U.S. TELEVISION EXCLUSIVE: EDWARD SNOWDEN WANTS TO COME HOME BUT SAYS THE U.S. WON’T GIVE HIM A FAIR TRIAL
“I’m Not Asking for a Pass. What I’m Asking for Is a Fair Trial”
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is shedding new light on his decision to reveal classified documents about the U.S. government’s mass surveillance program. In 2013 Snowden disclosed government programs that collected Americans’ emails, phone calls and internet activity in the name of national security. The U.S. government charged Snowden under the Espionage Act for his actions. A congressional report said his disclosures “caused tremendous damage to national security.” In his new memoir, Permanent Record, Snowden tells his story in detail for the first time and speaks about his life in exile in Russia. Snowden, who now identifies himself as a privacy advocate, spoke with CBS THIS MORNING in an exclusive U.S. television interview. Watch the interview in the below link.
WATCH: https://cbsn.ws/2mcHLMv
EXCERPTS:
- “I would like to return to the United States. That is the ultimate goal. But if I’m going to spend the rest of my life in prison, the one bottom-line demand that we have to agree to is that at least I get a fair trial. And that is the one thing the government has refused to guarantee because they won’t provide access to what’s called a public interest defense.”
- “This was actually one of the hardest parts of coming forward… I couldn’t talk to anybody about it... I couldn’t tell the love of my life who’s a central figure in the story, Lindsay Mills, my longtime partner.”
- “Did I break the law? Again, what’s the question that’s more important here? Was the law broken, or was that the right thing to do?”
- “I’m not asking for a pass. What I am asking for is a fair trial.”
- Tony Dokoupil: “... on the question of harm. I don’t know that you’re, forgive me, but how are you in a position to judge the harm in your disclosures? Isn’t that something that the intelligence community would be uniquely situated to gauge?”
- Edward Snowden: “Well, I would argue, that I worked for the U.S. intelligence agency for a long time. I am the only one who knows the actual documents that the journalists have, and the ones that they published. We all know, and so it’s available to all of us to assess the harms. And again, if they had some classified information. If they had some classified evidence that a hair on a single person’s head was harmed, you know as well as I do, it would be on the front page of The New York Times by the end of the day.”
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