No wheeling or dealing to extradite Snowden: Obama

The United States won’t be scrambling military jets or engaging in diplomatic bartering to get National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden extradited to the US, said President Barack Obama.

Dismissing him as “a 29-year-old hacker”, Obama sought to downplay the international chase for Snowden, lowering the temperature of an issue that has already raised tensions between the US and uneasy partners Russia and China.

Obama said the damage to US national security has already been done and his top focus now is making sure it can’t happen again.