the U.S. during the 20th century.

"It's all about 70 years that we have forgotten. When you see it in one piece – 10 hours – you get it," he argued.

The Bohemian spa town festival will also screen a new director’s cut of Stone’s Alexander, which expands on the original 2004 version from Warner Bros. that was two hours and 45 minutes.

"It's thre hours, 20 minutes now. I'm very happy with this version. It has a different flow,” Stone said.

The Karlovy Vary Film Festival continues through July 6.

No sign of cyber leaker Snowden on flight to Cuba

MOSCOW - A Russian passenger plane left Moscow for Havana on Thursday without any sign of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden on board, witnesses said.

Cuba is considered a possible destination for Snowden on his way to Ecuador, where he is seeking asylum.

The 30-year-old American is wanted in the United States on espionage charges and is thought to have remained in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since flying in from Hong Kong on Sunday.

Russia carrier Aeroflot confirmed the plane's departure but declined comment on the passenger list. Airline sources had said earlier on Thursday that Snowden had not registered foe the flight.

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Ecuador Says NSA Leaker Has Asked For Asylum

A TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden at a shopping mall in Hong Kong on Sunday.

Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor accused of leaking classified surveillance information, has asked Ecuador for asylum, the country's foreign minister says.

Snowden left Hong Kong earlier Sunday bound for a "third country," the government in the Asian hub said. He later landed in Moscow.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino Aroca, who is on an official visit to Vietnam, said:

The Government of Ecuador has received an asylum request from Edward J. #Snowden
— Ricardo Patiño Aroca (@RicardoPatinoEC) June 23, 2013

Earlier, Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency quoted an unidentified official from Aeroflot as saying Snowden would fly to Moscow and from there to Cuba on Monday, with an ultimate destination of Caracas, Venezuela. The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks also said it was giving Snowden legal counsel and had helped him leave Hong Kong.

The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, or HKSAR, said in a statement that Snowden departed the territory "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel." It did not say what his destination was.

CNN had a camera trained on the arrival area in Moscow for the Aeroflot flight Snowden was believed to be on, but there was no sign of him. However, The New York Times
reported that other passengers on the plane said a black car pulled up on the tarmac after the flight landed; Russia Today, Russia's English-language television station, later reported that the car belonged to the embassy of Ecuador.
On Saturday, the U.S. asked Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory, for Snowden's extradition after federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint last week charging him with espionage, theft and conversion of government property in connection with leaks to The Guardian
newspaper about secret U.S. electronic surveillance programs.
June 5: The U.K.-based Guardian
newspaper reports that the National Security Agency has been collecting telephone metadata of U.S. customers of Verizon.
June 6: In its second expose on secret U.S. electronic surveillance efforts, the Guardian
reports on a 'highly classified' program called PRISM that allows the NSA access to servers of Microsoft, Google, Apple and other leading tech companies to collect emails and other data.
June 9: The Guardian
identifies Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, as the source of the leaks of classified information behind its exclusive reports. The newspaper says Snowden asked that his name be made public, and links to a video of the 29-year-old consultant justifying his actions. The newspaper says Snowden has taken refuge in Hong Kong.
June 20: The Guardian
reports that special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, courts gave permission to the NSA to retain "inadvertently acquired" domestic communications "if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity."
June 21: Federal prosecutors file a criminal complaint against Snowden, charging him with espionage.

June 22: The U.S. makes a formal request to Hong Kong to hand over Snowden for prosecution under the terms of a 1998 extradition treaty between Washington and the Chinese territory.

June 23: Snowden leaves Hong Kong on a plane that transits through Moscow, but his ultimate destination remains unclear.

Despite the extradition request, the HKSAR government said that documents from the U.S. asking for a provisional arrest warrant "did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law."

Hong Kong said it had asked the United States to provide additional information, but "has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, [so] there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong," according to the statement.

Hong Kong said it had informed the U.S. of Snowden's departure.

Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre confirmed that Hong Kong told the U.S. that Snowden "departed Hong Kong for a third country.

"We will continue to discuss this matter with Hong Kong and pursue relevant law enforcement cooperation with other countries where Mr. Snowden may be attempting to travel," Chitre said.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki would not specifically confirm reports that Snowden's U.S. passport had been revoked, but said the practice was "consistent with U.S. regulations ... for persons with felony arrest warrants."

"Such revocation does not affect citizenship status," Psaki said. "Persons wanted on felony charges, such as Mr. Snowden, should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States."

A State Department official said the U.S. has been in touch with countries in through which Snowden might transit or that could serve as "final destinations."

WikiLeaks — whose founder, Julian Assange has taken refuge in Ecuador's London embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations — said on its Twitter feed that it was assisting Snowden.

"Mr. Snowden is currently over Russian airspace accompanied by WikiLeaks legal advisors," it said in a statement issued shortly after Snowden's Aeroflot flight departed Hong Kong.

In a later statement, Wikileaks said Snowden "is bound for the Republic of Ecuador ... for the purposes of asylum."

The Sydney Morning Herald
quoted Assange as saying that he had "great personal sympathy for Ed Snowden's position" and that he was "thankful to the countries that have been doing the right thing in these matters."