“Yes, there are laws on the books that say one thing, but that is perhaps why the pardon power exists – for the exceptions, for the things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page but when we look at them morally, when we look at them ethically, when we look at the results, it seems these were necessary things, these were vital things”, Snowden said.
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Ben Wizner, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents Snowden, dismissed the House committee report as lacking substance. Snowden’s girlfriend, Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley), is as much of a motivating factor for him as his belief in a government that should serve the people with transparency and open debate. “America’s intelligence professionals take Mr. Snowden’s disclosures personally”.
The House Intelligence Committee report on September 15 accused Snowden of leaking secrets that “caused tremendous damage” to USA security.
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.
The committee shared five conclusions, which it says were formed from speaking with “key individuals with knowledge of Snowden’s background and actions”.
The actual report, which was fully adopted by all members of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, is classified but the panel issued a four-page synopsis of the investigation’s conclusion.
Snowden left the United States in May 2013 with well over a million NSA documents that he shared with the media, NBC News noted.
According to the investigation, Snowden exaggerated his experience and his level of access to classified files-and instead was able to access the information he took through his coworkers’ credentials and systems.
Stone only glancingly alludes to Snowden’s decision to seek sanctuary in Russian Federation and nowhere addresses assertions by USA officials that his massive document dump compromised ongoing intelligence operations.
“Even by a conservative estimate, the U.S. Govemment has spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and will eventually spend billions, to attempt to mitigate the damage Snowden caused”, it said.
It describes him as a “serial exaggerator and fabricator”. Then, two weeks later-eight months before the director of national intelligence testified falsely that the NSA does not collect information on Americans-he started downloading documents.
Lawmakers also expressed concern that intelligence officials have not done enough to prevent future thefts.
“A close review of Snowden’s official employment records and submissions reveals a pattern of intentional lying”, writes the committee.
Although privacy advocates have hailed Snowden as a courageous whistleblower who exposed an out-of-control surveillance state to the American people, his critics have long accused him of treason for revealing classified information and endangering national security. “He never wanted to make his life public knowledge and he does not enjoy all the attention he is getting”, Snowden’s lawyer Kucherena said to the film’s press office.
United States officials have said that Obama is not considering a pardon for Snowden, who is facing U.S. criminal charges for providing classified information to unauthorized persons, and that there is no discussion of such a pardon inside the Justice Department.
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Snowden started making revelations about widespread U.S. global surveillance in June 2013.
