Snowden Won’t Return To US Without Amnesty, Says Life Threatened

The whistleblower who exposed the mind-boggling extent of NSA surveillance is sending a message to the Justice Department via his lawyer:

Edward Snowden would be willing to enter talks with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to negotiate his return to the United States but not without a guarantee of amnesty, his legal adviser said on Sunday.

Jesselyn Radack said she was glad Holder indicated last week he would talk to lawyers for the former U.S. spy agency contractor to negotiate his return from Moscow, but that Snowden would need better protection.

“It’s a little disheartening that he (Holder) seemed to take clemency and amnesty off the table, which are two of the negotiating points,” said Radack, who was interviewed via satellite from Moscow by NBC’s “Meet the Press”.

“But again, none of us have been contacted yet about restarting negotiations,” the legal adviser said.

Holder said in an interview on MSNBC on Thursday the United States would not consider the idea of amnesty for Snowden “where we say, no harm, no foul”.

Radack, who is the director of national security and human rights at the Government Accountability Project – a whistleblowers’ organization – said Snowden has already suffered because his U.S. passport revoked has been revoked.

Snowden himself was interviewed by a German TV outlet yesterday, and outlined what he believes are threats to his life:

In what German public broadcaster ARD said was Snowden’s first television interview, Snowden also said he believes the NSA has monitored other top German government officials along with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Snowden told ARD that he felt there are “significant threats” to his life but he said that he nevertheless sleeps well because he believes he did the right thing by informing the public about the NSA’s activities.

“I’m still alive and don’t lose sleep for what I did because it was the right thing to do,” said Snowden at the start of what ARD said was a six-hour interview that was filmed in a Moscow hotel suite. ARD aired 40 minutes of the six-hour interview.

“There are significant threats but I sleep very well,” he said before referring to a report on a U.S. website that he said quoted anonymous U.S. officials saying his life was in danger.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.