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Pro-Democratic Lawmakers in Hong Kong Urge Obama to “Let Snowden Go!”

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During a press conference earlier today, two Hong Kong lawmakers suggested that the U.S. should “tread very carefully” with the Edward Snowden case and “consider letting go” of the NSA whistleblower.

Claudia Mo Man-ching and Gary Fan Kwok-wai also sent a letter to President Obama, suggesting that prosecution of Snowden might put a “stain … on his political career.”

Man-ching said that extraditing Snowden would be complicated, and wrote in the letter that she and Kwok-wai believe Snowden has “done liberal democracy a service” by leaking the information alleging a vast domestic surveillance program by NSA that may be illegal.

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Snowden Threatens to Reveal More ‘Explosive’ NSA Secrets

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Former U.S. spy Edward Snowden on Wednesday vowed to fight any bid to extradite him from Hong Kong and promised “explosive” new revelations about Washington’s surveillance targets, The South China Morning Post reported.

Specifically, Snowden reportedly showed the newspaper “unverified documents” describing an extensive U.S. campaign to obtain information from computers in Hong Kong and mainland China.

“We hack network backbones, like huge Internet routers, basically, that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one,” he told the newspaper.

Officials have confirmed that Snowden may have more secret material.

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NSA Leaker Snowden Says He’s not Avoiding Justice

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The former CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about U.S. surveillance programs said in a new interview in Hong Kong on Wednesday that he is not attempting to hide from justice here but hopes to use the city as a base to reveal wrongdoing.

Edward Snowden dropped out of sight after checking out of a Hong Kong hotel on Monday. The South China Morning Post newspaper said it was able to locate and interview him on Wednesday. It provided brief excerpts from the interview on its website…

Asked about his choice of Hong Kong to leak the information, Snowden said, “People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality.”

The newspaper quoted him as saying that he had several opportunities to flee from Hong Kong, but that he “would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong’s rule of law.”

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Ron Paul: I’m Worried that the Government Might Kill Edward Snowden With a Drone (+video)

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During an interview with FOX Business, former Rep. Ron Paul explained that he was concerned about the well-being of National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

“I’m worried about somebody in our government might kill him with a cruise missile or a drone missile,” Paul explained. “I mean we live in a bad time where American citizens don’t even have rights and that they can be killed, but the gentlemen is trying to tell the truth about what’s going on.”

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The Perfect Leak

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In his dealings with the media, Edward Snowden played his hand like a pro.

Snowden, 29, was looking to disclose top-secret information about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs to the world — and to do so he arranged a powerful one-two combination punch with the press that provided both mainstream credibility (Barton Gellman and The Washington Post) and someone who shared his ideological inclinations (Glenn Greenwald), according to media observers and whistleblower experts.

As more and more agenda-driven outlets, reporters and bloggers hit the media scene, leakers such as Snowden find themselves with a wealth of potential options to get their information out. It’s a seismic shift from the old media landscape, when would-be leakers had only one clear path to ensuring widespread attention for their stories: a successful pitch to a handful of national newspapers or TV networks.

But the traditional national security media heavyweights — led by The New York Times and The Washington Post — still have outsize influence on stories about intelligence gathering and potential overreach by the government.

So at the end of the day, experts told POLITICO, Snowden found a way to pull off what was in effect the perfect leak. He established parallel tracks with the MSM — The Washington Post and The Guardian — and also found a member of the media who was sympathetic to his cause. Snowden’s material was given widespread exposure and credibility in the traditional press and at the same time had the hand of a friendly journalist on the wheel for at least part of the ride.

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Putin May Grant Asylum to NSA Leaker Snowden

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Russia would consider granting asylum to the American who has exposed top-secret U.S. surveillance programs, if he were to ask for it, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stopped short of saying Moscow would accept Edward Snowden, but pro-Kremlin lawmakers spoke out in favor of the idea, tapping into a lingering Cold War rivalry with the United States and a vein of anti-American sentiment Putin has often encouraged.

“Promising Snowden asylum, Moscow takes upon itself the defense of people persecuted for political reasons,” Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the international affairs committee in the lower house of parliament, said on Twitter.

“There will be hysteria in the United States. They recognize this as their right alone,” he said.

Putin and other Russian officials have often accused the United States of hypocrisy, saying it tries to impose standards of human rights, freedom, and democracy on other nations while falling far short of them itself.

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz: NSA Leaker ‘Should be Extradited, Arrested, and Prosecuted’

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Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the National Security Agency surveillance leaker should be extradited and prosecuted, CBS Miami reported Tuesday.

According to the local news outlet, the Florida Democratic congresswoman said that while she did not vote for the programs, she believes that the leaker, Edward Snowden should be prosecuted for revealing details about the Prism surveillance program.

“He should be extradited, arrested, and prosecuted,” CBS Miami quoted Wasserman Schultz. “That’s exactly what should happen to him because he violated the law. He violated America’s trust. He jeopardized millions of Americans.”

Wasserman Schultz’ tough talk echoes other lawmakers including New York Republican Rep. Peter King and House Speaker John Boehner.

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Leaker of NSA Info Disappears, Americans Flock to Legal Defense Fund

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A contractor at the National Security Agency who leaked details of top-secret U.S. surveillance programs dropped out of sight in Hong Kong on Monday ahead of a likely push by the U.S. government to have him sent back to the United States to face charges.

Edward Snowden, 29, who provided the information for published reports last week that revealed the NSA’s broad monitoring of phone call and Internet data from large companies such as Google and Facebook, checked out of his Hong Kong hotel hours after going public in a video released on Sunday by Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

The disclosures by Snowden have sent shockwaves across Washington, where several lawmakers called on Monday for the extradition and prosecution of the ex-CIA employee who was behind one of the most significant security leaks in U.S. history.

There were some signs, however, that Snowden’s stance against government surveillance and his defense of personal privacy was resonating with at least some Americans.

Supporters flocked to Snowden’s aid on the Internet – more than 25,000 people signed an online petition urging Obama to pardon Snowden even before he has been charged. A separate effort on Facebook to raise funds for Snowden’s legal defense netted nearly $8,000 in just a few hours.

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Support Grows for Petition to Pardon NSA Leaker Edward Snowden

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A petition for President Obama to pardon Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who admitted leaking information on classified government surveillance programs, had collected more than 18,000 signatures on the White House’s website shortly after 1 p.m. Monday.

“Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs,” states the petition, which was created on Sunday.

Mr. Snowden, who is seeking asylum in Hong Kong, said he leaked the information to Britain’s Guardian newspaper because he wanted the public to know the scope of the U.S. government’s surveillance programs. In the past week, he has revealed the government’s collection of millions of citizens’ phone records and a top-secret program known as Prism that monitors data from top Internet companies.

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Glenn Beck’s Passionate Defense of NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden: ‘He has Issued Himself a Death Warrant’ (+video)

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Glenn Beck on his radio show Monday passionately defended Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who leaked explosive classified information on the federal government’s massive surveillance programs.

“At least what he is doing is an act of heroism,” Beck said of Snowden. “What he is doing, coming out and speaking to the press, he has issued himself a death warrant.”

“He’s at least lost his life, and he may have his life taken from him,” he added.

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