Amid indications that “a lot more significant revelations” are to follow from documents leaked by American whistleblower Edward Snowden, the US authorities have begun preparing charges in the hope of getting him deported from wherever he has taken refuge or is granted asylum.
Clearly, the Obama administration is in damage-control mode after the acute embarrassment caused to it at home and abroad, even as top officials continued to defend the massive surveillance from the standpoint of tracking terrorists and even referred to how it helped nab 26/11 plotter David Headley.
Meanwhile, American public opinion is divided on whether Snowden is a hero or a traitor. But a majority have indicated in a poll, conducted by the Pew Research Centre and the Washington Post, that they are fine with surveillance involving compromise on privacy if it facilitates terrorism investigations.
About 56 per cent of respondents regarded the NSA’s access to telephone call records to uncover terrorist activity as “acceptable”, while 41 per cent said it was “not acceptable”.
On the other hand, the Department of Justice has begun the process to charge Snowden with disclosing classified information, The New York Times reported, noting that typically the government must charge a suspect before expecting a foreign counterpart to turn him over.
The department’s push began even as reports from Hong Kong said Snowden had checked out of the plush hotel where he had been holed up for about three weeks.
While his whereabouts remained unknown, Russia indicated it would consider an asylum request from Snowden if he were to make one.
Russia’s Kommersant daily cited President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, “We will take action based on what actually happens. If we receive such a request, it will be considered.”
Snowden himself had indicated in his interview to The Guardian that he might seek asylum in Iceland, which has strong free-speech protections and a tradition of providing a haven for people in similar predicament.
Washington’s apparent preference is to get the authorities in Hong Kong or wherever else Snowden may be in to deport him so as to avoid the need for a time-consuming extradition procedure.
Although the US has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, opinion is divided on how it would work, now that the former British colony is designated as a Special Admin
istrative Region of China.
The National Security Agency is conducting its own investigation on what information Snowden had access to and may have taken from the agency during the time he worked at its Hawaii facility for government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
This pursuit is also being seen against the backdrop of an assertion by Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who exposed the US surveillance programmes on the basis of documents leaked by Snowden, that further revelations are to follow from the documents.
“We are going to have a lot more significant revelations that have not yet been heard over the next several weeks and months,” Greenwald said.
US lawmakers are gunning for Snowden. Senate Intelligence Committee chairperson Dianne Feinstein said the whistleblower should be prosecuted for having committed an “act of treason”.
Republican lawmaker Peter King, who heads the House Homeland Security Comm
ittee’s subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence, also called Snowden “a defector” who should be turned over to the US to face harsh prosecution.
“This person is dangerous to the country,” King said.
But former libertarian Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul came out in support of Snowden. “We should be thankful for individuals like Edward Snowden and Glenn Gree
nwald who see injustice being carried out by their own government and speak out, despite the risk,” said Paul in a statement, adding: “They have done a great service to the American people by exposing the truth about what our government is doing in secret.” Snowden, it turns out, had contributed a modest $250 to Paul’s presidential campaign twice in 2012.