Plane for Cuba leaves Russia,Snowden not on board

Snowden did not depart on a flight to Cuba as expected,raises questions

Edward J Snowden,the former national security contractor accused of espionage,did not leave Moscow as expected on a flight to Havana on Monday,raising questions about what,if any,alternative travel plans he may have made.

It also raised the possibility that the Russian government had detained him,either to consider the demands by the Obama administration to intercept him and return him to the United States or perhaps to question him for Russias own purposes.

Snowden has not been seen publicly or photographed since his reported arrival in Moscow on Sunday afternoon from Hong Kong,and passengers on that flight interviewed at the airport could not confirm that he was on board.

The situation remained a confounding and undoubtedly infuriating one for American officials,who have charged Snowden with illegally disclosing classified documents about American surveillance programmes.

On a visit to New Delhi,Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized on Monday that Russia should send Snowden to the United States. I would urge them to live by the standards of the law, Kerry said.

Security was extremely tight Monday at the gate at Sheremetyevo Airport as agents called for boarding the aircraft,part of a fleet shared by Aeroflot and Delta. Police officers in green,wide-brimmed hats stood around the plane on the tarmac,and the entrance to the gate inside the terminal was cordoned off with about 25 feet of blue ribbon.

Snowden was said to have reserved a ticket on the flight,Aeroflot 150,in coach seat 17A. But just before the plane pulled away,Nikolay Solkolov,an Aeroflot employee at the gate,said Snowden was not on board. He is not there, Sokolov said. I was waiting myself. A police officer asked a member of the ground crew if everyone had arrived. The reply was: Minus five.

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Snowden was aided in his escape by WikiLeaks,the anti-secrecy organization,whose founder said he helped arrange special refugee travel documents issued by Ecuador. There was no immediate comment from WikiLeaks on Snowdens whereabouts. Earlier on Monday,the group posted a message on Twitter criticizing the US.

US bullying Russia for Snowdens rendition is counter-productive. No self-respecting state would accept such unlawful demands, the group wrote. The use of rendition was an explicit reference to the way the United States has handled terrorism suspects.

The unwillingness of Hong Kong authorities to detain Snowden,and Ecuadors public declaration it was considering his asylum request,underscored just how little sympathy the United States is finding from several countries over the unveiling of its surveillance efforts.

Russia had seemed intent on allowing Snowden to transit through Moscow but at the highest levels of the government,officials seemed to be pulling a page from a cold war playbook,coyly denying any knowledge about Snowden. Over all,we have no information about him, Dmitri Peskov,spokesman for President Vladimir Putin,told Reuters early Monday.

White House urges Moscow to expel Snowden to US

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Washingtonassumes National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden remains in Russia,and officials are working with Moscow in hopes he will be expelled and returned to America to face criminal charges,President Barack Obamas spokesman Jay Carney said Monday. The White House said a decision by Hong Kong not to detain Snowden has unquestionably hurt relations between the United States and China. AP