Biden asked Ecuador not to give Snowden asylum, says Correa

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa speaks during his programme Enlace Ciudadano, at the Refineria del Pacifico camp, in El Aromo, Manabi, yesterday. Correa said earlier this week he had yet to consider letting US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden enter his country.Agencies/QuitoEcuador’s President Rafael Correa yesterday said the US asked him not to grant asylum for former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden in a “cordial” telephone conversation he held with US Vice President Joe Biden.Correa said he vowed to respect Washington’s opinion in evaluating the request. The Andean nation says it cannot begin processing Snowden’s request unless he reaches Ecuador or one of its embassies.Snowden, who is wanted by the US for leaking details about US communications surveillance programs, is believed to still be in the Moscow international airport after leaving Hong Kong.“He communicated a very courteous request from the US that we reject the (asylum) request,” Correa said during his weekly television broadcast, praising Biden’s good manners in contrast to “brats” in Congress who had threatened to cut trade benefits over the Snowden issue.Biden initiated the phone call, Correa said.“When he (Snowden) arrives on Ecuadorean soil, if he arrives ... of course the first opinions we will seek are those of the US,” Correa said.A senior White House official travelling with President Barack Obama in Africa yesterday confirmed the conversation had taken place.Correa’s government has for years been at loggerheads with Washington on issues ranging from the war on drugs to a long-running environmental dispute with US oil giant Chevron .Correa, a leftist economist who received a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, denied yesterday that he was seeking to perturb relations and said he had “lived the happiest days of my life” in the US.Ecuador has granted refuge to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at its embassy in London for the past year. Correa said Ecuador will follow the same procedure as it did then. “Just as we did in the Assange case with England, we are going to listen to everyone but the decision would be ours as a sovereign nation. But of course, with affection and respect for the US, we are going to keep very much in mind what that country has to say,” Correa said. He said the Internet and phone surveillance programs that the former National Security Agency subcontractor revealed amount to the biggest espionage case in history. What the US needs to do, Correa said, is explain those once secret programs rather than focus on catching Snowden and “tear apart a president, government or country that dares to say it will process an asylum request if it receives one”.