LONDON – US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden called on President Barack Obama to pardon him, saying in comments published today it had been morally “necessary” to shine a light on mass surveillance.
The former intelligence contractor has spent three years in exile in Russia after initiating the largest data leaks in US history, fuelling a firestorm over the issue of mass surveillance.
“If not for these disclosures, if not for these revelations, we would be worse off,” he told Britain’s Guardian newspaper in a video-link interview from Moscow yesterday.
“Yes, there are laws on the books that say one thing, but that is perhaps why the pardon power exists — for the exceptions, for the things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page but when we look at them morally, when we look at them ethically, when we look at the results, it seems these were necessary things,” he said. The 33-year-old insisted he had widespread support, saying the “public by and large cares more about these issues far more than I anticipated.”
