<story><title>Venezuela, Bolivia offer asylum to U.S. intel leaker Snowden </title><url>http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/05/world/americas/venezuela-snowden/index.html?hpt=hp_t2</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>crazygringo</author><text>It really is the most wonderful irony that the US&amp;#x27;s apparent heavy-handed actions over Morales&amp;#x27; plane ended up biting them in the ass.&lt;p&gt;As an American, I really do want to know, though -- who are the ham-fisted officials in charge of overseeing Snowden&amp;#x27;s prosecution? Who was the actual official who made the decision to tell France and Spain not to let Morales land? And who are the officials in France and Spain who decided to obey? (And are they still denying it?)&lt;p&gt;I mean, regardless of what you think about Snowden, the level of American incompetence here, the way our officials are simply disrespecting other governments and peoples of the world, is really astounding. It&amp;#x27;s shameful, and I wish I knew who the bumbling officials actually are.</text></comment>
<story><title>Venezuela, Bolivia offer asylum to U.S. intel leaker Snowden </title><url>http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/05/world/americas/venezuela-snowden/index.html?hpt=hp_t2</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>marvin</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s so good that at least two states have the balls to stand up to the USA and offer asylum against what is obviously a political manhunt.&lt;p&gt;As a Norwegian, I&amp;#x27;m ashamed that our government and bureaucracy is too scared to stand up for our moral values. If Snowden was from Somalia, we would have granted him asylum with no further discussion. It&amp;#x27;s ridiculous that a (former) &amp;quot;banana republic&amp;quot; is the only nation that dares take this issue seriously. They may have their own agenda, but facts are facts.</text></comment>