The New York Times NSA
Hasty Exit Started With Pizza Inside a Hong Kong Hideout
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: June 24, 2013
HONG KONG — For Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has acknowledged leaking numerous documents
about American surveillance operations around the world, the path to a
sudden departure from Hong Kong late Sunday began over a dinner days
before of a large pizza, fried chicken and sausages, washed down with
Pepsi.
Albert Ho, one of Mr. Snowden’s lawyers, said that before the Tuesday
night dinner began, Mr. Snowden insisted that everyone hide their
cellphones in the refrigerator of the home where he was staying, to
block any eavesdropping. Then began a two-hour conversation during which
Mr. Snowden was deeply dismayed to learn that he could spend years in
prison without access to a computer during litigation over whether he
would be granted asylum here or surrendered to the United States, Mr. Ho
said.
Staying cooped up in the cramped Hong Kong home of a local supporter was
less bothersome to Mr. Snowden than the prospect of losing his
computer.
“He didn’t go out, he spent all his time inside a tiny space, but he
said it was O.K. because he had his computer,” Mr. Ho said. “If you were
to deprive him of his computer, that would be totally intolerable.”
The outcome of that meeting, Mr. Ho said, was a decision by Mr. Snowden
to have Mr. Ho pose two questions to the Hong Kong government: would he
be released on bail if he were detained in Hong Kong at the request of
the United States, and would the Hong Kong government interfere if Mr.
Snowden tried to go to the airport and leave Hong Kong instead.
A person with detailed knowledge of the Hong Kong government’s
deliberations said that the government had been delighted to receive the
questions. Leung Chun-ying, the chief executive, and his top advisers
had been struggling through numerous meetings for days, canceling or
postponing most other meetings, while trying to decide what to do in
response to an American request for Mr. Snowden’s detention, even as
public opinion in Hong Kong seemed to favor protecting the fugitive.
But Mr. Snowden’s choice of Mr. Ho to represent him raised a problem,
said the person knowledgeable about the government’s deliberations, who
insisted on anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivities in the
case. Mr. Ho, a member of the territory’s legislature for nearly 20
years, is a former chairman of the Democratic Party and a longtime
campaigner for full democracy here, to the irritation of government
leaders of the territory, which was returned by Britain to China in 1997.
“The Hong Kong government doesn’t trust him,” the person said, adding
that the Hong Kong government also did not want to be involved in any
direct negotiations with Mr. Snowden. So the government found an
intermediary, someone with longstanding connections to the local
government but not in office, to bypass Mr. Ho and contact Mr. Snowden
through someone in the Hong Kong community who was helping Mr. Snowden.
The intermediary told Mr. Snowden Friday night that the government could
not predict what Hong Kong’s independent judiciary would do, but that
serving jail time while awaiting trial was a possibility. The
intermediary also said that the Hong Kong government would welcome Mr.
Snowden’s departure, Mr. Ho and the person who insisted on anonymity
said. Both declined to identify the intermediary.
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