He fled the United States for Hong Kong, then left Hong Kong for Russia. Now he's withdrawn his request for political asylum there without having received a guarantee of safe harbor anywhere else. All of which leaves NSA leaker Edward Snowden sitting in a Moscow airport in a kind of legal limbo, with no country (thus far) willing to take him in and no home country (the U.S.) to which he can return.
If the American fugitive's bizarre tale sounds familiar, here's why: It echoes themes from popular music, literature, art, movies and more. Some examples:
"The Terminal" — Based on the real-life story of Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Tom Hanks's character, Viktor Navorski, is stuck in a diplomatic limbo after the outbreak of civil war in his fictional homeland, Krakozhia. Unable to leave or return to his native land because his identity papers are missing, Navorski is forced to call a New York City airport home for 18 years.