(Newswire.net — September 15, 2019) — US alarmist Edward Snowden, a former associate of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who fled to Russia after discovering a massive wiretap in the US, said in an interview with French radio France Inter that he plans to seek asylum in France, Reuters reports.
The saddest thing about all this is that the only place where American whistleblowers have the opportunity to speak freely is “not in Europe, but here (in Russia),” Snowden said.
He has sought asylum in more than 20 countries, including France and Germany, and has been denied applications for various reasons. He applied for asylum in France in 2013 when Francois Hollande was president, DW reports.
“Of course, I would like Mr. Macron to grant me the right to asylum,” he said, according to excerpts of the interview, which will be published on Monday.
Snowden says the protection of whistleblowers is not a hostile act and that states that receive people like him do not assault US interests. He is currently living in Russia as he faces charges of espionage in the US, due to his discovery of a global surveillance program implemented by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US and around the world.
Edward Snowden will publish his memoirs on September 17 across the globe, including in the US, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Taiwan.
Snowden is worried about the Internet
The man who unveiled a mass surveillance by US services is now voicing his concerns over the strengthening of the Internet.’ Snowden worried that the World Wide Web is also falling in the fight with censorship and surveillance thanks to new technologies for online espionage, combined with various policies that restrain the freedom of speech.
It has been six years since Edward Snowden, 36, discovered that US and other Western services have been listening to just about everyone and everything. Today, Snowden warns that the Hong Kong Democratic movement will be stifled by the same methods – a system of comprehensive surveillance.
If no one develops any alternatives, Snowden will
In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, Snowden said it would be wrong to view the rise of politicians like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson or the right-wing Alternative for Germany as merely a temporary detour from a political norm.
He believes that the technical development of the Internet has become a danger stressing that we live in a world of total scrutiny in which every violation of the law would be prosecuted without exception, which means anyone could be a criminal if the government decides so based on one’s Internet activity.
The former US intelligence employee says that the first step would be to explain to people “how much we are being followed at every step.”
“If no one develops any alternatives, then damn well I’ll develop them myself,” Snowden told Spiegel.
In the United States, Snowden has been accused of treason. In an attempt to arrive in Ecuador in 2013 from Hong Kong, he was stopped at a Moscow airport after the US canceled his passport. Snowden has been granted asylum in Russia, which expires next year, however, it can be renewed indefinitely.