Ex-Russian spy Anna Chapman proposes marriage to Edward Snowden

By Claudine Zap

Russian Anna Chapman (AP Photo/David Azia)

The rest of the world may not want him, but NSA leaker Edward Snowden has at least one potential taker: Anna Chapman. The ex-spy tweeted yesterday, “Snowden, will you marry me?!”



The former Russian spy may have sympathy for the man who spilled top-secret documents. Chapman, after all, is no stranger to run-ins with government authorities.

The 31-year-old had been posing as a real-estate agent in the United States in 2010 when she was accused of gathering intel for Russia. She and nine others were deported back to Russia in a prisoner swap.

Now the ex-secret agent has become a celebrity in her homeland, most recently as host of the TV show, “Secrets of the World.”

Snowden may have caught Chapman’s attention since he landed at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport to seek refuge. “@nsa will you look after our children?” She posted later.

But Snowden seems to be unavailable at the moment -- and may be rejected by Russia as well. After 11 days, the AP reports that “Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia had received no request for political asylum from Snowden and he had to solve his problems himself.”

The NSA contractor has been on the run since he spilled secrets on the classified NSA surveillance programs to the press. He has been in diplomatic limbo since having his passport revoked, and has had countless requests for asylum refused.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/ex-russian-spy-anna-chapman-proposes-marriage-edward-171009157.html
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NSA Leaker Edward Snowden Seeks Asylum in Ecuador

By JAMES GORDON MEEK (@meekwire) , KIRIT RADIA (@KiritRadia_ABC) , LEEZEL TANGLAO (@leezeltanglao) and DEAN SCHABNER

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who faces espionage charges for disclosing secret U.S. government anti-terrorism programs, has requested asylum in Ecuador, according to the country's foreign minister.

"The Government of Ecuador has received an asylum request from Edward J. #Snowden," Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño Aroca tweeted today hours after a plane believed to be carrying Snowden landed in Moscow from Hong Kong, where Snowden had been hiding.

The Aeroflot plane believed to be carrying Snowden arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport at around 5:10 p.m. local time. There were cars with Ecuadoran flags at the airport, but an Ecuadoran diplomat there refused to answer questions.

Ecuador has allowed WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange to spend a year in its embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning about sex crime allegations.

The anti-secrecy group released a satatement today that Snowden "bound for a democratic nation via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks."

According to a report from the Interfax news agency, an unidentified Russian official said Snowden has no Russian visa, so he will remain in the transit area and won't come out of customs. The official was also quoted saying that because Snowden won't pass through border control, Russian authorities can't and won't stop him.

The U.S. State Department said today it had contacted several countries in the Western Hemisphere through which "Snowden might transit or that could serve as his final destinations," a State Department official said.

"The U.S. is advising these governments that Snowden is wanted on felony charges, and as such should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States," the official said.

Hong Kong officials said early today that Snowden left the country "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel."

"As the HKSAR Government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong," Hong Kong government officials said in a statement.

Snowden's U.S. passport was revoked on Saturday, and Hong Kong authorities were then notified -- but the U.S. notification may have occurred after Snowden already had departed the city, which is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

The Obama administration was left "scrambling" for answers for how the fugitive former NSA contractor was able to jet to Moscow, while Washington slept, despite carrying a passport that can no longer be used, an official said.

"I think it's safe to say we were not aware he left Hong Kong," a senior U.S. official familiar with unfolding events told ABC News. "We have little idea of how he left How Kong."

A State Department Operations Center alert said Snowden's U.S passport was revoked Saturday after the Justice Department finally unsealed charges on Friday that had been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on June 14, ABC News has learned.

"Consul General-Hong Kong confirmed Hong Kong authorities were notified that Mr. Snowden's passport was revoked June 22," the State Department's senior watch officer informed top officials in a new message.

But whether the U.S. embassy was able to tell Hong Kong in time before Snowden fled, or whether the Chinese officials simply were eager to wash their hands of him and let him go, remains unclear.

A State Department spokesperson said they did not have a comment at this time.

The Russian government has been notified by the embassy in Moscow that Snowden no longer has a valid U.S. passport and that the U.S. "desires to have him deported," according to another message from the Operations Center in Washington.

If Snowden never entered Russian passport control because he was driven from the plane to a foreign embassy, "that means the Russians were looking the other way," the senior U.S. official told ABC News.

source: http://abcnews.go.com/International/nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-seeks-asylum-ecuador/story?id=19466318#.Ucd4Yzvwmzk
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EXCLUSIVE: The beautiful ballerina girlfriend whistleblower Ed Snowden was set to wed before he left her in Hawaii and fled to Hong Kong to leak NSA secrets. Now she says she feels ‘adrift’

Lindsay Mills, 28, is reportedly the girlfriend Edward Snowden left behind when he leaked information about PRISM surveillance
She wrote on a blog about romantic heartbreak after Snowden fled to Hong Kong
'My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass' she wrote
Couple previously went to Hong Kong for romantic getaway
Mills is a ballerina who attended the Maryland Institute College of Art
She performs with the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe

By DANIEL BATES, MICHAEL ZENNIE and HELEN POW

'My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass,' Lindsay Mills writes about being suddenly left by NSA whistle blower Ed Snowden. Mills describes spending time with her mystery man, who clearly resembles Snowden

The whistleblower who leaked the NSA's secrets thought about marrying his girlfriend and had previously taken her on a romantic break to Hong Kong - where he was last seen fearing arrest.
Family friends told MailOnline that Ed Snowden, 29, wanted to be with stunning pole dancer Lindsay Mills for the rest of his life but took the decision to throw it all away to expose the US government.

Stunning ballerina Lindsay Mills, 28, took to her blog on Monday to detail her heartbreak over being suddenly left by 29-year-old Ed Snowden

They were deeply in love and on her blog Mills, 28, dotingly called him her ‘man of mystery’ who she had followed around the world for the last four years.
On Monday she took to the blog - where she has posted dozens of photos of herself semi-naked - to tell of her heartbreak.
Mills wrote: 'My world has opened and closed all at once. Leaving me lost at sea without a compass.

Better times: Lindsay Mills seen here with Ed Snowden before he suddenly took off for Hong Kong after leaking confidential information

'As I type this on my tear-streaked keyboard I’m reflecting on all the faces that have graced my path.
'The ones I laughed with. The ones I’ve held. The one I’ve grown to love the most. And the ones I never got to bid adieu.
‘But sometimes life doesn’t afford proper goodbyes.'
Snowden fled to Hong Kong after exposing the NSA's PRISM program which gives officials easy access to data held by nine of the world’s top internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Skype.
It was a heartbreaking turn of events for Mills who had lived with Snowden since at least 2009 when they were in Japan together.

This photograph of a Hawaiian sunset was taken by Mills recently. She has taken to her blog to write about her regret over how 'sometimes life doesn't afford proper goodbyes'

Last year he whisked her 8,000 miles from their home south of Baltimore, Maryland to Hong Kong where family friends thought they got married because it was a 'special place' for them.
Now he is back there, hiding out and terrified he will be arrested and extradited back to the US for leaking details about how the NSA puts millions of Americans under surveillance.
Mills’ blog gives an insight into the ups and downs the couple went through - and her own feelings against the snooping state.
Their relationship may have been brought to an unconventional end - but it hardly seems conventional from the start.
Written under the name ‘L’s Journey’ she calls Snowden ‘E’ and her ‘man of mystery’, whilst referring to herself as a ‘vagabond’.

It appears that Mills was performing with the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe. She also took classes last year from another troupe, Samadhi Hawaii, though never performed with the company

On the face of it they are totally different people - she is an extrovert who enjoys walking around naked whenever she can, spends her Sunday evenings in circus classes and surrounds herself with bohemian eccentrics.
The title of her blog reads: ‘Adventures of a world-traveling, pole-dancing super hero.'
In an early post on August 17 2011 she also writes: 'I’ve always wanted to be splashed on the cover of magazines, with my best air-brushed look. Unfortunately I wasn’t born a greek, amazon, sex goddess - but a petite dreamer.'

Performer: Lindsay Mills performs in the Waikiki Acrobatic Troupe and in dance shows in Hawaii

Snowden by contrast is a shy computer geek from a suburban family who likes to spend Sundays at football games and needs to be coaxed out of his shell to even do karaoke.
Mills writes that when she finally introduced him to her friends in Hawaii they didn't believe he actually existed because he was so hard to pin down.
Before they moved to Hawaii they spent their days doing things like camping, pumpkin picking or skeet shooting together near their Maryland homes.
He bought her gifts like a Star Trek style visor and took many of the dozens of pictures of her on her blog.
Some of the posts now have a certain irony, such as her joking that she likes pretending to be a spy.
At one point she writes: 'In case you didn’t know, I am an international woman of mystery. Or at least I will be in tonight’s performance. Going 007 with a twist for this Friday’s show.'

Keeping a secret: Snowden says he never told his girlfriend about his life-altering plans, saying he left weeks ago saying only that he had to travel for business

Their lives also seem to be very much up in the air and she writes of having traveled through 17 countries in her life.
In March last year she writes of how her ‘inevitable lover Change is knocking and I wish I had an answer for him’.
She writes: ‘We received word that we have to move out of our house by May 1.
‘E is transferring jobs. And I am looking to take a mini trip back East. Do I move with E, on my own, to Antarctica? How long do I spend back home and when should I go?
‘For now I’ll spin my magic ball and see where I land.’

Hotel hide-out: The Mira Hotel, pictured, in the Tsim Sha Tsui neighborhood of Hong Kong has confirmed someone named Edward Snowden was a guest at the hotel but checked out on Monday

That month Snowden moved to Hawaii and two months later Mills joined him.
She freely admits that it was to save their relationship as they appear to having been going through a rocky patch that continues after her arrival.
She writes how she seriously considers taking a plane home most days and that she can’t settle down - until July comes.
Then she writes: ‘The sun falling, sweat-building, and my yard growing tidier - I looked over at E and smiled.
‘This was the most adult, boring moment I’ve had ever. I felt grown up, suburban, and oddly content.
‘But neither of us can stay adult for too long, as yard work turned into palm fencing - a duel that ended in laughter instead of death. I was able to find my happy romantic date in the end.
‘Proving that you don’t have to do big fancy things or go far from home to reconnect with someone you love.’

Prisoner: Mr Snowden described how he had barely left his room, similar to that pictured, at the hotel, now revealed to have been the Mira Hotel



source: dailymail
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