Edward Snowden has recently received a three-year extension for his stay in Russia, but in the latest interview conducted by WIRED magazine with author and journalist James Bamford, over the period of three days we got to know that Snowden still clings a hope to return to his home country that is United States, though living behind the bars stated former National Security Agency contractor.
“I told the government I’d volunteer for prison, as long as it served the right purpose. I care more about the country than what happens to me. But we can’t allow the law to become a political weapon or agree to scare people away from standing up for their rights, no matter how good a deal. I’m not going to be part of that,” Snowden stated in an article of Bamford’s Time published on Wednesday.
“The most-wanted man in the world” as stated by WIRED. According to them, Snowden is being looking for top secret documents that would reveal widespread surveillance programs overseen by federal government. According to some sources, he is still hiding in an undisclosed community in Russia where he is unrecognized.
“So you can have North Korea maybe attacking the United States through a cyber attack, but masquerading it through Iran or masquerading it through Russia,” stated Snowden. “And if you just turn around and automatically fire back, you may be starting an accidental war.”
The magazine included many photographs of Snowden, especially a previously unseen picture of him with his former boss Michael Hayden, director of both NSA and CIA. Other pictures like Snowden in a hotel room, or resting himself in a couch looking fatigued. In one of the photographs he wore a T-shirt with the word “SECURITY” on his back and in one of the magazine’s cover showing Snowden, he was considered as a betrayer, wrapped in an American Flag.
In an audio leaked by WIRED, Snowden stated technology as “the greatest equalizer in human history.”
“I gave this information back to the public, to public hands, and the reason I did that was not to gain a label but to give you back a choice about the country you want to live in,” he stated in the audio.
On seeing all this NSA told TODAY that its officials would be glad to speak with Snowden but on the American grounds.
“If Mr. Snowden wants to discuss his activities, that conversation should be held with the U.S. Department of Justice. He needs to return to the United States to face the charges against him.” the agency said.
A good resolution would be that #1 Snowden be prosecuted and serve his sentence for his crimes and #2 that any people behind any illegal NSA snooping must also be prosecuted and do their time. Not sure why this is so hard to understand. We can’t have our spy agencies being undermined by insiders and we can’t have them breaking the law either. Both sides are wrong and need to be dealt with. As an individual though, Snowden’s actions, especially in light of where he fled, will always be suspicious and make him look like the typical fame-seeker and not heroic at all in my opinion.
Unlike Pussy Riot , Edward Snowden is a Coward He has no place to hide, but Putin Trousers .So he can reveals the so-called secret.
Love him or hate him, we should not lose sight of what he has exposed in the NSA and how the NSA and the President lied about it to Congress and the public. At some point, what is lost far outweighs what is gained by those doing the spying on US citizens. When the secrets become more important than the truth, the truth becomes a relative term some else defines for you.
Do we really need to live in a security state created by the NSA under the auspices it is keeping us safe from terrorists, and risk that it creates a system in which we have far more to fear from the Government that runs it? Does anyone think it would not eventually be used against US citizens for political purposes? That it would not be used to discredit people who tried to speak out against injustice or just wrongheaded political policies?
I found it ironical that he has a photo of himself wrapped in the US flag, as if demonstrably visualizing that his actions were in support of the US [as if he wished to point out his actions were as a patriot rather than something else entirely] and for no other purpose. I can’t buy that based on what is currently known or suspected concerning his motives and status of the large amount of data he still supposedly controls that was acquired from the NSA improperly. As noted in other comments, this article does nothing to dispell any doubts or provide any revelations concerning Snowden due to its poor overall content and presentation. The article appears only to have been cobbled together to support the new photos in my opinion and not for any other meaningful purpose.
What is this piece of **** writing and why did Google news link to it?
Abbey Smith? Not!! 3rd world country editing.
UNREADABLE
Snowden deserves a cold dark cell in the same block as Assange, Manning, and the blind Sheik guy.
Eric, YOU are the one who deserves the cold cell. Your level of ignorance and support of war crimes makes you culpable.
Ah yes, ad hominem. Final refuge of the intellectually challenged.
At least you could try to spell my name correctly. It’s Erik.
In addition to the total lack of editing and what appears to be an author without a full command of English this article provides no real content. Not only is the proposed content only about 30% of the total screen real estate but the other 70% are all advertisements or links to pages that have a similar ratio of proposed content to click driven advertisements or pseudo-content. This is a great example of horrible click bait that may have well been entirely generated by algorithm and mash–up
would you shoot him?
A long prison term would be better.
I don’t know what you idiots are talking about, Snowden is a patriot who saw what wrong was being done and decided to do something about it. And you’re saying he should go to PRISON for that? This country was built on that stuff. If he should go to prison, then so should Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Henry, and everyone else who said “no” to England’s authority. And you’re not even going to take into account what he’s trying to tell you, something so obvious in the first place: America is corrupt and doesn’t regard its citizens as people it needs to protect and serve, but as people for them to control and manipulate. If you’re to dim-witted to see that, then you should move to Scotland or China.
Ah yes. Ad hominem. Final refuge of the intellectually challenged.
There are mechanisms available to air your concerns. He could have gone to a Congressional Intelligence Committee with them.
Instead, he chose to steal thousands of documents, making him a common thief. Then to run off, not to one, but two opposing foreign powers. And, contrary to his oath, to disclose classified intelligence for all our enemies to see.
Who’s too “dim-witted” to see? Pffft.
There are even more embarrassing errors in other articles by Ms. Smith. Doesn’t the publisher have an editor to take a look at what’s going to be posted?
The NSA seems a bit shortsighted: nobody comes back to talk to them knowing it is a trap. Russia is quite beautiful and a country certainly worth exploring and traveling in. Snowden has all these possibilities. He is young. Let him enjoy life and visit the natural beauty and diversity of Russia. All way more interesting than sitting in jail because some NSA/National intelligence grandees want revenge and see him in jail, in solitary confinement for the rest of his life.
Justice should be served. And, if he’s done what he’s accused of, he deserves that cell.
By that logic you deserve the “Truth Ministerium” as described in Orwell’s 1984. You forget that without Snowden’s whistle blowing, you and everybody else wouldn’t know what the NSA is doing.
As to justice should be served: what about all the crimes of the government. The abuse of people’s trust and information by the NSA/FBI and other intelligence agencies. Do you want to be observed in your bedroom with your partner? But that is now in reach even without NSA – just with Google’s newest satellite photographing through clouds and the US long sees through walls, observes anybody on what they do in their home, on their computer, hacks into files and reads as you compose. And most of the time you won’t know when they are doing it. Is all that unimportant to you? None of that would be known without Snowden. The frightening abuse of the US constitution by the NSA et al and the criminal foreign policy of the US are vastly more damning and criminal than the theft by Snowden of those documents for a good purpose: to rescue and protect human privacy. If you think Snowden deserves that cell because justice has to be done, then why dose justice not have to be done by those who committed the vastly larger crimes? Why was Clapper not convicted of lying to Congress? Why is the NSA not convicted for spying on US citizens? What justice is that which applies only if it serves the government but doesn’t apply if it were detrimental to the ruling classes? Unfortunately this type of justice is more and more prevalent in the US.
Oathbreaker, traitor, thief, seeking sanctuary in the arms of our foes.
As far as the rest of your logic? Tu quoque.
You certainly seem to envy Snowden’s courage a lot that you spit out nothing by gall and spite.
No, Daniel Ellsberg showed courage. He tried to use the legal mechanisms available, and when they didn’t work he went public. Instead of slinking off to a foreign power, he stayed to face the legal music and, despite the best efforts of the Nixon administration, eventually prevailed.
A true American hero.
Snowden is a liar, a traitor, a thief, oath-breaker. He’s lucky he isn’t a Russian, doing something similar. He’d have been poisoned by now.
Even Daniel Ellsberg agreed with Snowden’s move to flee and disclose his actions from HongKong, in light of the ever weakening whistle blower protections. The legal system has changed considerably since the Nixon period. Mannings disclosures aren’t any more treasonous than Dellsbergs, yet Dellsberg was accepted as whistle blower, while Manning was not and is now incarcerated for 35 years. One note whistle blower fared very badly in the legal system and came close to committing suicide from the abuse by prosecutors. One additional whistle blower who brought out the torture by the CIA is now in jail, because the Obama administration insisted on prosecuting whistle blowers under the espionage act, not the whistle blower act. There is no reason for Snowden to give himself up to a corrupt legal system. It is obvious that he would not get a fair trial, with the government imposing undue pressure on any prosecutor and grand jury. Snowden escaping was only common sense, given current facts of government corruption in the US.
He didn’t break any oath. He swore to act within and in defense of the constitution. NSA forced him to act in breach of that oath. He couldn’t take it and decided to blow the whistle. Besides, he had many negotiations with the US justice department via his Russian lawyer as to what he insists on in order to come back to the US to face the law.
Snowden tried all the existing avenues but didn’t get listened to. When he couldn’t reconcile what the NSA does with his conscience, he decided t talk. He is genuinely a hero.
He went to work for the NSA, fully aware of his intentions. He is a liar and a traitor.
Ellsberg was right, back then. And wrong, now.
Do you feel as much intensity about punishing the decision makers of the NSA for what they’v done? Or is your gusto for justice just aimed at certain targets?
More of same. This article is about Snowden. Feel free to post a link to an article on another subject. I comment on a broad range of subjects. However, unlike some, I try to stay on topic.
Are you avoiding the subject at hand, and on topic? It was your post that encouraged Snowden’s prosecution. I guess then maybe you don’t feel the same gusto about prosecuting some as prosecuting others. Perhaps you are biased.
Now it is I who is properly Tu quoque.
Six mistakes in one short paragraph? (3rd paragraph) What kind of journalism is this?
The first sentence of the article doesn’t make sense. Who does the editing on this stuff?
Horrible editing and errors.