It takes a former CIA asset to beat U.S. "intelligence" - more like intel deprivation. The story of Edward Snowden's escape from Hong Kong is textbook. This correspondent, at dim sum on Sunday, was alerted by a source; "Get ready for something big; he's leaving soon." That was about 12:30 pm Hong Kong time. In fact Snowden had already flown from Chek Lap Kok on SU 213 bound for Moscow at 11:00 am. But nobody knew it yet. Hong Kong was still digesting the front page of the South China Morning Postdisplaying yet more devastating evidence of U.S. cyber-spying of China.
By 2:00 pm there was a first, one-line alert from the South China Morning Post; he was on a plane to Moscow. I talked to RT in Moscow; they were stunned and sprang into action. Still total silence from Western corporate media. Then the Post confirmed the breaking news with more detail. Yet it took ages for Reuters to release its first short dispatch - as I had commented on my Facebook page. When the "international community" started to learn about it Snowden was already five hours into his flight.
Asia Times Online had also learned from another source close to Snowden's tight circle that a short stint in Hong Kong was always part of Plan A; he never intended to ask for political asylum in either Hong Kong or China. He was already focused on a "third country". What he did was to use Hong Kong as an ideal platform to unveil the inner workings of the Orwellian/Panopticon U.S. surveillance state.
Pepe is at the top of his game and, as is usually the case, one step ahead of everyone else when it comes to news items like this one. It was posted on the Asia Times website yesterday...and it should come as no surprise that it's also courtesy of Roy Stephens. It's also his final contribution to today's column.
plot certainly beats the Bourne trilogy - because it's happening live, in real time, right in front of our eyes.
