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Monday, July 8

Cuba's President backs asylum offers to Ed Snowden

I think so far Fox and Voice of America are the only American media outlets willing to cover President Raul Castro's speech yesterday; ni any case, here I'm using quotes from Iran's Press TV report, dated July 8:

Cuban President Raul Castro has backed offers of asylum by Latin American countries to former CIA contractor Edward Snowden, slamming the United States for bullying other nations.

Castro said on Sunday [June 7] in front of Cuba’s National Assembly that Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have the right to grant asylum to “those persecuted for their ideals or struggles for democracy, according to our tradition.”

The Cuban president also condemned US threats of economic sanctions against any country that shelters the American whistleblower and criticized the incident on July 3, in which some European countries banned the plane transporting Bolivian President Evo Morales from their airspace on rumors that Snowden was on board

“These actions demonstrate we live in a world in which the powerful feel they can violate international law, violate the national sovereignty of other states and trample on the rights of citizens,” said Castro.

The Cuban president added that his country was aware of the kind of secretive NSA programs Snowden revealed and said as a longtime enemy of Washington, Cuba has been “one of the most harassed and spied-upon nations on the planet.”

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