New Evidence Plugs Missing 11-Day Gap in Snowden’s US Escape Story

Papers have emerged that prove US whistleblower Edward Snowden, in fact, checked into a hotel shortly after arriving to Hong Kong rather than spending 11 days in the hands of foreign spy handlers, an online news outlet said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The check-in forms, provided by the Mira Hotel to Snowden’s lawyers and released by The Intercept, show that Snowden arrived at Mira Hotel on May 21, 2013, and not on June 1 as was initially claimed in passing by The Wall Street Journal three years ago and then circulated in US media.

The outlet stressed Snowden stayed at the hotel under his own name up until June 10, when he was flushed out by reporters after being exposed in an article by the Guardian newspaper.

The so-called Missing Eleven Days story has been a key accusation leveled at the US National Security Agency’s former contractor since he leaked documents that exposed the spying activities of the NSA on millions of US nationals.

Mainstream media used the alleged hole in Snowden’s narrative, which began with his flight from the United States on May 20, 2013 and ended with his interview with journalists, to fuel their speculations that he might have been groomed by Chinese or Russian agents during that period.