Posted on 10/12/2013 11:38:56 PM PDT by cunning_fish
Moscow (AFP) - US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden warned of dangers to democracy in the first video released of the fugitive since Russia granted him temporary asylum in August.
"If we can't understand the policies and programmes of our government we can't grant our consent in regulating them," Snowden said in one of the short video clips posted on the WikiLeaks website Friday night.
The anti-secrecy group said the videos were filmed Wednesday when Snowden met with a group of four retired US ex-intelligence workers and activists now seeking to promote ethics within the profession.
Snowden, a former National Security Agency computer administrator, is wanted in the United States for espionage and other charges after leaking details of vast US telephone and Internet surveillance programs.
Dressed in a black suit and blue shirt with no tie and looking at ease, Snowden reiterated the dangers of NSA surveillance, saying indiscriminate spying was a "far cry" from legitimate programmes.
"It's a sort of dragnet mass surveillance that puts entire populations under a sort of eye that sees everything, even when it's not needed," he said.
"People all over the world are realising that these programmes don't make us more safe, they hurt our economy, they hurt our country, they limit our ability to speak and think and live and be creative, to have relationships, to associate freely."
The videos show Snowden and the four former US government employees chatting and smiling over dinner at a luxurious room in an unidentified location.
During the evening, former ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern gave Snowden an award -- a symbolic candlestick -- that acknowledges integrity in the profession.
"We are confident that others with similar moral fibre will follow his example in illuminating dark corners and exposing crimes that put our civil rights as free citizens
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Bump
I wish he would do something about the train station in the far distance that early every morning tells me to get out of bed and do stuff.
I have a hard time with this guy. I understand why he believes the US is not being forthright yet to run to the communists for safety is strange.
This guy is in the middle of a circular firing squad.
Video here: http://globalnews.ca/news/899161/snowden-says-mass-surveillance-program-making-people-less-safe/
The brown streaks on the Constitution are NOT rust stains.
It's why Obama and the rest of the Demopublican/Republicrat party have got big smiles on their faces. Their bums are nice and clean...
Birds of a feather flock together.
Ray McGovern is associated with the Lyndon LaRouche, an old Trotskyite communist, and LaRouche’s bunch have an uncanny knack for making money by appearing to be on all sides simultaneously...selling their national security and superficial “anti-Russia” publications to conservatives and their antiwar publications to libertarians and liberals alike...their anti-Semitic and anti-British garbage to anyone who will listen. All while promoting the interests of Russia. Strange chameleon folk.
Ray is also linked to Dan Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers infamy.
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