Compiled by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), the report is the result of a two-year investigation into Snowden’s theft of more than 1.5 million classified documents from NSA networks.
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The release of the report coincides with the release of the movie “Snowden”, directed by Oliver Stone, which portrays the former intelligence contractor as a whistleblower and hero. “Despite Snowden’s later claim that the March 2013 congressional testimony of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was a “breaking point” for him”, the report says, “these mass downloads predated Director Clapper’s testimony by eight months”.
The debate over Snowden’s image has resurfaced with President Obama finalizing the list of people to pardon for federal crimes before he leaves office in January.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch launched a campaign in support of Snowden this week.
This film is a fascinating portrait of a complex individual and we will continue to see this issue play out on the evening news.
A day after rights groups announced a petition campaign supporting a presidential pardon for the ex-National Security Agency contractor, and on the eve of the “Snowden” biopic, Washington lawmakers fired off a report aiming to derail the public relations blitz supporting Mr. Snowden’s cause.
Snowden was charged by the U.S. government in 2013 under the Espionage Act, a law from 1917 that fails to differentiate in any way, between a spy handing over information to foreign governments and whistleblowers providing records to journalists about illegal and/or questionable government activities. SNOWDEN is a fascinating true story of one man’s seemingly impossible attempt to fight for his country by fighting the very system that controls it. That doesnt mean there couldnt be some other kind of agreement, Wizner said.
What It’s About: Whistleblower Edward Snowden is a polarizing figure. And until thats the case, he is living safely where he is.
However, the report notes that in June, the deputy chairman of the Russian parliament’s defense and security committee publicly conceded that “Snowden did share intelligence” with his government.
A Republican-led bipartisan U.S. House intelligence committee on Thursday released a report calling Snowden a “serial exaggerator and fabricator” who doesn’t fit the profile of a whistleblower.
Snowden, who is now living under asylum in Russia, claims that he has not shared his information with Russian officials, but Russia claims otherwise.
Snowden is far from a flawless film, but Gordon-Levitt deserves little – if any – blame for the movie’s flaws.
Earnest also said that Snowden made a mistake by deciding to release the information to the media. However, reports on Snowden’s colleagues’ attitudes are mixed. Reviews of Stone’s movie have been mixed, with Snowden earning just a 58% rating with critics on Rotten Tomatoes as of Friday. It says that Snowden “failed basic annual training for NSA employees on Section 702” – a controversial part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that allows for the mass collection of information on foreign communications, which Snowden’s later disclosures threw into the global spotlight.
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Snowden’s decision to leak NSA information made him the “most wanted man in the world” by the US government.
