US whistleblower Edward Snowden is en route from Hong Kong to Moscow, a report says. Source: AAP
FORMER spy Edward Snowden has flown out of Hong Kong, reportedly bound for Moscow and onwards to a third destination, momentarily escaping the clutches of US justice in a shock development sure to infuriate Washington.
Confirming his departure, the Hong Kong government said it had "no legal basis" to prevent the 30-year-old leaving because the US government had failed to provide enough information to justify its provisional arrest warrant filed on Friday.
"Mr Edward Snowden left Hong Kong today (June 23) on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel," it said in a statement, without confirming his destination.
The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor was aboard Aeroflot flight SU213, according to the South China Morning Post, which has carried exclusive interviews with Snowden in Hong Kong.
The plane was due to land at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport around 5:15pm (2315 AEST), according to flight tracking websites.
The latest interview on Sunday contained new revelations about US cyber-espionage against Chinese targets that drew a stinging response from China's official news agency.
The foreign ministry in Beijing had no immediate comment, either about the revelations or about Snowden's plans.
"Moscow will not be his final destination," the SCMP said, citing "credible sources", and raised the possibility of Iceland or Ecuador as Snowden's ultimate port of call.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said he had no information that Snowden was flying to Moscow.
Russian media reports said he could be heading on to Cuba.
On its Twitter feed, Julian Assange's WikiLeaks operation claimed credit for helping to arrange "Mr Snowden's political asylum in a democratic country, travel papers and safe exit from Hong Kong", without revealing the final destination.
Snowden came to Hong Kong on May 20 to begin a damaging series of leaks on NSA eavesdropping of phones and computer systems that has triggered concern from governments around the world.
President Barack Obama's US administration insists the surveillance was legal and had foiled a number of extremist plots.
Snowden's departure could bring US repercussions against Hong Kong but more broadly will be a shock to the Obama administration, which just on Friday had unveiled charges including theft and espionage against him in a bid to force his return from Hong Kong.
The government of Hong Kong, a "special administrative region (SAR)" under Chinese rule that has maintained its own British-derived legal system, said it had informed Washington of Snowden's exit.
It also pressed Washington for answers "on earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by US government agencies".
China's official Xinhua news agency on Sunday attacked the United States as an espionage "villain" after Snowden detailed new allegations of NSA activity targeting mainland and Hong Kong interests.
In the latest revelations published by the South China Morning Post, Snowden said the NSA was hacking Chinese mobile phone companies to gather data from millions of text messages.
He said US spies have also hacked the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing - home to one of six "network backbones" that route all of mainland China's internet traffic - and the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet, which operates one of the Asia-Pacific region's largest fibre-optic networks.
Abandoning his well-paid job as an intelligence technician in Hawaii, Snowden came to Hong Kong with a cache of documents detailing the reach of NSA operations around the world.
His claims about Pacnet followed a Guardian report in which he claimed the British government's electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ had gained secret access to fibre-optic cables carrying global internet traffic and telephone calls, and was sharing the information with the NSA.
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