After a two-year investigation, the House intelligence committee Thursday released a portion of a report on former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, painting the American fugitive as a disgruntled worker and serial liar who may not have even understood the classified material that he stole from NSA systems.
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Snowden’s attorney denounces the committee’s report.
The release of the report, two years in the making, also coincides with that of the film “Snowden”, directed by Oliver Stone.
“The fact is the manner in which Mr. Snowden chose to disclose this information damaged the United States, harmed our national security, and put the American people at greater risk”, he added.
The committee rejects the characterization of Snowden as a whistle-blower, arguing, as other intelligence officials have in the past, that “the Committee found no evidence that Snowden took any official effort to express concerns about US intelligence activities – legal, moral, or otherwise – to any oversight officials within the USA govemnent, despite numerous avenues for him to do so”. Snowden faces espionage and other charges that could land him in prison for up to 30 years. Administration spokesman Josh Earnest said the information “harmed US national security and put the American people at greater risk”.
A congressional report has found that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden gave up top secret information to Russian Federation, embellished his resume and consistently lied throughout his short-lived intelligence career.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt speaks in a voice that tries to duplicate the real Edward Snowden’s deep, monotonous tone, and it didn’t work for me – to the point of being a distraction.
Snowden, who is now living under asylum in Russia, claims that he has not shared his information with Russian officials, but Russia claims otherwise. 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 worldwide spotlight. Again, intelligence panel chairman Nunes.
According to a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, Snowden would still be eligible to vote because he has not yet been convicted of a crime.
Snowden “got new positions at the NSA exaggerating his resume and stealing the answers to a test”, and of having “searched the hard drives” of his colleagues, taking advantage of his access as a network administrator.
“I will be voting”, Snowden said, speaking at a conference in Athens by video link from Moscow.
Edward Snowden is possibly “the most influential whistle-blower of our generation”, says Trevor Timm, the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
The HPSCI said it disagreed with a petition by human rights organisations in favour of a presidential pardon for Snowden, saying it had sent an open letter to Obama urging him not to consider such a pardon. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. “We’re not hearing very much about our rights”, he continued.
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Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk. Gordon-Levitt does an expert job of embodying Snowden in both the preternaturally calm earnest-nerd demeanor we’ve come to know (down to his vocal pitch and patterns) and in those rare private moments that unnerve him and which “Snowden” can uniquely depict as drama.
