The United States today asked countries not to allow American whistleblower Edward Snowden to proceed ahead with any other international travel except for coming back home.
Computer technician Snowden, who leaked the secretive internet and phone surveillance programs of the US, is wanted in the United States of felony charges.
"As is routine and consistent with US regulations, persons with felony arrest warrants are subject to having their passport revoked. Such a revocation does not affect citizenship status," State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.
"Persons wanted on felony charges, such as Snowden, should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States," Psaki said in a statement after Snowden fled from Hong Kong to Moscow and the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister said that he has sought asylum in his country.
"Because of the Privacy Act, we cannot comment on Snowden's passport specifically," Psaki said amidst reports that Snowden has reached Moscow and that he might be headed to Ecuador through Havana.
According to a federal complaint, filed last week in the US District Court of Virginia, but unsealed Friday, Snowden has been charged with espionage, theft of government data and conveying classified information to unauthorized person.
If extradited to the US and convicted in the court, he faces 10 years of imprisonment on each of these charges.
The documents leaked by Snowden, first published in The Guardian and The Washington Post, revealed details of the secret programs of the National Security Agency about getting access to phone records of millions of Americans and getting internet usage details of suspected foreign terrorists.
The Obama Administration has defended the program arguing that this has helped foil more than 50 terrorist plots in 20 countries, which is understood to including India.
However, this has created an outrage among a number of countries like Germany and India, which have strongly raised the issue with the United States.
According to news reports, the US is asking Cuba, Ecuador and Venezuela not to let in Snowden, who leaked information about NSA surveillance programs.
