Monday, July 1, 2013

Snowden Issues Statement Condemning Actions of Both Obama and Biden

In a new statement, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said President Obama was employing “old, bad tools of political aggression’’ in his campaign to prevent Snowden from gaining political asylum.

"Although I am convicted of nothing,’’ Snowden said, the Obama administration “has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.’’

He also accused Vice-President Joe Biden of pressuring foreign leaders to deny his extradition requests.

Below is Snowden's full statement. He sounds cornered:
One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat from my government for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic “wheeling and dealing” over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions. 
This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.
Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.

2 comments:

  1. "leaving me a stateless person"

    this is a beautiful end state. I wish we could all be stateless individuals.

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  2. The monster wave of retaliation will keep breaking on Snowden until he goes under. Obama and his minions dined with Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein more than once recently. Snowden made Carlyle's Booz Allen Hamilton look bad, a cardinal sin in the big money/power crowd.

    Obama isn't about truth or freedom. He's about parenting the country. A pipsqueak made Big Daddy look bad and cost his supporters tens of millions, maybe more. That's why Snowden must pay. Get that, other potential whistleblowers?

    ReplyDelete