Snowden seeks Latin American escape
RUSSIA : New reports emerged Sunday of US spying efforts
around the world as fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden remained
holed up in a Russian airport seeking an escape route to Latin America.
Snowden remained hidden in a Moscow airport transit zone for the 15th
day on Sunday, but was back in the press with claims that the US
National Security Agency (NSA) operated broad spying partnerships with
other Western governments that are now complaining about its programmes
and intercepted millions of phone calls and emails in Brazil.
Snowden told Germany's Der Spiegel that NSA spies were "in bed
together with the Germans and most other Western states", in an
interview the news weekly said was conducted before the 30-year-old
former NSA contractor began his string of high-profile leaks last month.
In remarks published in German, Snowden said an NSA department known
as the Foreign Affairs Directorate coordinated work with foreign secret
services.
The partnerships are organised so that authorities in other countries
can "insulate their political leaders from the backlash" if it becomes
public "how grievously they're violating global privacy", he said.
Brazilian daily O Globo meanwhile reported that the NSA spied on
Brazilian residents and companies as well as people travelling in
Brazil, citing documents obtained from Snowden.
"Exact figures are not available, but last January, Brazil was just
behind the United States, where 2.3 billion phone calls and messages
were spied on," the newspaper said in an article co-written by Glenn
Greenwald of the Guardian, the British newspaper that published
Snowden's leaks on top-secret US surveillance.
O Globo said the documents described a programme called Fairview in
which the NSA partnered with a major US phone company to gain access to
the systems of overseas companies with which the US firm had
relationships.
"The NSA used the Fairview programme to directly access the Brazilian
telecommunications system. That access allowed it to collect detailed
records of phone calls and emails from millions of people, companies and
institutions," the paper said.
Brazil considers the allegation "extremely serious", foreign ministry
spokesman Tovar Nunes told AFP.
The new reports came as Snowden faced the logistical nightmare of
escaping Russia for a safe haven in Latin America after the leftist
leaders of Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua all offered him asylum.
One of Russia's most senior lawmakers suggested Sunday that Snowden
should accept an offer extended to him by Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro.
"Venezuela is waiting for an answer from Snowden," said parliament's
foreign affairs committee chairman Alexei Pushkov.
AFP
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