In a series of tweets, Snowden pushed back against the report this morning, refuting a number of key charges (including his allegedly weak legs) and noting that the committee “seems to intentionally conflate my authorised government work with my unauthorised whistleblowing”. Accused of violating the Espionage Act, he faces at least 30 years in jail. The White House has already rejected the request.
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Speaking on Monday via a video link from Moscow, where he is in exile, Snowden said any evaluation of the consequences of his leak of tens of thousands of National Security Agency and GCHQ documents in 2013 would show clearly that people had benefited.
But the White House quickly said it had no intention of pardoning Snowden, a former contractor for the National Security Agency who released thousands of classified documents in 2013 revealing the vast USA surveillance put in place after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The Republican-led committee released a three-page unclassified summary of its two-year bipartisan examination of how Snowden was able to remove more than 1.5 million classified documents from secure NSA networks, what the documents contained and the damage their removal caused to USA national security.
We are going to be doing both a mass signature campaign around the world and trying to get prominent individuals and organizations to join our call to President Obama to pardon Snowden before he leaves office, he added.
Snowden’s revelations about the agency’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records set off a fierce debate that pit civil libertarians concerned about privacy against more hawkish lawmakers fearful about losing tools to combat terrorism.
“Mr. Snowden has been charged with serious crimes, and it’s the policy of the administration that Mr. Snowden should return to the United States and face those charges”, Earnest said.
The letter said: “Mr Snowden’s claim that he stole this information and disclosed it to protect Americans, privacy and civil liberties is undercut by his actions”.
Edward Snowden, the famous “whistle-blower” who uncovered the biggest surveillance program in the history of humanity, has been the center of a humanitarian campaign asking president Obama to give the computer system’s administrator a full pardon.
The report also finds that Snowden “did not voice such concerns to any oversight officials” at the NSA, and he should not be considered a whistleblower protected under law.
It goes on to claim that Snowden is “a serial exaggerator and fabricator”, citing past instances where the committee alleges he lied about his resume and credentials. “This report diminishes the committee”.
The campaign will be launched just two days before Snowdens biopic is released in theatres, in the hopes that the Oliver Stone-directed movie, which portrays the whistleblower in a more sympathetic perspective, may help boost Snowdens image, Motherboard reported.
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Sep 16, 2016- Edward Snowden has dismissed a report by the House of Representatives intelligence committee that heavily criticised his activities.
