U.S. seeks Snowden extradition in NSA case

The United States has contacted authorities in Hong Kong to seek the extradition of Edward Snowden, the man who admitted leaking top-secret details about U.S. surveillance programs, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday. Federal prosecutors charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government property, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in Virginia on Friday. The United States based theextradition request on the criminal complaint and a treaty between the United States and Hong Kong that covers the surrender of "fugitive offenders" and their extradition. Washington already asked Hong Kong, where Snowden is believed to be in hiding, to detain the former NationalSecurity Agency contract analyst on a provisional arrest warrant, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials. "If Hong Kong doesn't act soon, it will complicate our bilateral relations and raise questions about Hong Kong's commitment to the rule of law," the administration official said. The complaint charges Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person. The latter two allegations amount to espionage under the federal Espionage Act. Snowden, 30, has admitted in interviews he was the source behind the leaking ofclassified documents about the NSA's surveillance programs. Those leaks werethe basis of reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post this month.The Guardian revealed Snowden's identify at his request. The documents revealed theexistence of top-secret surveillance programs that collect records of domestic telephone calls in the United States and monitor the Internet activity of overseas residents. There is a question about whether the espionage charges will be considered political offenses. The U.S. agreement with Hong Kong makes an exception for political offenses, in which case the treaty would not apply to Snowden. Prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a professor at Harvard Law School, said the espionage charge complicates the case.