news details |
|
|
| Called a defector, NSA leaker defends his decision | | | Hong Kong : Edward Snowden, the man behind of one of the biggest leaks in the history of U.S. intelligence, is a former technical assistant for the CIA who is now holed up in a Hong Kong hotel, in danger of running out of money and hoping to find asylum somewhere in the world.
U.S. Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, called Snowden "a defector" who should be turned over to the United States with an eye toward harsh prosecution.
"This person is dangerous to the country," King told CNN's "Starting Point" on Monday.
Snowden, 29, identified himself this weekend in American and British newspapers as the person who exposed details of a top-secret American program that collects vast streams of phone and Internet data.
The revelations have set off a furious debate in the United States about whether the surveillance program is a disturbing form of government overreach or an important tool for intelligence agencies trying to prevent attacks against the nation.
They have also dealt a fresh blow to the Obama administration, which has found itself on the defensive early in the president's second term amid other complaints of intrusions of privacy.
Meet the NSA leaker Who is Edward Snowden? Prosecuting the NSA leaker
As details of the U.S. government's widespread telecommunications surveillance emerged last week in reports by the British newspaper The Guardian and The Washington Post, speculation built about who the source of the information might be.
Could it be a disgruntled high-ranking official at the National Security Agency, the U.S. electronic intelligence service?
It turned out to be Snowden, who until recently was working as a computer technician for a U.S. defense contractor.
The man behind the NSA leak
In an interview that the Guardian published Sunday, Snowden said he walked away from a six-figure salary in Hawaii for the computer consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and is sitting in a hotel in Hong Kong in preparation for the expected fallout from his disclosures.
"I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," he said.
Hidden in Hong Kong
It was unclear Monday where Snowden was staying in Hong Kong. But the two journalists who wrote the stories for The Guardian based on the information Snowden leaked -- Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill -- were present at the W Hotel in the city's Kowloon district.
"From morning to night he's in his hotel room, has his meals in his room," MacAskill told CNN, declining to give any information about which hotel Snowden is in.
Hotel staff at the W said nobody under Snowden's name was staying there.
Mandy Chan, an employee at the Mira Hotel in the nearby neighborhood of Tsim Sha Tsui, said somebody by the name of Edward Snowden had checked out of the Mira on Monday. She declined to provide further details on his stay.
He has only left his room three times since he arrived in Hong Kong about three weeks ago, MacAskill said, "and that was only briefly."
The cost of living in a hotel is threatening to burn through Snowden's remaining funds, according to MacAskill.
Obama defends surveillance programs Legal risks for NSA whistleblower NSA leaker speaks
"His credit card is going to max out pretty quickly," he said.
Snowden left the United States for Hong Kong without telling his family or girlfriend where he was going or why. Now, he's concerned about the repercussions his actions could have for them.
"The terrible thing is he is worried about his family, that they'll be victimized," MacAskill said. "He's basically cut off from family."
But Snowden acted with full awareness of the possible consequences.
"He's thought this out, he's been thinking about this for a few years," MacAskill said. "He's not impetuous, and this wasn't a hasty decision."
Will he be extradited?
What happens next to Snowden depends on a number of factors.
If U.S. authorities decide to try to extradite him from Hong Kong, they would first have to charge him.
Though Hong Kong is part of communist-ruled China, the former British colony has a free press and tolerates political dissent under a semi-autonomous government.
Hong Kong's extradition treaty with the United States has exceptions for "political" crimes and cases when handing over a criminal suspect would harm the "defense, foreign affairs or essential public interest or policy" of either party.
"I think he looked around, this seemed the safest bet," MacAskill said. Snowden hopes to get asylum, he added, with Iceland his first choice because of the way it dealt with Wikileaks.
Iceland is one of the countries that offered a degree of legal protection to Wikileaks, a group that facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information through its website. The group reportedly once operated from there.
But Kristin Arnadottir, Iceland's ambassador to China, said that according to Icelandic law, a person can only submit an application for asylum once he or she is in Iceland. Edward Snowden is NSA info leaker Pentagon Papers Whistle blower on NSA
King was the first to call for Snowden's prosecution, in a written statement shortly after Snowden's identity was revealed.
"If Edward Snowden did in fact leak the NSA data as he claims, the United States government must prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and begin extradition proceedings at the earliest date," King, R-New York, said in a written statement. "The United States must make it clear that no country should be granting this individual asylum. This is a matter of extraordinary consequence to American intelligence."
'An enormous service'
But freedom of information advocates take a different view.
"I think he's done an enormous service," said Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers. "It gives us a chance, I think, from drawing back from the total surveillance state that we could say we're in process of becoming, I'm afraid we have become," Ellsberg said on CNN Newsroom on Sunday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
