Snowden Calls a Meeting with Human Rights Groups
Edward Snowden has called a meeting with representatives of human rights groups in the transit zone at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. Scheduled for this afternoon local time, 9 a.m. ET, it is apparently the NSA leaker's first meeting with anyone other than WikiLeaks representatives since going public in June. Here's who to watch and what to look for.
RELATED: Snowden Grants Everyone Online an Exclusive Interview
Snowden requested the meeting with the groups by email yesterday, using an address from the Lavabit.com domain. Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch posted its contents to Facebook. The email read, in part:
[I]n recent weeks we have witnessed an unlawful campaign by officials in the U.S. Government to deny my right to seek and enjoy this asylum under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The scale of threatening behavior is without precedent: never before in history have states conspired to force to the ground a sovereign President's plane to effect a search for a political refugee. …
I invite the Human Rights organizations and other respected individuals addressed to join me on 12 July at 5:00PM at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow for a brief statement and discussion regarding the next steps forward in my situation.
Lokshina subsequently tweeted that she planned to attend, and indicated that airport officials called to request her passport details.
RELATED: Snowden's Asylum Roulette: Russia Out, India and Brazil Say No
RELATED: How to Apply for Edward Snowden's Old Job
The meeting will be held in the transit area of Terminal F at the airport, the large building in the center of the image above. Due to the security issues at stake, the group was asked by Snowden to gather in the public area of the terminal, holding a sign reading "G9." Three people from each organization are invited to attend; the Los Angeles Times lists the groups as "representatives of Amnesty International, Transparency International, Human Rights Watch, a Polish civil rights group and a U.N. representative in Russia. Russia Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin was also invited."
RELATED: Edward Snowden Left Hong Kong
The Guardian is running a liveblog on the meeting, and, of course, Lokshina is apparently providing updates on Twitter.
RELATED: The Tale of the Re-Routed Bolivian President's Plane Is Falling Apart
It's not clear if the transit area is where Snowden has been staying since his arrival in the country in June. ABC News' Kirit Radia described the robust efforts of on-scene media to find Snowden in the airport, going so far as to buy tickets on flights to other countries in order to access the secure part of the airport. A small hotel in the transit area (in an adjacent terminal) indicated that it hadn't seen Snowden or had him as a guest.
Photo: Airport passengers. (AP)
