It says a lot about the effect Edward Snowden has had on the world that even amid the wild fervor of the current US presidential election, he remains one of the most controversial figures in American society, more than three years after the incident that made him a household name.
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The Republican-led committee released a three-page unclassified summary of its two-year bipartisan examination of how Snowden was able to remove the documents from secure NSA networks, what the documents contained and the damage their removal caused to USA national security.
Releasing a summary of its 36-page investigation into the case, the House committee said Mr Snowden had fallen out with his colleagues and lied about his background while at the NSA. It also portrays Snowden as a disgruntled employee, saying he had a, quote, “workplace spat” with NASA managers two weeks before he began taking those documents.
Now Snowden’s supporters are seeking a presidential pardon because he says he helped his country by revealing secret domestic surveillance programs.
Snowden, of course, made worldwide headlines in 2013 when he leaked classified details on the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance programme to The Guardian and confirmed to the world that yes, the U.S. security services are hoovering up literally all of our internet data. In 2015, the Obama administration shot down a public White House petition with more than 160,000 signatures calling for a federal pardon.
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency worker, is back in the news.
“He put our service members and the American people at risk after perceived slights by his superiors”, he said.
The 33-year-old spoke ahead of the opening of the movie ‘Snowden, ‘ starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Ben Wizner, Snowden’s attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the committee’ report was an attempt to discredit a “genuine American hero”.
Snowden, whose residency permit in Russian Federation runs out next year, faces up to 30 years in prison for espionage and theft of state secrets.
Based on the book “The Snowden Files, The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man”, by journalist Luke Harding, SNOWDEN recaps Edward’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) story as he is confessing it to journalist Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) in an undisclosed hotel room in Hong Kong. It is part spy thriller, part conspiracy story and the bad guy is none other than the United States government. Mills is aware of Snowden’s NSA plot and is in danger right alongside her boyfriend.
“The enormous value of Mr Snowden’s revelations is clear”, Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth and Amnesty International chief Salil Shetty wrote in The New York Times on Thursday. While the film is lacking in some areas, it is ultimately worth seeing and I appreciate Snowden’s courage to question and hope he is able to maintain his safety.
Snowden himself, through a long series of tweets, has strongly denied the claims issued by the House of Representatives report. “They instead pertain to military, defence and intelligence programmes of great interest to America’s adversaries”, said the report.
Snowden is far from a flawless film, but Gordon-Levitt deserves little – if any – blame for the movie’s flaws.
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With his mandate running out in months, Obama would also face judicial obstacles if he meant to pardon Snowden, as according to US law, the president can only pardon a person after he is convicted of a crime by a court.
