Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) wants sanctions in place for any country that takes in Snowden
The head of the Senate’s foreign policy body on Sunday called for sanctions against any countries that elect to offer shelter to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who currently faces charges in the U.S. for leaking classified documents related to the NSA’s potential overreach in collecting information against American citizens.
At least three countries have offered to take Snowden in and grant him the political asylum he has applied for: Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua. Meet The Press host David Gregory asked Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) what the repercussions should be for those countries if they grant him asylum. “It’s very clear that any country that accepts Snowden, offers him political asylum, is taking a step against the United States,” Menendez replied. “I think you have to look whether it’s at trade preferences that may exist with these countries, other elements of our policy our aid, our trade.”
“Any acceptance of Snowden to any country — to these three countries or any other — puts them against the United States and they need to know that,” Menendez continued. Snowden is currently stuck in the “transit zone” of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport. From there, he has applied for asylum in more than a dozen countries around the world, many of whom have already elected to turn him down.
Menendez also told Gregory that he “wasn’t surprised” at the three countries who had currently offered to grant Snowden’s asylum requests, noting that the three like to “stick it” to the U.S. The three Latin American countries in question do all have varying degrees of antagonistic histories with the United States.