White House Requests Snowden Extradition

The US has already asked Hong Kong to extradite Edward Snowden, the White House national security adviser told CBS Radio today—and it expects Hong Kong to comply. "Hong Kong has been a historically good partner of the United States in law enforcement matters, and we expect them to comply with the treaty in this case," said Tom Donilon. Several officials confirmed the news, with one adding, "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."

Although the US has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, it does contain exceptions, reports CBS—including one for espionage. If Snowden chooses to fight the extradition in court, it could be a long battle. The news comes as Snowden gave more allegations of American spying on China to the South China Morning Post, including accusations that the US hacked major telecommunications companies to obtain millions of text messages; attacked servers at Tsinghua University; and hacked the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet, which owns a major fiber-optic cable network in the region. (More Edward Snowden stories.)