US whistleblower risks steep jail for data leaks
Source: Agencies |
June 11, 2013, Tuesday
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THE man who exposed two sweeping US surveillance programs and touched off a national debate on privacy versus security, has revealed his own identity. He risks decades in jail for the disclosures - if the US can extradite him from Hong Kong where he has taken refuge since May 20.
Edward Snowden, 29, who says he worked as a contractor at the National Security Agency and the CIA, allowed The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers to reveal his identity yesterday.
Both papers have published a series of top-secret documents outlining two NSA surveillance programs. One gathers hundreds of millions of US phone records while searching for possible links to known terrorist targets abroad, and the second allows the government to tap into nine US Internet companies to gather all Internet usage to detect suspicious behavior that begins overseas.
The NSA has asked the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation into the leaks. Government lawyers are now "in the initial stages of an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by an individual with authorized access," said Nanda Chitre, Justice Department spokeswoman.
US President Barack Obama says the programs are authorized by Congress and subject to strict supervision of a secret court, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claims they do not target US citizens.
But Snowden claims the programs are open to abuse.
"Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector. Anywhere," Snowden said in a video on the Guardian's website. "I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email."
Snowden says he was a former technical assistant for the CIA and a current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, which released a statement on Sunday confirming he had been a contractor with them in Hawaii for less than three months, and promising to work with investigators.
Snowden could face many years in prison for releasing classified information if he is successfully extradited from Hong Kong, according to Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represents whistleblowers.
Hong Kong in southern China, is partly autonomous and has a Western-style legal system. A US-Hong Kong extradition treaty has worked smoothly in the past. Hong Kong extradited three al-Qaeda suspects to the US in 2003. But the treaty comes with important exceptions. Key provisions allow a request to be rejected if it is deemed to be politically motivated or that the suspect would not receive a fair trial.
"The government could subject him to a 10 or 20 year penalty for each count," with each document leaked considered a separate charge, Zaid said.
Snowden told the Post he was not going to hide.
"Allowing the US government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest," he said in the interview published on Sunday.
Snowden told The Guardian he lacked a high school diploma and served in the US Army until he was discharged because of an injury. He later worked as a security guard with the NSA at a covert facility at the University of Maryland.
He later went to work for the CIA as an information technology employee and by 2007 was stationed in Geneva, Switzerland, where he had access to classified documents.
During that time, he considered going public about the nation's secretive programs but told the newspaper he decided against it, because he did not want to put anyone in danger and he hoped Obama's election would curtail some of the clandestine programs. He said he was disappointed that Obama did not rein in the surveillance programs.
"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he told The Guardian. "I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."
Edward Snowden, 29, who says he worked as a contractor at the National Security Agency and the CIA, allowed The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers to reveal his identity yesterday.
Both papers have published a series of top-secret documents outlining two NSA surveillance programs. One gathers hundreds of millions of US phone records while searching for possible links to known terrorist targets abroad, and the second allows the government to tap into nine US Internet companies to gather all Internet usage to detect suspicious behavior that begins overseas.
The NSA has asked the Justice Department to conduct a criminal investigation into the leaks. Government lawyers are now "in the initial stages of an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information by an individual with authorized access," said Nanda Chitre, Justice Department spokeswoman.
US President Barack Obama says the programs are authorized by Congress and subject to strict supervision of a secret court, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claims they do not target US citizens.
But Snowden claims the programs are open to abuse.
"Any analyst at any time can target anyone. Any selector. Anywhere," Snowden said in a video on the Guardian's website. "I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email."
Snowden says he was a former technical assistant for the CIA and a current employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, which released a statement on Sunday confirming he had been a contractor with them in Hawaii for less than three months, and promising to work with investigators.
Snowden could face many years in prison for releasing classified information if he is successfully extradited from Hong Kong, according to Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who represents whistleblowers.
Hong Kong in southern China, is partly autonomous and has a Western-style legal system. A US-Hong Kong extradition treaty has worked smoothly in the past. Hong Kong extradited three al-Qaeda suspects to the US in 2003. But the treaty comes with important exceptions. Key provisions allow a request to be rejected if it is deemed to be politically motivated or that the suspect would not receive a fair trial.
"The government could subject him to a 10 or 20 year penalty for each count," with each document leaked considered a separate charge, Zaid said.
Snowden told the Post he was not going to hide.
"Allowing the US government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest," he said in the interview published on Sunday.
Snowden told The Guardian he lacked a high school diploma and served in the US Army until he was discharged because of an injury. He later worked as a security guard with the NSA at a covert facility at the University of Maryland.
He later went to work for the CIA as an information technology employee and by 2007 was stationed in Geneva, Switzerland, where he had access to classified documents.
During that time, he considered going public about the nation's secretive programs but told the newspaper he decided against it, because he did not want to put anyone in danger and he hoped Obama's election would curtail some of the clandestine programs. He said he was disappointed that Obama did not rein in the surveillance programs.
"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he told The Guardian. "I realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."
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