When Edward Snowden leaked documents about US surveillance activities earlier this month, the 29-year-old former intelligence official said he wanted to start a debate about privacy protection for Americans in a new technological era.
Instead, as he set off yesterday from Hong Kong on a round-the-world air ticket that appeared to have taken him to Moscow and could see him travel to Cuba and on to Ecuador or Venezuela, he has managed to spark diplomatic disputes with the two nations that might be considered America’s main geopolitical rivals, Russia and China.
Mr Snowden’s flight, just two days after US authorities filed charges of espionage against the self-proclaimed leaker, could ensure his claims about the abuse of civil liberties are obscured amid an international political tug-of-war.