If Brazil were to offer political asylum to Edward Snowden, he would gladly accept. The whistleblower told Brazilian TV that he is certain that if he returned to the US he would be tried unfairly for revealing the NSA’s global spy program.
Why would Stockholm Internet Forum blacklist Snowden from Internet freedom debate? Read here
In an interview with Fantastico, a weekly program broadcast by
Brazilian Globo News, Snowden opened up about his life in Russia
and said he has no regrets over what he has done. The interview
is thought to have been filmed two weeks ago when a selfie of Snowden posing with David Miranda,
Laura Poitras and journalist Glen Greenwald appeared online.
“I felt it was my responsibility to go public,” he told
Globo, referring to the classified data on US spy programs that
he turned over to the press for publication. “I left the free
press to do what it does best: help citizens to make an informed
decision about what kind of society they want to live in.”
He told Brazilian TV he is happy and living in Russia is not as
bad as people make it out to be. Snowden received temporary
political asylum in Russia last August after the US government
canceled his passport, effectively stranding the whistleblower in
one of Moscow’s airports for over a month. Washington has filed
for Snowden’s extradition and has formally charged him under the
Espionage Act.
“It’s difficult being away from family and not being able to
go home or be an active member of society,” said Snowden.
His temporary political asylum in Russia will expire in two
months and the whistleblower admits he has no concrete plans for
the future.
“My asylum here runs out in August. If Brazil were to offer
me asylum, I would be more than happy to accept,” said
Snowden, maintaining he had already filed an application for
asylum last year. When told during the interview that the
Brazilian government claims it never received an application for
asylum, Snowden responded, “That’s news to me.”
“When I was in the [Moscow] airport, I sent applications to
various countries. Brazil was one of them. It was an official
application.”
For the time being, Snowden says he is taking one day at a time
and is able to live a relatively normal life in Russia as he is
not widely recognized when he goes out.
“People recognize me when I go to computer stores, but when
I’m buying food or looking at magazines, no one recognizes
me,” said Snowden, refraining from answering whether or not
he wears a disguise when he goes out. When asked if he thinks the
Russian government is keeping tabs on him, Snowden said there was
probably some sort of surveillance program, but he had not
noticed anything.
Snowden has been condemned as a criminal in the US for revealing
the espionage antics of the National Security Agency. US
Secretary of State John Kerry called the whistleblower a
“coward” and a “traitor” last week and called
on him to face justice in the US. Snowden, however, argues his
actions were always in the best interests of the US.
“You cannot be a traitor unless you have changed your
allegiance to an enemy state. My allegiance has not changed. I
continue to work for the American government. I don’t want to
destroy the government, I want to improve it, make it
better.”
His leaked documents informed the public that the US government,
in conjunction with European allies, gatherers and stores
millions of pieces of metadata indiscriminately from regular
citizens. In addition to monitoring ordinary people, the NSA also
bugged the personal communications of high-ranking businessmen
and world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.