Edward Snowden Possibly in Talks With Iceland to Gain Asylum

WikiLeaks activists in Iceland are reportedly in talks with government officials to allow Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who leaked hundreds of documents on NSA surveillance in America, to apply for asylum there.

Julian Assange, the founder of the anti-secrecy group confirmed the plans in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.

“We are in touch with Mr. Snowden’s legal team and are in the process of brokering his asylum in Iceland,” Assange said.

A spokeswoman for Iceland’s embassy in Washington said that advocates for Snowden had approached the government, but would not comment further.

Snowden shocked the world when he released confidential information that the United States government was monitoring internet and phone records. The whistleblower has been hiding out in Hong Kong ever since, but is now apparently trying to seek asylum in Iceland. He previously told The Guardian that he wishes “to seek asylum in a country with shared values.”

However, the talks with Iceland are only informal at the moment and Iceland’s ambassador to China told the South China Morning Post that an applicant for asylum in Iceland must already be in the country. The United Nations also says that they don’t give special priority for certain cases and that the application could takes months or years to process.

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