NSA leaks will continue to be revealed, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has warned the US government, no matter what happens to Edward Snowden, who is stuck in diplomatic limbo in Russia as he is seeking asylum in Ecuador.
Assange warned that measures have been implemented to hinder any
attempt by Washington to try and stop the publication of more
classified material.
“There is no stopping the publishing process at this
stage,” he told ABC News program 'This Week,' from the
confinement of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has
been holed up after Quito granted him political asylum.
"Great care has been taken to make sure Mr Snowden cannot be
pressured by any state to stop the publishing process,"
Assange added.
He had also compared the fate of the 29-year-old Snowden to his
own, calling the NSA whistleblower a “hero.”
“He has told the people of the world and the United States
that there is mass unlawful interception of their communications,
far beyond anything that happened under Nixon,” Assange said
of Snowden.
According to Assange, WikiLeaks helped Snowden obtain refugee
travel documents in Hong Kong that could help decide Snowden’s
fate as he is struggling to leave the transit area at a Moscow
airport after the US revoked his passport.
Snowden who asked for asylum in Ecuador is awaiting the decision
from the authorities. For now he remains in Moscow in a “a
very sensitive” situation, according to the WikiLeaks
founder. On this matter Assange said, “It’s a matter of
international diplomatic negotiations, so there’s little that I
can productively say about what is happening directly.”
Assange also hinted that by barricading Snowden in Moscow, the US
had given the Russian intelligence services the opportunity to
exploit NSA information. “Is that really a great outcome by
the State Department?” Assange asked.
But the road to asylum should be strait forward, Assange said as
the request is not criminal, despite the espionage charges
Washington indicted him with.
“He has acted in a manner to draw attention to a very serious
problem in the United States, where, without the will of
Congress, without the will of the American population, we now
have a state within a state, we have the transnational
surveillance apparatus,” Assange said.
In regards to potential harm that the revelation of US classified
material could cause, the Australian said that “no one from
any government says that any of our revelations in the past six
years has caused anyone to come to physical harm.”
Also on Sunday, The Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa, told the
Associated Press that Snowden would not be able to leave Russia
without his US passport. Correa also criticized Ecuador's consul
for issuing Snowden with a safe passage letter that was allegedly
used on a journey between Hong Kong to Russia. Correa also stated
that if Snowden violated US laws he should be held responsible,
adding that the case was "not in Ecuador's hands".