Edward Snowden: Republicans call for NSA whistleblower to be extradited

Edward Snowden: Republicans call for NSA whistleblower to be extradited

While I am always a champion of privacy rights, and very concerned about how much privacy we have lost because of the internet, I'm also concerned about the leaking of information that reveals our knowledge and being revealed to our enemies. Civil libertarians will defend Edward Snowden for whistleblowing. Others will want him to be extradited to face charges here in the US.

"The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was condemned by US politicians and threatened with prosecution by the country's intelligence chief on Sunday after revealing himself as the Guardian's source for a series of explosive leaks on the NSA and cyber surveillance.

A spokesman for the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said Snowden's case had been referred to the justice department and US intelligence was assessing the damage caused by the disclosures.

"Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law," the spokesman, Shawn Turner, said.
Snowden had top-secret clearance to help run the National Security Agency's computer systems but he was a contractor, hired by the giant US defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The company issued a statement describing the disclosures as "shocking" and pledging to co-operate with any investigation."

Full story here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/10/the-nsa-files-edward-snowden