Venezuela Offers Asylum to Snowden to Defy U.S

"In the name of America's dignity ... I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden," told Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a speech during the military parade.

The president believes that Edward Snowden, the 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor and now a U.S fugitive, is a truthful man who saved other nations by revealing that the United States had been spying on other nations.

Snowden had remained in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport since June 23 after his flight from Hong Kong. He was unable to step out of the airport because he wouldn’t want to go through passport control which means he would have to get himself arrested. The transit area is considered a neutral ground which made him untouchable by authorities.

Now that the Venezuelan president had offered asylum to him, which may not have reached him yet, told Reuters, it is uncertain if he will grab the offer. The challenge he will have though if ever he accepts the offer is that there is no direct flight from Moscow to Caracas, Venezuela. In order to get there, he will need to take a transfer flight from Moscow to Havana, Cuba then to Caracas. There is no guarantee that he will granted transit by Cuba.

Another option he has is to get a private flight from Moscow, refuel in Vladivostok, then go east over the Pacific to South America.

Whatever options he would grab, Snowden had to decide as soon as possible because Russia is growing impatient of his stay in the Moscow transit area. He was given until Thursday by the prime minister to look for another place.

The White House refused to comment about Venezuela’s offer to the fugitive.

Last Friday, Wikileaks reported that Snowden had requested asylum to six more nations. Under the asylum international law, refugees or fugitives granted by asylum by another country will not be surrendered to their own state-- no extradition.