Snowden called whistleblowing “democracy’s safeguard of last resort”. “Urge President Obama to pardon Edward Snowden, and let him come home with dignity”.
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In comments published this week, the former National Security Agency contractor-turned-whistleblower called on Obama for a pardon while the president still holds office.
“It’s about us”, Snowden said.
The data included thousands of classified documents revealing the extent of United States surveillance measures put in place after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Since then, Snowden’s been in exile in Russian Federation after being charged under the Espionage Act.
Living under asylum in Russia, Snowden participated in the news conference by video link, joining representatives of Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights Watch in publicizing the appeal for a pardon.
The launch of the presidential pardon campaign comes two days before Oliver Stone’s biopic “Snowden” opens.
Bringing the notoriously staid Snowden to life, however, is a more complicated task, one that Stone and his star Joseph Gordon-Levitt can’t quite nail.
“This isn’t just about me”, Snowden said. If he is sentenced to a long prison term, he added, people in the future who have information that the public needs to know will be afraid to come forward. “And I have dedicated my life to both of them”.
Snowden and his supporters argue that although he stole information, the revelations have benefited the public because they led to improved privacy protection laws.
Since going live the campaign has attracted the names of some major players.
The campaign has also attracted high-profile support from outside the tech community, with many backers coming from the liberal end of the political spectrum.
In July, the White House rejected an earlier petition to pardon Snowden that had garnered more than 160,000 signatures.
The White House has said, despite the latest campaign, it had no intention of issuing a pardon.
Advocates for his pardon, which include several human rights groups, say that Snowden should be hailed as a hero rather than be charged with the “World War One-era Espionage Act”, which “pardonsnowden.org” says makes no distinction between providing classified material to journalists or foreign powers.
Snowden, who worked for a National Security Agency subcontractor, gained global attention in 2013 when he provided evidence that Washington was monitoring the telephonic and online communications of millions of people around the world. “That is why the policy of the Obama administration is that Mr Snowden should return to the United States”, said White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
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Edward Snowden has also set out the case for Barack Obama granting him a pardon before the United States president leaves office in January, arguing that the disclosing the scale of surveillance by U.S. and British intelligence agencies was not only morally right but had left citizens better off.
