Snowden says 'litany of lies' prompted him to leak U.S. surveillance

        
Edward Snowden, the American who leaked details about U.S. National Security Agency surveillance programs, said on Monday he decided to disclose the information after observing "a continuing litany of lies" from senior officials to Congress.        

"Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper - the Director of National Intelligence - baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed," he said in a forum on the Guardian newspaper website.         

"It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress - and therefore the American people - and the realization that that Congress, specifically the Gang of Eight (senior U.S. lawmakers), wholly supported the lies that compelled me to act," he said. 

Snowden, who revealed himself as the source of leaked information about U.S. government surveillance programs last week from Hong Kong, denied having given classified information to China. "I have had no contact with the Chinese government," he said. "I only work with journalists."        

Earlier, Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed the U.S. government's secret phone and Internet surveillance programs, said in an online forum that he could not get a fair trial in the United States.       

"The U.S. government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime. That's not justice," he said on the Guardian newspaper website.          

"I did not reveal any U.S. operations against legitimate military targets," Snowden said. "I pointed out where the NSA has hacked civilian infrastructure such as universities, hospitals and private businesses because it is dangerous."           


REUTERS