Four former U.S. government officials who met with former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden said Thursday that he is adjusting to life in Russia and expresses no regrets about leaking highly classified information. Separately, Snowden's father arrived to see his son。
In short video clips posted by the WikiLeaks website on Friday, Snowden said that the NSA's mass surveillance, which he disclosed before fleeing to Russia, "puts us at risk of coming into conflict with our own government."
A U.S. court has charged Snowden with violating the Espionage Act for disclosing those programs。
Snowden described them as a "dragnet mass surveillance that puts entire populations under sort of an eye that sees everything even when it's not needed."
"They hurt our economy. They hurt our country. They limit our ability to speak and think and live and be creative, to have relationships and to associate freely," Snowden said。
The videos are the first of Snowden speaking since July 12, when the former NSA analyst was shown at a Moscow airport pleading with Russian authorities to grant him asylum, which they did on Aug. 1.
That decision has strained the relations between the U.S. and Russia, and President Barack Obama called off a meeting with President Putin at a summit hosted by Russia in September。
Snowden said the U.S. government was "unwilling to prosecute high officials who lied to Congress and the country on camera, but they'll stop at nothing to persecute someone who told them the truth."
据外媒报道,“棱镜”秘密情报监视项目曝光者爱德华·斯诺登10月9日在莫斯科获颁“萨姆·亚当斯奖”,向其颁发奖项的4位前美国情报官员称,斯诺登对泄露机密情报“没有半点后悔”。10日,斯诺登的父亲顺利抵达莫斯科,他说儿子应拿诺贝尔和平奖。
为斯诺登颁奖的4位前美国情报官员分别为国家安全局前分析师托马斯·德雷克、联邦调查局(FBI)前特工科琳·罗利、前司法部官员简瑟琳·拉达克和中情局退休官员雷·麦克戈文。英国《每日电讯报》称,与斯诺登类似,他们4人均有过“违抗(美国)政府的行为”。
据报道,斯诺登的父亲郎·斯诺登10日从美国前往俄罗斯首都莫斯科,随后与斯诺登会面。这名消息人士没有透露会面的具体时间和地点,但说父子俩“已经见过面,都非常激动”。