Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped - Snowden
US: Rogue intelligence technician Edward Snowden said on Monday that
the US government would not be able to halt his revelations about its
secret surveillance programs.
“All I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able
to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it
cannot be stopped,” Snowden said in an online interview hosted by the
Guardian newspaper.
Responding to questions posted by Guardian readers and reporters, the
29-year-old leaker said he had fled to Hong Kong before exposing the
programs because he did not feel he would get a fair hearing in the
United States.
“The US government, just as they did with other whistleblowers,
immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at
home, openly declaring me guilty of treason,” he said.
“That's not justice, and it would be foolish to volunteer yourself to
it if you can do more good outside of prison than in it,” he said.
Some in Washington have suggested Snowden chose Hong Kong because he
was working with US rival China, but he said he had picked his
destination as somewhere the government could withstand US diplomatic
pressure.
“Leaving the US was an incredible risk, as NSA employees must declare
their foreign travel 30 days in advance and are monitored,” referring to
his decision last month to leave his job at the National Security
Agency's base in Hawaii.
“There was a distinct possibility I would be interdicted en route, so
I had to travel with no advance booking to a country with the cultural
and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately
detained.” Snowden was employed by a private contractor, Booz Allen
Hamilton, to help maintain the NSA's secret computer networks in Hawaii,
and left with what he says was large quantity of classified documents
related to its surveillance programs.
In Hong Kong, he gave an interview to the Guardian and passed on
evidence that the agency gathers telephone data from millions of US
citizens and scoops up vast amounts of data on private Internet traffic
around the world.
AFP
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