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Defiant authorities in Ecuador say they won't bow to U.S. pressure as they weigh former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's request for asylum.

Ecuador's president and other top officials said Thursday that they're turning down the trade benefits the United States gives them as part of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act.

"In the face of threats, insolence and arrogance of certain U.S. sectors, which have pressured to remove the preferential tariffs because of the Snowden case, Ecuador tells the world we unilaterally and irrevocably renounce the preferential tariffs," President Rafael Correa said Thursday, reiterating comments other officials from his government made earlier in the day.

In a fiery speech at an event in Quevedo, Ecuador, the president vowed not to back down. "It is outrageous to try to delegitimize a state for receiving a petition of asylum," Correa said.

Authorities in Ecuador said they're still evaluating Snowden's asylum petition, which has thrust the South American country into the international spotlight as a key player in the global manhunt for the fugitive who has admitted leaking classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs.

Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the United States, is slammed as a traitor by critics and hailed as a hero by his supporters.

Correa offered a swift response on social media when a Washington Post editorial this week criticized what the newspaper called a "double standard" in Ecuador, noting that the country is weighing asylum for Snowden just after it passed new regulations cracking down on press freedoms.

"What a joke! Do they realize the power of the international press? They have centered the attention on Snowden and the 'evil' countries that 'support' him, making everyone forget the terrible things that he denounced in front of the American people and the entire world," Correa said in a series of Twitter posts.

On Thursday, a U.S. State Department spokesman warned that Ecuador's economic ties with the United States could be in jeopardy if the South American country offers asylum to Snowden.

"What would not be a good thing is them granting Mr. Snowden asylum," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters. "That would have grave difficulties for a bilateral relationship." He added that withdrawing from trade agreements isn't exactly an option for Ecuador. "They're unilateral trade provisions that provide a benefit to certain Ecuadorian products," Ventrell said. "Whether they're renewed or not is a prerogative of the U.S. Congress."

Ecuadorian officials offered to give $23 million annually -- roughly the same amount officials said that Ecuador receives in benefits from the tariff deal -- to the United States. The money, Communications Secretary Fernando Alvarado told reporters Thursday morning, could be used for human rights training.

"Our dignity," Correa said, "doesn't have a price."

DSUrocks07 wrote:http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/28/world/ame ... or-snowden

Defiant authorities in Ecuador say they won't bow to U.S. pressure as they weigh former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's request for asylum.

Ecuador's president and other top officials said Thursday that they're turning down the trade benefits the United States gives them as part of the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act.

"In the face of threats, insolence and arrogance of certain U.S. sectors, which have pressured to remove the preferential tariffs because of the Snowden case, Ecuador tells the world we unilaterally and irrevocably renounce the preferential tariffs," President Rafael Correa said Thursday, reiterating comments other officials from his government made earlier in the day.

In a fiery speech at an event in Quevedo, Ecuador, the president vowed not to back down. "It is outrageous to try to delegitimize a state for receiving a petition of asylum," Correa said.

Authorities in Ecuador said they're still evaluating Snowden's asylum petition, which has thrust the South American country into the international spotlight as a key player in the global manhunt for the fugitive who has admitted leaking classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs.

Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the United States, is slammed as a traitor by critics and hailed as a hero by his supporters.

Correa offered a swift response on social media when a Washington Post editorial this week criticized what the newspaper called a "double standard" in Ecuador, noting that the country is weighing asylum for Snowden just after it passed new regulations cracking down on press freedoms.

"What a joke! Do they realize the power of the international press? They have centered the attention on Snowden and the 'evil' countries that 'support' him, making everyone forget the terrible things that he denounced in front of the American people and the entire world," Correa said in a series of Twitter posts.

On Thursday, a U.S. State Department spokesman warned that Ecuador's economic ties with the United States could be in jeopardy if the South American country offers asylum to Snowden.

"What would not be a good thing is them granting Mr. Snowden asylum," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters. "That would have grave difficulties for a bilateral relationship." He added that withdrawing from trade agreements isn't exactly an option for Ecuador. "They're unilateral trade provisions that provide a benefit to certain Ecuadorian products," Ventrell said. "Whether they're renewed or not is a prerogative of the U.S. Congress."

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Ecuadorian officials offered to give $23 million annually -- roughly the same amount officials said that Ecuador receives in benefits from the tariff deal -- to the United States. The money, Communications Secretary Fernando Alvarado told reporters Thursday morning, could be used for human rights training.

"Our dignity," Correa said, "doesn't have a price."

ASUG8 wrote:Wow. That just happened.

Imagine how much money we could save with all these countries we provide some form of aid who really don't need it.

D1B wrote:As long as **** like Tman, BDFCK and AzJizzfan are running the country, we will always be seen as arrogant assholes.

D1B wrote:As long as fucks like Tman, BDFCK and AzJizzfan are running the country, we will always be seen as arrogant assholes.

D1B wrote:As long as fucks like Tman, BDFCK and AzJizzfan are running the country, we will always be seen as arrogant assholes.

D1B wrote:As long as **** like Tman, BDFCK and AzJizzfan are running the country, we will always be seen as arrogant assholes.

AZGrizFan wrote:

D1B wrote:As long as **** like Tman, BDFCK and AzJizzfan are running the country, we will always be seen as arrogant assholes.

You forgot Obama on your list.

LeadBolt wrote:Isn't Foreign Policy supposed to be Biden's forte? Wonder what he said on the phone call that got this reaction? Glad Obama didn't make the call, no telling what would have happened if an amateur had made the call...

Ivytalk wrote:America's hero Snowden can't even get into Iceland. What a friggin loser. String him up.

Ivytalk wrote:America's hero Snowden can't even get into Iceland. What a friggin loser. String him up.

93henfan wrote:

Ivytalk wrote:America's hero Snowden can't even get into Iceland. What a friggin loser. String him up.

Isn't it funny how all these countries that criticize us constantly suddenly fall in line when we pull on the purse string? Shows you what's really important to them.

93henfan wrote:Some news on the wire that Nicaragua and Venezuela are now the top two candidates for asylum.

kalm wrote:

93henfan wrote:
Isn't it funny how all these countries that criticize us constantly suddenly fall in line when we pull on the purse string? Shows you what's really important to them.

I thought about that too when half of Europe shut down there airspace to Morales over a rumor. And Ivy's hopping into bed with Obama and Icelandic socialists.

Ivytalk wrote:

kalm wrote:
I thought about that too when half of Europe shut down there airspace to Morales over a rumor. And Ivy's hopping into bed with Obama and Icelandic socialists.

And you regard that scraggly-bearded traitor as a hero? Shame on you. That punk would sell out America for 15 minutes of airtime.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.[1]

kalm wrote:

Ivytalk wrote: And you regard that scraggly-bearded traitor as a hero? Shame on you. That punk would sell out America for 15 minutes of airtime.

I don't know about "hero". That word sometimes gets thrown around a little loosely and we do not currently, nor may we ever have all the facts surrounding the case. Someone like Pat Tillman is what I'd consider to be a hero. And given Tillman's open mindedness, I'll bet he wouldn't have been as quick to condemn Snowden.

In any event, Snowden at this point is far closer to hero than he is to traitor, and his actions to date appear to be far less treasonous than what he's blowing the whistle on.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized.[1][/quote

C'mon IT, help a directional school brother out, put that fancy degree to use, and tell me how secure
the people are in their papers and effects...

Ivytalk wrote:

kalm wrote:
I don't know about "hero". That word sometimes gets thrown around a little loosely and we do not currently, nor may we ever have all the facts surrounding the case. Someone like Pat Tillman is what I'd consider to be a hero. And given Tillman's open mindedness, I'll bet he wouldn't have been as quick to condemn Snowden.

In any event, Snowden at this point is far closer to hero than he is to traitor, and his actions to date appear to be far less treasonous than what he's blowing the whistle on.

Frankly, kalm, true to form, you've flipped the treason argument into a Fourth Amendment ploy. Let me try to address both. As to whether Snowden is a traitor in the constitutional sense, the answer is maybe not -- but the more "aid and comfort" he gives to our enemies the Russians and the Chinese by letting them copy his files, the closer he gets to the line.

As to the Fourth Amendment issue, I feel less secure in my "papers and effects" when I file my annual tax return with the IRS than I do when I consider what Snowden did. Technology has eclipsed traditional concepts of privacy, as many people
have recognized, and the key in determining the propriety of the NSA's actions -- or any other
government action dealing with personal data -- in Fourth Amendment terms is whether the "search and seizure" (if any) is unreasonable. We'll see the full-throated ACLU types line up against national security absolutists, and the courts will end up somewhere in the middle. My sympathies are more with the national security argument at this point. I have no fear of being hauled before a FISA court based on anything I've done. You?

Always happy to give guidance to a directional school grad.

Ivytalk wrote:

kalm wrote:
I thought about that too when half of Europe shut down there airspace to Morales over a rumor. And Ivy's hopping into bed with Obama and Icelandic socialists.

And you regard that scraggly-bearded traitor as a hero? Shame on you. That punk would sell out America for 15 minutes of airtime.