Former N.S.A. contractor Edward Snowden has vehemently denied that he is a spy, in a rare interview from Moscow.
Snowden said that the allegations that he is a Russia spy are absurd.
This follows remarks made last Sunday by Congressman, Mike Rogers, R-Mich. On ‘Meet the Press.’ where he said he believed somebody must have helped Snowden steal the documents.
He called Snowden a thief said that he believed it was neither ‘coincidence’ nor ‘a gee-whiz luck event that he ended up in Moscow under the handling of the F.S.B.’
Snowden has denied the allegations outright, stressing that he ‘clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no assistance from anyone, much less a government.’ He added, ‘It won’t stick…. Because it’s clearly false, and the American people are smarter than politicians think they are.’
If he were a Russian spy, Snowden asked, ‘Why Hong Kong?’ And why, then, was he “stuck in the airport forever” when he reached Moscow? (He spent forty days in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo International Airport.) ‘Spies get treated better than that.’
In a report that Snowden stayed at the Russian embassy in Hong Kong, Ben Wizner, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, denied that report, however, saying, ‘Every news organization in the world has been trying to confirm that story. They haven’t been able to, because it’s false.’
Snowden states that he intended to travel to South America and he had a ticket via Havana. The US cancelled his passport and forced the Bolivian President’s plane to land. If he could travel without U.S. interference, ‘I would of course do so.’
He said he wants to help, not hurt, the United States. ‘Due to extraordinary planning involved, in nine months no one has credibly shown any harm to national security ‘from the revelations, he said, ‘or any ill intent.’
Snowden closed the interview and stated that he ‘knew what he was getting into’ when he became a whistle-blower. “At least the American public has a seat at the table now,’ he said. ‘It may sound trite, ‘but if ‘I end up disgraced in a ditch somewhere, but it helps the country, it will still be worth it.’
Source: Washington Post
