Snowden denies spying for China and former NSA praise him as they corroborate his key claims.

News

Snowden defends leaks, denies spying

AP

• Jun 18, 2013

Banner achievement: A bus drives past a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, in Hong Kong on Tuesday. | AP

A woman holds a placard near the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong during a protest march in support of Edward Snowden. | AFP-JIJI PHOTO

WASHINGTON – Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency leaker, defended his disclosure of top-secret U.S. spying programs in an online chat Monday with The Guardian newspaper and attacked U.S. officials for calling him a traitor.
“The U.S. government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me,” he said. He added the government “immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home” by labeling him a traitor, and indicated he will not return to the U.S. voluntarily.
Congressional leaders have called Snowden a traitor for revealing once-secret surveillance programs two weeks ago in The Guardian and The Washington Post. The NSA programs collect records of millions of Americans’ telephone calls and Internet usage as a counterterrorism tool. The disclosures revealed the scope of the collections, which surprised many Americans and have sparked debate about how much privacy the government can take away in the name of national security.
“It would be foolish to volunteer yourself to” possible arrest and criminal charges “if you can do


Read More Here



****************************************************************************

3 Former NSA Employees Praise Edward Snowden, Corroborate Key Claims

The men, all whistleblowers, say he succeeded where they failed.

Conor Friedersdorf Jun 18 2013, 8:30 AM ET

12
inShare

Reuters

USA Today has published an extraordinary interview with three former NSA employees who praise Edward Snowden's leaks, corroborate some of his claims, and warn about unlawful government acts.
Thomas Drake, William Binney, and J. Kirk Wiebe each protested the NSA in their own rights. "For years, the three whistle-blowers had told anyone who would listen that the NSA collects huge swaths of communications data from U.S. citizens," the newspaper reports. "They had spent decades in the top ranks of the agency, designing and managing the very data collection systems they say have been turned against Americans. When they became convinced that fundamental constitutional rights were being violated, they complained first to their superiors, then to federal investigators, congressional oversight committees and, finally, to the news media."
In other words, they blew the whistle in the way Snowden's critics suggest he should have done. Their method didn't get through to the members of Congress who are saying, in the wake of the Snowden leak, that they had no idea what was going on. But they are nonetheless owed thanks.
And among them, they've now said all of the following:

• His disclosures did not cause grave damage to national security.

• What Snowden discovered is "material evidence of an institutional crime."

• As a system administrator, Snowden "could go on the network or go into any file or any system and change it or add to it or whatever, just to make sure -- because he would be responsible to get it back up and running if, in fact, it failed. So that meant he had access to go in and put anything. That's why he said, I think, 'I can even target the president or a judge.' If he knew their phone numbers or attributes, he could insert them into the target list which would be distributed worldwide. And then it would be collected, yeah, that's right. As a super-user, he could do that."

Read More Here


****************************************************************************

Related articles

• Former NSA Employees Praise Edward Snowden, Corroborate Key Claims... (redflagnews.com)
• Snowden to reveal more NSA secrets (rinf.com)
• I'm not a spy for China, says NSA leaker Edward Snowden (thenewsinformer.com)
• Edward Snowden: Truth is coming and it cannot be stopped.."Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor for an American" (seeker401.wordpress.com)
• Leaker vows details on NSA access to tech servers (usatoday.com)
• Edward Snowden: Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped (hangthebankers.com)
• Edward Snowden: "Truth is Coming and It Cannot be Stopped." (nalonmit.wordpress.com)
• Snowden: U.S. gov't destroyed my chance for fair trial (cbsnews.com)
• #IStandWithEdwardSnowden: hero or traitor? (storify.com)
• Edward Snowden - "The Man Without A Country"! (josephrathjen.wordpress.com)