Edward Snowden to Swap Spy Tips For Asylum in Brazil

[Turk]

Snowden: Dear Brazil, the NSA is watching you

In a letter to the people of Brazil, Edward Snowden offers to help uncover NSA surveillance on Brazilian citizens in exchange for permanent asylum.

Edward Snowden has written an extensive open letter to the people of Brazil to discuss his findings and ultimately seek asylum.

In a broad letter published Tuesday by Brazil newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, Snowden asks Brazil for the second time to grant him asylum. To make his case, for former NSA contractor said that his "act of conscience" prompted the US to make him "stateless."

"The price for my speech was my passport, but I would pay it again: I will not be the one to ignore criminality for the sake of political comfort," he wrote. "I would rather be without a state than without a voice."

Snowden has received asylum offers from several South American countries, including Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Venezuela. He has petitioned Brazil to grant him asylum previously, but has so far been unable to obtain it. His latest overture centers on a singular idea: attempt to show the ways the NSA is allegedly spying on Brazil's citizens.

Today, if you carry a cell phone in Sao Paolo, the NSA can and does keep track of your location: they do this 5 billion times a day to people around the world. When someone in Florianopolis visits a website, the NSA keeps a record of when it happened and what you did there. If a mother in Porto Alegre calls her son to wish him luck on his university exam, NSA can keep that call log for five years or more. They even keep track of who is having an affair or looking at pornography, in case they need to damage their target's reputation.

Will Snowden's efforts help? So far, Brazil hasn't had anything to say. But until then, click here to read Snowden's entire letter :http://www.zdnet.com/edward-snowdens-asylum-seeking-letter-to-brazil-in-full-7000024393/

Don Reisinger December 17, 2013 8:29 AM PST

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57615859-83/snowden-dear-brazil-the-nsa-is-watching-you/

[Turk]

US intelligence leakier Edward Snowden has offered to help Brazil defeat US spying but only if he gets permanent political asylum.

The move was widely interpreted as a request for asylum in Brazil, including by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper that published the letter in both English and Portuguese.

Snowden, by downloading a vast trove of classified documents while working as an intelligence contractor for the NSA, has revealed a vast NSA program that culls information from telephone calls and emails around the world, including in Brazil.

In the letter, he writes that US officials justify the actions by saying they aim "to keep you safe." But he says "these programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power." Now, he insists, "the tide is turning." "Now, the whole world is listening back, and speaking out, too."

"The culture of indiscriminate worldwide surveillance, exposed to public debates and real investigations on every continent, is collapsing."

Snowden avoids directly requesting asylum from Brazil in the letter, but he notes that Brazilian senators "have asked for my assistance with their investigations of suspected crimes against Brazilian citizens."

Snowden says he is willing to help "wherever appropriate and lawful," but "unfortunately the United States government has worked very hard to limit my ability to do so."

"Until a country grants permanent political asylum, the US government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak," he says.

Mr Folha said his goal is in fact to come to Brazil. Glenn Greenwald, who has written about many of the documents released by Snowden, is based in Brazil. The Latin American country has a long tradition of granting asylum.

Mr Greenwald's partner, Brazilian journalist David Miranda, began a campaign last month in support of an asylum request there.

"Brazil is one of the rare countries with the strength to give him asylum," Miranda told AFP Tuesday.

He said Snowden had written the letter in response to questions over why he was not cooperating with the Brazil probe.

"It's clear that he can't do it while he doesn't have permanent asylum," Miranda said.

But the Brazilian foreign ministry told AFP it had not "received any official request" for asylum from Snowden. In July, the ex-contractor had informally requested asylum from a number of countries, including Brazil, before Russia granted him a yearlong visa.

In the letter to Brazilians, Snowden praises the Brazil's fierce reaction to news it was among those the NSA spied on. President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a visit to Washington in October after learning of it and helped sponsor a UN resolution aimed at protecting "online" human rights.

Ms Rousseff's cell phone was monitored by the US surveillance program, as were the state oil company Petrobras and everyday Brazilian citizens.

Snowden's apparent bid for Brazil asylum was also quickly supported by rights group Avaaz.

"Snowden is now trapped alone in Russia on a short term visa. Brazil could offer him the hero's welcome he deserves," Avaaz director Michael Mohallem said in a statement.

December 18, 2013 7:31AM AEST

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/edward-snowden-to-swap-spy-tips-for-asylum-in-brazil/story-e6frg6so-1226785500963

Snowden's full letter to Brazil in: http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/198914-snowden-dear-brazil-the-nsa-is-watching-you/

Edited December 17, 2013 by Turk

[truemate]

snowden...world hero

[dMog]

glad he did what he did....there is a huge difference between spying on specific criminals and alleged terrorists groups and/or terrorist entities world wide than waht they are actually doing and that is spying on every single man woman and child