Snowden chose ‘fearless’ journalists to reveal secrets
Print Edition
US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden said in an interview released yesterday he chose to divulge details of a vast US surveillance effort to journalists who reported "fearlessly" on controversial subjects.
Snowden, in the interview released by The New York Times, said he chose documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald because they were not cowed by the US government.
"After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power — the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government — for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism," Snowden was quoted as saying in an encrypted conversation with journalist Peter Maass for the Times Sunday magazine.
"Laura and Glenn are among the few who reported fearlessly on controversial topics throughout this period, even in the face of withering personal criticism, and resulted in Laura specifically becoming targeted by the very programs involved in the recent disclosures."
He said Poitras "demonstrated the courage, personal experience and skill needed to handle what is probably the most dangerous assignment any journalist can be given — reporting on the secret misdeeds of the most powerful government in the world — making her an obvious choice."
Snowden, who was granted asylum in Russia after spending over five weeks in a Moscow airport transit zone, is said by his lawyers to now be at an undisclosed secret location.
The US wants to put Snowden on trial for leaking details of vast American surveillance programs but Moscow has steadfastly refused to hand him over.
A former contractor, Snowden released details of secret National Security Agency programs aimed at thwarting terrorism which sweep up vast amounts of phone and Internet data.
Snowden added he was surprised Greenwald did not agree to his requests to encrypt all communications.
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