US officials rule out Snowden clemency
Print Edition
The White House and the leaders of the intelligence committees in Congress are rejecting National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s plea for clemency.
“Mr Snowden violated US law,” White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer said on Sunday about the former systems-analyst-turned-fugitive who has temporary asylum in Russia.
“He should return to the US and face justice,” Pfeiffer said, adding that no offers for clemency were being discussed.
Snowden made the plea in a letter given to a German politician and released on Friday. In his one-page typed letter, he asks for clemency for charges over allegedly leaking classified information about the NSA to the news media. “Speaking the truth is not a crime,” he wrote.
Snowden’s revelations, including allegations that the United States has eavesdropped on allies, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have led to calls by allies to cease such spying, and moves by Congress to overhaul US surveillance laws and curb the agency’s powers.
But the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said if Snowden had been a true whistle-blower, he could have reported it to her committee privately. “That didn’t happen, and now he’s done this enormous disservice to our country,” said Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. “I think the answer is no clemency.”
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican, called clemency for Snowden a “terrible idea”.
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