WASHINGTON, D.C. Dec. 24 (DPI) – The Washington Post is the latest US news outlet to interview a proud and unrepentant Edward Snowden, but most readers – nearly 3000 on the Post site, and 7500 on CNN’s as of today – remain reluctant to accord the 30-year-old national security leaker any kind of hero status.
Still, reader boards remain divided – no less so now than last summer, when Snowden, a technology contractor, defected to China and later Russia after handing over a trove of NSA data to journalists. It’s still not clear what and how much of that data wound up in the hands of Russian and Chinese spy agencies, among others, but the political and diplomatic damage to the US has been far-reaching.
Snowden remains in Moscow, but is seeking asylum in Brasil or another Latin American nation.
A slight majority of readers of American news sites appear to be trending toward traitor in their ongoing assessment of Snowden, who in his October interview with The New York Times’s James Risen and more recently with The Post’s Barton Gellman continues to come across as a self-righteous rube whose remarks are unreflective and self-serving. And though there’s no video of Snowden, there’s also a tinge of fear in the tone of his remarks.
Snowden insists he maintains no regrets, declaring that his mission has been accomplished. Snowden also told Gellman his aim was not to bring down the NSA, but to improve it. “I am still working for the NSA right now,” Snowden said somewhat curiously to the US journalist. “They are the only ones who don’t realize it.”
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/24/us/edward-snowden-interview/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/world/snowden-says-he-took-no-secret-files-to-russia.html?_r=0