Letter to Edward Snowden - from Sweden with love

For a democracy to stay sane the secrecy has to be broken over and over and there must exist people like you willing to risk it all. Now there are talks here in Sweden about offering you asylum and the voices heard are mainly from representatives of the green party a minority political movement currently being part of the Swedish government together with the considerable bigger Social-democrat party, where also the key ministers are from and hence the real power. Voices promoting your asylum in Sweden comes from the small green party and the equal small "the left party" - vänsterpartiet but non of the bigger parties have expressed concerns.

Irrespective of the outcome if you decides to come to Sweden to apply for asylum, there are matters to consider. The Swedish industry is in many cases dependent on US military technology as in the case with the high stakes development of the multi-purpose military aircraft JAS. Several Swedish industries involved in development and manufacturing of military equipment were purchased by US military enterprises (contractors) years ago and are today own by those. Considering your status in the USA, that is being seen or suspected as someone that committed a serious crime, Swedish law will not be able to protect you as Sweden does have a treaty with the US about extradition. The two most important conditions in Swedish law talking against your possibility to get asylum are, guarantees that the person will be excluded from capital punishment (the US would warrant that) and if Swedish law would come to the conclusion that the act committed is a crime if it was committed in Sweden. No minister of the Swedish government will be able to protect you if you come here and the same holds true for Julian Assange of Wikileaks, but if a minister tried to intervene the whole Swedish nation would be held hostage until the entire situation was resolved, that is, you being extradited.

It is of course interesting to see what would happen if you came over here. Would the US request your extradition and would Sweden stand up against such a request. When the foreign minister Margot Wallström was interviewed in Swedish state owned television she first made an overture concerning your bravery and how you had initiated an international debate about how far a government would be allowed to go spying on it's citizens but also mentioned that you were sought for a serious crime and then when asked if it was possible to grant you asylum she just replied: of course, Sweden is a nation where justice is held high and yes, we have courts and procedures that will take care of that. Her answer was pretty flawless, no promises, well knowing that even a Swedish foreign minister would not have a saying in this matter. Your asylum matter would be handled by a court, by given laws and treaties with other nations.

If you decide to come over here, with the idea to live and stay in Sweden, asking for asylum you would of course show the world a lot of courage, you would show the world what happens if you object your "Homeland" that is, the USA. You would show how sold-out a country like Sweden is when it comes down to the relation with USA. You would avoid capital punishment as Sweden cannot and will not hand over a person to another state without guarantees that this person would not get executed. You will be treated very bad in the USA, that we know and you would get life in prison after a lengthy period of suffering from being abused by the CIA. After a couple of years you would likely get pardoned, that is when the people in the USA eventually returned to their core values and their constitution.

Whatever you decides, you will remain my hero, Edward. I know that what you did was for me and the world I live in. You seem to be person so easy to love.