Edward Snowden tells NBC: I'm a patriot

[Sunni Man]

(CNN) -- Traitor or patriot? Low-level systems analyst or highly trained spy?

Slammed by top U.S. government officials and facing espionage charges in the United States, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden defended his decision to leak documents about classified surveillance programs during an interview with NBC "Nightly News" broadcast Wednesday.

"I think it's important to remember that people don't set their lives on fire," Snowden said. "They don't walk away from their extraordinarily, extraordinarily comfortable lives ... for no reason."

Speaking to anchor Brian Williams in a Moscow hotel, Snowden said he considers himself a patriot, and he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to reveal secret U.S. government surveillance programs if he didn't have to.

"The reality is, the situation determined that this needed to be told to the public. The Constitution of the United States had been violated on a massive scale," Snowden told Williams. "Now, had that not happened, had the government not gone too far and overreached, we wouldn't be in a situation where whistleblowers were necessary."

Edward Snowden tells NBC: I'm a patriot - CNN.com

 

[eflatminor]

"The reality is, the situation determined that this needed to be told to the public.

I agree with that.

The Constitution of the United States had been violated on a massive scale,"

While this is debatable (depends on your definition of "papers"), I agree with that too. A Congress that wasn't spineless could do something about it, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Disir]

The only difference between this guy Thomas Andrews Drake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and the others listed with him and Snowden is that Snowden took enough crap that the same didn't happen to him. They all originally went through the proper channels.

It's why Kerry sounds like a douche. They knew in advance there were issues and refused to address the issues.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - he tried to tell `em but dey wouldn't lissen to him...

NSA finds one e-mail from Snowden raising question
Sat, May 31, 2014 - Edward Snowden says he repeatedly raised constitutional concerns about National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance internally, but an NSA search turned up a single e-mail in which Snowden gently asks for “clarification” on a technical legal question about training materials, agency officials said.

Asked by NBC News’ Brian Williams in an interview this week whether he first raised his qualms with his bosses, he said: “I reported that there were real problems with the way the NSA was interpreting its legal authorities.” On Thursday, the NSA released the e-mail it said Snowden appeared to be referring to, which the agency says is the only communication from Snowden that it could find expressing any concerns from him. It was dated April 8 last year, three months after Snowden first reached out to journalists anonymously. Former NSA director General Keith Alexander said that the agency could find no one to whom Snowden voiced concerns verbally either.

In the e-mail to the NSA’s general counsel’s office, Snowden questions an NSA document showing the hierarchy of governing authorities, which appeared to put executive orders on par with US federal statutes. “I’m not entirely certain, but this does not seem correct, as it seems to imply executive orders have the same precedence as law,” Snowden said in the e-mail. “Could you please clarify?” An unidentified NSA lawyer began his reply: “Hello, Ed,” and told Snowden he was correct: Executive orders cannot override US federal law.

In an e-mail to the Washington Post, Snowden called the official release of the e-mail “incomplete,” the newspaper reported late on Thursday. “If the White House is interested in the whole truth, rather than the NSA’s clearly tailored and incomplete leak today for a political advantage, it will require the NSA to ask my former colleagues, management and the senior leadership team about whether I, at any time, raised concerns about the NSA’s improper and at times unconstitutional surveillance activities,” Snowden wrote in response to questions from the Post. “It will not take long to receive an answer,” he added. “There were and there are numerous avenues that Mr Snowden could have used to raise other concerns or whistle-blower allegations,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Thursday. “The appropriate authorities have searched for additional indications of outreach from Mr Snowden in those areas and to date have not found any engagements related to his claims,” Carney added.

American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Ben Wizner, Snowden’s legal adviser, called the e-mail issue “a red herring” and insisted Snowden “raised many complaints over many channels.” “The problem was not some unknown and isolated instance of misconduct,” he said.

NSA finds one e-mail from Snowden raising question - Taipei Times