Snowden quer voltar a casa, mas não para acabar numa cela.Edward Snowden: breaking law was only option, says whistleblower Snowden tells NBC it was his duty to reveal sprawling NSA surveillance and going home would be 'walking into a jail cell'

Snowden quer voltar a casa, mas não para acabar numa cela

SOFIA LORENA 29/05/2014 - PÚBLICO

Sugerindo que gostaria de beneficiar de uma amnistia, o ex-analista voltou às denúncias dos programas de espionagem da NSA. Kerry diz-lhe que regresse para enfrentar "o sistema de justiça americano".

Edward Snowden, o analista informático na origem das revelações sobre os programas de vigilância e espionagem da Agência de Segurança Nacional (NSA) norte-americana, quer voltar a casa, aos Estados Unidos, afirmou numa entrevista ao canal de televisão norte-americano NBC.

“Se há um lugar no mundo para onde eu desejaria ir é para casa”, disse Snowden, quase um ano depois do início da publicação de documentos que revelaram a dimensão das escutas ilegais realizadas por Washington em todo o mundo. O antigo consultor da NSA repetiu ter agido “desde o primeiro dia para servir o seu país”. “Resta às pessoas decidirem se eu posso beneficiar de uma medida de amnistia ou de clemência.”

Pouco antes da transmissão da entrevista de uma hora, a primeira dada por Snowden a uma televisão nos EUA, e na sequência da divulgação dos primeiros excertos, o secretário de Estado, John Kerry, descrevia o analista como “um fugitivo” que "provocou grandes danos ao seu país", sugerindo-lhe que “deve portar-se como um homem e regressar aos EUA”. “Um patriota não fugiria”, disse. “Se ele acredita na América devia confiar no sistema de justiça americano”, acrescentou.

O attorney general (equivalente a ministro da Justiça) Eric Holder já disse que perdoar Snowden “seria ir demasiado longe”, mas admitiu que os EUA “entrariam num diálogo” com o analista para encontrar uma solução se ele aceitasse a responsabilidade pelas fugas de informação.

Snowden foi acusado de roubo e várias violações da Lei da Espionagem por divulgar detalhes dos programas de espionagem aos meios de comunicação social – incluindo ao norte-americano The Washington Post e ao britânico The Guardian, que este ano ganharam o Prémio Pulitzer pelo tratamento jornalístico dos documentos revelados.

Snowden quer voltar a casa, mas não para “entrar na cela de uma prisão”. Isso, defende, “seria um mau exemplo para outras pessoas no governo que vejam alguma coisa a passar-se, alguma violação da Constituição, e pensem que deveriam dizer qualquer coisa sobre isso”.

Na entrevista, Snowden não negou ter cometido ilegalidades. “Há alturas em que o que está certo e o que é legal não são o mesmo”, justificou. “Às vezes, fazer o que está certo significa fazer algo ilegal.”

Proteger a Constituição

Explicando que nunca planeou acabar na Rússia, país que em Agosto lhe deu o estatuto de refugiado, Snowden contou que tinha previsto viajar até à América Latina mas quando a administração norte-americana lhe revogou o passaporte teve de permanecer no aeroporto de Moscovo. Isto depois de ter abandonado o hotel de Hong Kong onde se encontrava quando os documentos que obteve começaram a sair na imprensa.

“Eu nunca me encontrei com o Presidente russo. Eu não sou apoiado pelo Governo russo. Não recebo dinheiro deles. Não sou um espião, que é o que está em causa”, afirmou.

Na entrevista realizada na Rússia, Snowden repetiu 22 vezes a palavra Constituição (as contas são do Washington Post). “Ser um patriota não significa dar prioridade a servir o Governo acima de tudo”, disse. “Ser um patriota significa saber quando é preciso proteger o país e quando é preciso proteger a Constituição contra o ataque de adversários. E os adversários não têm de ser países estrangeiros. Podem ser maus polícias.”

O debate nos EUA

As revelações feitas por Snowden embaraçaram a administração de Barack Obama (principalmente por provarem que Washington regista conversas privadas de dirigentes estrangeiros aliados), mas abriram um debate nos EUA sobre o papel da NSA e os limites que devem enquadrar o poder da agência para conduzir os seus programas de vigilância.

Obama pediu ao Congresso para pôr ordem nestes programas, impedir a NSA de armazenar por si mesma os dados das comunicações e obrigar a agência a pedir aos tribunais para ter acesso aos registos das empresas de telecomunicações. A Casa Branca já aprovou esta legislação e, na semana passada, enviou-a ao Senado.

Num registo bem mais descontraído do que em anteriores aparições públicas, Snowden contou ao entrevistador Brian Williams que tem pouco com que se entreter na Rússia, já que nem fala a língua. Disse que passa os dias em casa a ver a série norte-americana The Wire (que em 2008 Obama nomeou como o seu “programa de televisão favorito"), apesar de achar “que a segunda temporada não é assim tão boa”

Edward Snowden: breaking law was only option, says whistleblower

Snowden tells NBC it was his duty to reveal sprawling NSA surveillance and going home would be 'walking into a jail cell'

Tom McCarthy in New York

 theguardian.com, Thursday 29 May 2014/ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/29/edward-snowden-interview-breaking-law-was-only-option-says-whistleblower

One year after revealing himself as the source of the biggest intelligence leak in US history, Edward Snowden appeared in a long network television interview on Wednesday to describe himself as an American patriot and to make the case that his disclosures were motivated by a desire to help the country.

In his most extensive public comments to date Snowden sought to answer critics who have said his actions damaged US national security or that the threat from the secret government surveillance he revealed was overblown. Snowden was interviewed by the NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who travelled to Moscow for the meeting.

Snowden defended his decision to leak documents to the press, instead of making his complaints via internal channels, and explained why he had decided for the moment not to travel back to the United States to face criminal charges.

“If I could go anywhere in the world that place would be home,” Snowden told Williams. “I’ve from day one said that I’m doing this to serve my country … I don’t think there’s ever been any question that I’d like to go home.”

Snowden said he had not second-guessed his decision, however, to release an estimated 1.7m top secret government documents. “My priority is not about myself,” Snowden said. “It’s about making sure that these programs are reformed – and that the family that I left behind, the country that I left behind – can be helped by my actions.”

The interview, which took place at Kempinski Hotel in Moscow last week, followed months of negotiations between the news network and representatives of Snowden. The conversation, which was held in a library and lasted more than four hours, was billed as Snowden's first interview with a US television network.

Snowden has regularly participated in interviews over the last year, although never on such a large stage, or on one as likely to bring his words – and his argument – into American living rooms. NBC Nightly News, which ran clips from the interview, drew about 8.4m total viewers per night in May.

On Wednesday Snowden, 30, described for the first time his experience of the 9/11 terror attacks and talked about his views on the threat of terrorism.

“I’ve never told anybody this,” he said. “No journalist. But I was on Fort Meade [Maryland] on September 11th. I was right outside the NSA. So I remember – I remember the tension of that day. I remember hearing on the radio the planes hitting. And I remember thinking my grandfather, who worked for the FBI at the time, was in the Pentagon when the plane hit it.

“I take the threat of terrorism seriously. And I think we all do. And I think it’s really disingenuous for the government to invoke and sort of scandalize our memories, to sort of exploit the national trauma that we all suffered together and worked so hard to come through to justify programs that have never been shown to keep us safe, but cost us liberties and freedoms that we don’t need to give up and our constitution says we should not give up.”

Snowden said he did not consider himself blameless. “I think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout history where what is right is not the same as what is legal,” he said. “Sometimes to do the right thing, you have to break a law.”

In a Pew Research poll of Americans earlier this year 57% of 18 to 29-year-olds said Snowden’s leaks had served the public interest but respondents 65 and over disagreed. A majority of respondents in older age groups supported prosecuting Snowden, while the 18-29 group split 42-42% on the question.

As much as he wanted to return home, Snowden said, he did not plan “to walk into a jail cell”. He repeated a view explained elsewhere by his legal counsel that the charges he faces under the 1917 Espionage Act would not allow him to mount a defense that he had acted in the public interest.

“These are things that no individual should empower himself to really decide, you know, ‘I’m gonna give myself a parade,’” Snowden said in reply to a question about how he judged his actions. “But neither am I going to walk into a jail cell, to serve as a bad example for other people in government who see something happening, some violation of the constitution, and think they need to say something about it.”

In the year he has lived in Russia as a fugitive from US law, Snowden said, he had not met President Vladimir Putin. “I have no relationship with the Russian government at all,” he said.

NBC News said it had confirmed “with multiple sources” that before he took the story to the press Snowden had raised a concern about possibly illegal surveillance on at least one occasion with intelligence agency superiors. Snowden said he had advanced his concerns on multiple occasions, even sending emails to the office of the NSA general counsel, and that the NSA would have a paper trail. The NSA has denied Snowden took such steps.

Snowden said he remained comfortable with the decision he made.

"I may have lost the ability to travel but I've gained the ability to fall asleep at night and know I've done the right thing and I'm comfortable with that.”