Snowden given safepass to Ecuador [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Snowden given safepass to Ecuador [pdf]

s0.uvnimg.com

196 pointsrunn1ng42 comments

From the WSJ:

  Late Wednesday, Univision Networks posted images of what it said
  was a "safe pass" for temporary travel that had been issued to
  Mr. Snowden [...]
  
  But according to a senior official in Ecuador's foreign ministry
  on Wednesday, Mr. Snowden had no such pass. "He does not have any
  documents issued by the government of Ecuador, such as a passport
  or a refugee identification," said Galo Galarza, a senior
  ministry official. He didn't provide additional details.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732432820457856...

Any explanation to such strange thing?

Is it fake document? I wonder why there is no photo, no signature or stamps.

Or is it just ecuador playing safe?

> Any explanation to such strange thing?

One possibility is that the Ecuador embassy was checking for leaks.

Yet, Wikileaks is claiming the opposite:

"WikiLeaks, which is assisting Mr. Snowden, has said that Ecuador issued him special travel papers and that it is his ultimate destination."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/world/snowden.html

Strange that the URL for that article says June 28th!

And so we enter the wilderness of mirrors...

It was originally set for 28th, but then they changed their mind. The url didn't change.

At least thats what happens with wordpress.

In wordpress you can change permalink, if someone links you to the old permalink it gets automatically redirected to the new link

Likely will be printed on June 28th, thought it appears online earlier than that.

You'll notice that the document spells "height" incorrectly as well.

Also, the first part of the document is English with Spanish translation but the labels below are Spanish with English translation.

I'm not saying it is fake, but I think it could only look less authentic if it was written in Comic Sans.

Ecuador denies giving Snowden a travel document: report

    "That's not true. There is no passport, no document that has been 
    given (to Snowden) by any Ecuadorean consulate," Galo Galarza said 
    in comments posted on the website of Ecuador's Teleamazonas, a 
    private television station.

http://news.yahoo.com/ecuador-denies-giving-snowden-travel-d...

I think there is a possibility of a trick here - the document is not given to Snowden, but he somehow already actually is in Ecuador and Ecuador's officials have this document and he has been granted passage. This way Aeroflot's statement that Snowden has not been booked for any flights during next 4 days is correct, as he has already left.

I can't see a stamp or a signature, it's therefore invalid AFAIK.

The absence of middle name is also strange (if Mr. Snowden has one).

Anyone with access to a printer within an Ecuador embassy can do that, but without the stamp and the signature the value is zero.

indeed, the reason Hong Kong gave for not extraditing him, was that USA didn't specify what the J. middle initial stood for.

My name has an "E" right in the middle. It's just a conjunction but the first time I went to the US, the security guard in charge of checking the passports didn't like it, he kept asking me what was the meaning of that letter: "Is it Edward? It must be something like that."

That, along with the misspelling of height (spelled hight) in the document, makes me believe that this is not a valid document.

And the symbol for metre is "m" not "mt"

Having seen many Spanish language immigration forms, bad English translations are not surprising to me at all.

Ditto for official Polish documents I've dealt with. You often have to pay a hefty sum for a certified translation, and there are almost always some very funny errors to enjoy.

If this document is genuine, it's a little ironic that they forgot to include his middle name.

Well, it was done by the Ecuadorian consul in London, so maybe he did not have all the facts.

One thing puzzles me - why this document has been issued in London, not Ecuador?

Assange printed it from the Ecuadorian embassy in London while everyone else had gone to lunch?

OK, I know jokes aren't appreciated on HN, but this comment is comedic art.

Jokes are ok, they just have to be unique and funny - like this one. Clever doesn't hurt either. Stupid memes or lame, tired, or mean jokes are not ok.

It's always good to have an official ruling. God forbid someone goes overboard.

Exactly! Couldn't agree more, humor is definitely one place we need strict guidelines, otherwise how we all know what's funny and acceptable and what isn't?

I'm just telling you what I've observed over the years here and dispelling the notion that it's frowned on entirely. If you want to start reddit-style memes, go ahead, have fun.

OT: Looking at the US polls, the smearing worked nicely.

Really? Which polls support this?

"Public opinion" changes real fast if this is true.

Alternative explanation: HN is an echo chamber that does not closely reflect general opinion in America

The missed the "J" again...

Marital status single? I guess for legal reasons, he left his partner behind. 'Baby, I know we need to talk, but I am currently on the run from the American government.'

He left his girlfriend behind. He's not married and never has been.

True. I had forgotten the exact status, still, I was merely using it as a pretext for my terrible joke.

Quite often marital status is simply used to indicate if the person in question is married or not. As far as I know that wasn't the case for Snowden.

I wonder if it would have complicated the whole thing if he had been.

Huh? He wasn't married before. But yeah, he left his girlfriend to keep her safe. Apparently she knew absolutely nothing until he blew the whistle.

I'd assume that single in this sense means "not married", as opposed to "not in a relationship at all".

Wikipedia backs this up [1] but I'm not familiar with Ecuadorian legal nomenclature!

[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marital_status

Married to his ex-job maybe

Methinks you've spent too much time on facebook. In the dead tree world we don't usually have an "It's Complicated" option for marital status.

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