America’s “Prism Door” whistle-blower, Edward Snowden, said on Jan. 23 (early morning on the 24th, Beijing time), while answering questions online, that he could not go back to the United States because “there’s no chance to have a fair trial.” Snowden also urged the U.S. to strengthen protection for informants.
He also disclosed that America’s large-scale monitoring project is able to keep a record of daily life lasting up to five years, even for American citizens who have no criminal record; even the most innocent of citizens could be harmed by information recorded about them.
Disclosing Government Monitoring of Citizens’ Daily Activities
Snowden, who is currently taking temporary refuge in Russia, answered questions online asked by 13 Internet users on the website “Free Snowden.”
An Internet user asked: What’s the worst and most realistic harm from the bulk collection of data?
Snowden answered, “The worst and happening-right-now harm of bulk collection — which again, is a euphemism for mass surveillance — is two-fold.
“The first is the chilling effect, which is well-understood. Study after study has show[n] that human behavior changes when we know we’re being watched. Under observation, we act less free, which means we effectively are less free.
“The second, less understood but far more sinister effect of these classified programs is that they effectively create ‘permanent records’ of our daily activities, even in the absence of any wrongdoing on our part. This enables a capability called ‘retroactive investigation,’ where once you come to the government’s attention, they’ve got a very complete record of your daily activity going back, under current law, often as far as five years. You might not remember where you went to dinner on June 12, 2009, but the government does.”
Snowden stressed that the power of these records has not been exaggerated. In fact, researchers have found, this kind of data collection will cause a “destruction of the database.” There will even be harmful and embarrassing information about the most innocent of people. The government’s act of collecting information without any reason for doubt will never be legal, the United States Privacy and Civil Liberties Board has concluded.
Snowden said, “Fundamentally, a society in which the pervasive monitoring of the sum of civil activity becomes routine is turning from the traditions of liberty toward what is an inherently illiberal infrastructure of preemptive investigation, a sort of quantified state where the least of actions are measured for propriety. I don’t seek to pass judgment in favor or against such a state in the short time I have here, only to declare that it is not the one we inherited, and should we as a society embrace it, it should be the result of public decision rather than closed conference.”
U.S. Laws Criticized as Obsolete
When asked about returning to America, Snowden said, “The hundred-year-old law under which I’ve been charged, which was never intended to be used against people working in the public interest, and forbids a public interest defense. This is especially frustrating, because it means there’s no chance to have a fair trial, and no way I can come home and make my case to a jury.
“Returning to the U.S., I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public and myself, but it’s unfortunately not possible in the face of current whistle-blower protection laws, which through a failure in law did not cover national security contractors like myself,” Snowden said.
A report quoted by an anonymous intelligence official disclosed that they were discussing the issue of Snowden’s death and how to kill him. Due to this, on Jan. 21, Snowden’s Russian lawyer said that Snowden needs better security measures.
In an answer on Jan. 23, Snowden said that he is concerned about these kinds of “direct threats on my life,” but promised not to “be afraid.”
Snowden made the criticism that American offers no protection for whistle-blowers who have official reports containing evidence of misconduct; he urges the U.S. to improve the situation. Currently the measures for protection of whistleblowers are “too weak” and “ineffective … they appear to be intended to discourage reporting of even the clearest wrongdoing.”
“Maybe when Congress comes together to end the programs the PCLOB just announced was illegal, they’ll reform the Whistle-blower Protection Act, and we’ll see a mechanism for all Americans, no matter who they work for, to get a fair trial,” Snowden said.
While Snowden was answering questions, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that if Snowden wishes to return to the U.S. and “enter a plea, we would engage with his lawyers.”
Holder said that the American government takes the same approach toward anyone who wishes to admit guilt, but in Snowden’s case, “the notion of clemency was not something we were willing to consider.”
Denied Stealing Coworkers’ Passwords
Last year, in the U.S., Snowden was charged with transmission of government property as well as unauthorized transmission of confidential national security information and intelligence data to unauthorized persons.
In the question-and-answer session, Snowden expressed surprise regarding a Reuters report from Nov. 7 of last year. The report quoted an anonymous news source as saying that in the NSA contractor base in Hawaii, Snowden used colleagues’ login and password information in order to obtain some of the materials that he later disclosed to the media.
Snowden said that the report is “simply wrong. I never stole any passwords, nor did I trick an army of co-workers.”
In 2013, Snowden was employed by National Security Agency contractor Booz Allen as a systems administrator; he went to the base in Hawaii, but chose to leave after a few months. Barb Burg, Reuters Global Head of Communications, issued a statement in support of the Reuters report, but she said, “We … did not, in any event, accuse Mr. Snowden of stealing.”
Q&A Excerpt
Do you think it’s a shame that Obama gave his NSA speech before his Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board reported?
The timing of his speech seems particularly interesting, given that it was accompanied by so many claims that “these programs have not been abused.” In contrast, the federal government’s independent PCLOB report on the NSA’s mass phone surveillance today (which stated the NSA has spied on at least 120,000,000 American phones under this program) ….
I think there is no reason at all to continue this kind of unconstitutional intelligence program, which has been ineffective at least 120,000,000 times. *
Do you think that the Watchdog Report by Privacy & Civil Liberties Oversight Board will have any impact at all?
I don’t see how Congress could ignore it, as it makes it clear there is no reason at all to maintain the 215 program.
The Ecuadorean Consul in London, Fidel Narvaez, lost his job after his helping you to safety was spun. Message for his family?
Fidel is an incredibly brave individual, and he did everything that was possible to ensure that the rights of someone he had never met would be protected. He could have turned away from a tough decision, but instead of letting my situation become someone else’s problem, he did what he thought was right. That kind of commitment to doing the right thing, even knowing it could get you in trouble, is something the world needs more of.
Recently several threats have been made on your life by the intelligence community. Are you afraid for your life? Thoughts?
It’s concerning, to me, but primarily for reasons you might not expect.
That current, serving officials of our government are so comfortable in their authorities that they’re willing to tell reporters on the record that they think the due process protections of the 5th Amendment of our Constitution are outdated concepts. These are the same officials telling us to trust that they’ll honor the 4th and 1st Amendments. This should bother all of us.
They say it’s a balance of privacy and safety. I think spying makes us less safe. Do you agree?
Intelligence agencies do have a role to play, and the people at the working level at the NSA, CIA or any other member of the IC are not out to get you. They’re good people trying to do the right thing, and I can tell you from personal experience that they were worried about the same things I was.
The people you need to watch out for are the unaccountable senior officials authorizing these unconstitutional programs, and unreliable mechanisms like the secret FISA court, a rubber-stamp authority that approves 99.97 percent of government requests (which denied only 11 requests out of 33,900 in 33 years). They’re the ones that get us into trouble with the Constitution by letting us go too far.
A U.S. Government Agency Warns that the NSA Is Acting Illegally
The same day as Snowden’s online question-and-answer session, the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board issued a 234-page report warning that the NSA’s daily collection of Americans’ communication records is illegal, and suggesting that President Obama discontinue this project and destroy records that have already been collected.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Commission is an independent U.S. federal agency. Earlier this month, the board submitted its report for consideration by Obama. Since then, Obama has announced his intention to change the government monitoring project, but he said that the large-scale mobile phone monitoring project will still exist for a period of time.
“Besides the illegality of recording of cell phone information, the committee also maintains that this method is ineffective,” James Dempsey, a member of the Committee for the American Center for Democracy and Technology, said.*
Note: The Q&A cited in this article appears in full here: http://www.freesnowden.is/asksnowden/
*Editor’s Note: These quotations, accurately translated, could not be verified.
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