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Comment by Central Scrutinizer on July 1, 2013 at 10:33pm

Snowden, in new statement, accuses Obama of using ‘old, bad tools of political aggression’

Edward Snowden (Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras/The Guardian)

Edward Snowden, in his first public message since arriving at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport eight days ago, has issued a statement accusing President Obama of deploying “the old, bad tools of political aggression” and “using citizenship as a weapon” in order to silence him. It describes the Obama administration as “afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.”

The message also accuses Vice President  Biden of pressuring foreign leaders to deny his extradition requests.

Here is Snowden’s statement in full, as it appears on the Wikileaks Web site:

One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat from my government 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.

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.

For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.

Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum. In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or 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.

I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

Comment by Central Scrutinizer on June 25, 2013 at 10:55pm

Snowden sent encrypted digital copies of NSA files to others

Greenwald: Snowden’s Files Are Out There if ‘Anything Happens’ to Him

by Eli Lake Jun 25, 2013 1:36 PM EDT

Snowden has shared encoded copies of all the documents he took so that they won’t disappear if he does, Glenn Greenwald tells Eli Lake.

 

 

• As the U.S. government presses Moscow to extradite former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, America’s most wanted leaker has a plan B. The former NSA systems administrator has already given encoded files containing an archive of the secrets he lifted from his old employer to several people. If anything happens to Snowden, the files will be unlocked.

Glenn Greenwald, who first reported former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosure of government surveillance programs, speaks to reporters in June at his hotel in Hong Kong. (Vincent Yu/AP)

Comment by Central Scrutinizer on June 25, 2013 at 7:31am

China's state newspaper praises Edward Snowden for 'tearing off Washington's sanctimonious mask'

State-run People's Daily says whistleblower has exposed US hypocrisy after Washington blamed Beijing for his escape

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/25/peoples-daily-savages-u...

Comment by truth on June 24, 2013 at 11:45am

more here Tracking #Snowden -it is FUN, and you can do it from the Couch i

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