Snowden issues statement from Moscow on WikiLeaks

Edward Snowden, the ex-NSA employee who was responsible for leaking classified documents to the press about US government surveillance programs, issued an official statement on WikiLeaks from Moscow yesterday.

The whistleblower had earlier fled to Hong Kong after news of the PRISM programme came to the public sphere. The US government was later seen urging the Hong Kong government to extradite Snowden, who would be tried for charges of espionage .

In his statement, Snowden said, “One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.”

Whistle blower issues statement from Moscow on WikiLeaks

After Ecuador disavowed his political protection credentials, Snowden reportedly applied for asylum in 15 other countries, including Russia, according to the LA Times. While talking about this, Snowden said, “On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic ‘wheeling and dealing’ over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions. This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.”

Snowden was vocal about the fact that in the past US had been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum, which no longer seems to be the case. While appealing to the public, Snowden was direct when he said that the Obama administration was not afraid of whistleblowers, but of the public. While citing his own case, as well as others from the past, the ex-NSA employee stated that these individuals were stateless, imprisoned and powerless. “No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.”