US intelligence seriously looking on Snowden`s case as Chinese covert action – former CIA officer

"Hong Kong is controlled by Chinese intelligence,” Baer told CNN Sunday evening. "It’s not an independent part of China at all. I’ve talked to a bunch of people in Washington today, in official positions, and they are looking at this as a potential Chinese espionage case.”

Some have pointed that Snowden’s disclosures coincided with the visit to the US of Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, who was chided by Obama for China's cyber-attacks in the US.

It also turned out that Snowden attempted to publish his documents in The Washington Post, but after the media outlet had refused to rush the publication, they lost contact with Snowden.

Speaking about any chances of China to extradite Snowden, Baer claimed, that the USA "will never get him in China”.

The United States are now trying to find an espionage law in Hong Kong similar to the one in the US to extradite Edward Snowden.

Meanwhile Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old intelligence contractor from Booz Allen, is seeking asylum after apparently leaving a hotel in Hong Kong, where he leaked top secret documents on the National Security Agency (NSA) to the media.

Experts say the process could last very long because of a March 2013 ruling by Hong Kong’s court of final appeal which says that Hong Kong, which previously depended on rulings by the United Nations refugee authorities, must establish its own asylum screening process.

Since no system has yet been implemented, an application from Snowden would face lengthy delays, buying him time to consider his next move while probably blocking any attempt to deport him.

More to be revealed on NSA leak case - media

There will be more ‘significant information’ exposed in the near future, said the journalist who revealed classified US surveillance programs leaked by an American defense contractor, reported RT quoting AP.

"We are going to have a lot more significant revelations that have not yet been heard over the next several weeks and months," Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian said.

Greenwald added that the decision is the in works as to when the next story will be published based on former CIA contractor Edward Snowden’s leaked information.

Russia to consider political asylum for Edward Snowden if he files request

Russian authorities have promised to join the ranks of those willing to consider giving Snowden political asylum, if he files a formal request, Kommersant newspaper reports citing a Kremlin spokesman on Tuesday.

"If we receive such a request, we will consider it,” Dmitry Peskov was quoted.

The whereabouts of whistleblower Edward Snowden were shrouded in mystery on Monday as US lawmakers demanded his immediate extradition from Hong Kong over his sensational leaking of an Internet surveillance program.

Snowden, a 29-year-old technology expert working for a private firm subcontracted to the US National Security Agency, checked out of his Hong Kong hotel after revealing his identity to the British-based Guardian newspaper on Sunday.

The private contractor has become an instant hero for transparency advocates and libertarians around the globe following his exposure of the NSA's worldwide monitoring of private users web traffic and phone records.

But the US government appeared to be gearing up to take action against Snowden on Monday with senior lawmakers branding his actions as "treason" and saying he should be extradited from Hong Kong as quickly as possible.

California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein - chair of the Senate Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence - declined to go into specifics but said US authorities were vigorously pursuing Snowden.

Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has had an extradition agreement with the United States for more than a decade.

NSA whistleblower checks out of Hong Kong hotel

The contractor at the National Security Agency who leaked details of top-secret U.S. surveillance programs dropped out of sight in Hong Kong on Monday. Reporters from several western newspapers have determined which Hong Kong hotel Snowden had recently been staying at by recognizing a table lamp of characteristic shape, visible in his video interview. It turned out that Snowden had been hiding away at Mira hotel, reports ITAR-TASS.

Edward Snowden, 29, who provided the information for published reports last week that revealed the NSA's broad monitoring of phone call and Internet data from Google and Facebook, checked out of his Hong Kong hotel hours after going public in a video released on Sunday by Britain's Guardian newspaper, his disclosures sending shockwaves.

Journalists of the newspaper "Daily Telegraph" contacted the hotel staff, who confirmed that a man named Edward Snowden had been staying there, but checked out on Monday and left for an unknown destination.

Previously, Snowden had said that he was not going into hiding.

Voice of Russia