NSA Leaker Snowden Wants Asylum in Brazil, Press Reports Say
According to the daily Folha de Sao Paulo, the former NSA analyst is still planning to seek permanent asylum in Brazil, even though this country has already refused to grant it
BRASILIA – The former analyst of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, is planning to seek permanent asylum in Brazil, even though this country has already refused to grant it, according to a letter that the daily Folha de Sao Paulo obtained and published Tuesday.
After Snowden revealed that the communications of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, several of her ministers and even the state-run oil company Petrobras were under surveillance by the United States, Brazil has headed several global initiatives to regulate online spying.
In an “open letter to the people of Brazil,” Snowden says he “stepped out from the shadows of the United States Government’s National Security Agency” and shared with the world “evidence proving some governments are building a world-wide surveillance system to secretly track how we live, who we talk to, and what we say.”
In the letter obtained by the daily Folha de Sao Paulo, Snowden refers to the way Brazil has been affected by U.S. espionage.
“The NSA and other spying agencies tell us that for our own ‘safety’ – for Dilma’s ‘safety,’ for Petrobras’ ‘safety’ – they have revoked our right to privacy and broken into our lives. And they did it without asking the public in any country, even their own.”
He adds that “today, if you carry a cell phone in Sao Paulo, the NSA can and does keep track of your location: they do this 5 billion times a day to people around the world.”
According to Snowden, “until a country grants (me) permanent political asylum, the U.S. government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak” and report on what it is doing.
Currently living in Brazil is journalist Glenn Greenwald, ex-columnist for the British daily The Guardian, who is one of Snowden’s “contacts” and who published many of the documents revealed by the one-time NSA employee.
According to the daily Folha de Sao Paulo, the former NSA analyst is still planning to seek permanent asylum in Brazil, even though this country has already refused to grant it
BRASILIA – The former analyst of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, is planning to seek permanent asylum in Brazil, even though this country has already refused to grant it, according to a letter that the daily Folha de Sao Paulo obtained and published Tuesday.After Snowden revealed that the communications of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, several of her ministers and even the state-run oil company Petrobras were under surveillance by the United States, Brazil has headed several global initiatives to regulate online spying.
In an “open letter to the people of Brazil,” Snowden says he “stepped out from the shadows of the United States Government’s National Security Agency” and shared with the world “evidence proving some governments are building a world-wide surveillance system to secretly track how we live, who we talk to, and what we say.”
In the letter obtained by the daily Folha de Sao Paulo, Snowden refers to the way Brazil has been affected by U.S. espionage.
“The NSA and other spying agencies tell us that for our own ‘safety’ – for Dilma’s ‘safety,’ for Petrobras’ ‘safety’ – they have revoked our right to privacy and broken into our lives. And they did it without asking the public in any country, even their own.”
He adds that “today, if you carry a cell phone in Sao Paulo, the NSA can and does keep track of your location: they do this 5 billion times a day to people around the world.”
According to Snowden, “until a country grants (me) permanent political asylum, the U.S. government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak” and report on what it is doing.
Currently living in Brazil is journalist Glenn Greenwald, ex-columnist for the British daily The Guardian, who is one of Snowden’s “contacts” and who published many of the documents revealed by the one-time NSA employee.
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