Accounting Nonsense

Moscow (CNN) -- The computer contractor who exposed details of U.S. surveillance programs was on the run late Sunday, seeking asylum in Ecuador with the aid of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the organization and Ecuador's Foreign Ministry announced.

Edward Snowden left Hong Kong after Washington sought his extradition on espionage charges, according to WikiLeaks, which facilitates the publication of classified information.

"He is bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from WikiLeaks," the group said. Ecuador's foreign ministry said it had received a request for asylum from Snowden, and a CNN crew spotted a car with diplomatic plates and an Ecuadorian flag at the Russian capital's international airport.

Ecuador has already given WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refuge in its embassy in London for a year after he unsuccessfully fought extradition to Sweden in British courts.

In Washington, the response was swift. The Obama administration asked Ecuador, Cuba and Venezuela, not to admit Snowden or to expel him if they do, a senior Obama administration official told CNN on Sunday. It also urged countries through which he might pass not to accept him.

The Justice Department said it was "disappointed" in the decision by Hong Kong authorities to allow Snowden to leave the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, arguing it had followed the proper legal steps to have him held and sent back to the United States. U.S. and Hong Kong officials had "repeated engagements" over the case, and Attorney General Eric Holder discussed the matter with his counterpart in Hong Kong last week, the department said.

"At no point, in all of our discussions through Friday, did the authorities in Hong Kong raise any issues regarding the sufficiency of the U.S.'s provisional arrest request," a statement from the department said. "In light of this, we find their decision to be particularly troubling."...