Mr Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, has been living in Russian Federation since 2013, when he gained notoriety for releasing thousands of classified documents that revealed mass phone and internet surveillance put in place after the 9/11 attacks.
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Edward Snowden, the NSA whistle-blower turned state fugitive, is the ideal candidate for an Oliver Stone film, heavy as they usually are on corrupt government institutions and heroes who risk everything in pursuit of the almighty truth.
The Oliver Stone-directed film also stars Shailene Woodley, Zachary Quinto, Scott Eastwood, LaKeith Stanfield, and Ben Schnetzer. At a press conference in NY, broadcast on Facebook Live, Romero spoke alongside representatives from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, arguing for President Barack Obama to pardon Snowden’s crimes. “But we believe that he should return to the United States and face those charges”, Earnest said.
Stone, who met Snowden several times, said it wasn’t an easy task convincing him to make a movie about him: “He helped us with the film enormously but he didn’t have any control. He should be applauded, not charged”, said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
In the clip, Snowden said: “My concern here is not just myself”.
It also accuses Snowden of stealing documents with no connection to privacy or civil liberties and of a “lack of basic knowledge of NSA programs” evidenced by his failure to pass NSA’s annual training on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Snowden fled to Hong Kong, then Russian Federation, to avoid prosecution and now wants a presidential pardon as a whistleblower.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters this week that there was no change in Obama’s position on Snowden.
Edward Snowden has also set out the case for Barack Obama granting him a pardon before the U.S. president leaves office in January, arguing that the disclosing the scale of surveillance by United States and British intelligence agencies was not only morally right but had left citizens better off. I love my family (.) I don’t know what tomorrow looks like. “In reality, he was on his way to Hong Kong with stolen secrets”, the report summary reads.
On Tuesday, Snowden made his own personal plea for a pardon from Moscow via a lengthy interview with The Guardian. Snowden, who is now in exile in Moscow, leaked mass surveillance system information from the NSA, which made him a wanted man by the US government.
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Edward Snowden speaks via video link at a news conference for the launch of a campaign calling for President Obama to pardon him.
