Snowden Offers to Help Brazil With N.S.A. Inquiry

Snowden Offers to Help Brazil With N.S.A. Inquiry

By SIMON ROMERO 11:23 AM ET

The former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden, who had requested asylum from Brazil months ago, made the offer in a letter published in a Brazilian newspaper.

By SIMON ROMERO

Published: December 17, 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO — Edward J. Snowden, the former contractor for the National Security Agency now living temporarily in Russia, said in comments published on Tuesday that he was prepared to assist Brazilian investigations of United States spying in Brazil. But he said he could not speak freely until a country grants him permanent political asylum, which he requested from Brazil months ago.

Mr. Snowden, whose disclosures of N.S.A. surveillance practices have shaken Washington’s relations with an array of countries, made his comments in an “open letter” published in a prominent Brazilian newspaper, Folha de São Paulo, in which he described the agency’s activities as potentially “the greatest human rights challenge of our time.”

Brazil, a leading target of the N.S.A.'s activities, has already reacted angrily over the spying, which included surveillance of President Dilma Rousseff, her inner circle of senior advisers and Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company. Ms. Rousseff called off a state visit to Washington in October after the revelations of the N.S.A.'s operations in Brazil.

Since then, Brazilian legislators have pressed ahead with inquiries into spying by the United States, relying to a large degree on news reports and testimony by Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist to whom Mr. Snowden leaked N.S.A. documents. David Miranda, the domestic partner of Mr. Greenwald, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, has helped lead an effort to obtain asylum in Brazil for Mr. Snowden, who is now in Russia on a one-year visa.

“He deserves thanks for what he’s done, not a life in prison,” Mr. Miranda said, referring to the legal challenges Mr. Snowden faces in the United States. Mr. Miranda has recently been working with Avaaz, an international advocacy group, to get signatures in support of Mr. Snowden’s asylum request in Brazil.

In his letter, Mr. Snowden referred to the spying on Ms. Rousseff, who as president personally decides on granting asylum to foreigners, and on N.S.A. surveillance of ordinary Brazilians who may be having extramarital affairs or viewing pornography, activities which could then be used to hurt their reputations.

“American senators tell us that Brazil should not worry, because this is not ‘surveillance,’ it’s ‘data collection,’ ” Mr. Snowden wrote. “They say it is done to keep you safe. They’re wrong.”

Mr. Snowden continued: “These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.”

A spokeswoman for Ms. Rousseff declined to comment on Mr. Snowden’s letter and his request for asylum in Brazil, which he had sought in July, when he also requested asylum in other countries. The authorities in Brazil did not accept his request at the time.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry press office said it was monitoring the reaction to Mr. Snowden’s letter but that it was “not suitable for the Brazilian government nor the Foreign Ministry to respond.” The spokesman also said that Mr. Snowden had not yet made an official asylum request, as his original request was made in a faxed letter without a signature.

Venezuela and Bolivia have offered asylum to Mr. Snowden, but it is unclear whether their offers meet his conditions. In his letter, he referred to the refusal in July by several European nations to allow the plane of Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, into their airspace amid suspicions that Mr. Snowden was on board.

Here in Brazil, a Senate committee investigating the N.S.A.'s activities convened on Tuesday, with prominent senators expressing support for giving asylum to Mr. Snowden. In July, the Brazilian Senate’s committee on foreign relations and defense unanimously recommended granting asylum to Mr. Snowden.

Mr. Greenwald said he supported such a move. “Millions of people in nations around the world have understandably expressed gratitude for Edward Snowden’s courageous whistle-blowing,” he said. “Each of those countries’ governments has the legal and moral obligation to protect him from the persecution to which the U.S. government is now trying to subject him.”

Taylor Barnes contributed reporting.
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