MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Conference in Buenos Aires: Snowden fears domestic intelligence will spread in US under Trump
Former US spy Edward Snowden voiced his fears at the University of Buenos Aires Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden said on Monday, that Donald Trump's election may increase the intrusiveness of domestic intelligence gathering and warned that the democratic checks and balances were losing ground to authoritarianism.
Former US spy contractor Edward Snowden, who lives under asylum in Moscow after he leaked classified information in 2013 that triggered an international furor over the reach of US spy operations, made thiose remarks at a teleconference hosted by Buenos Aires University's law school.
“We are starting to substitute open government for sheer authoritarianism, a government based not upon the principle of informed consent granted by people who understand its activities but rather a trust in personalities, a trust in claims, a trust in the hope that they will do the right thing,” Snowden said.
Snowden questioned if Washington's policy would remain unchanged by the new administration, who are people with a “very different set of values and can govern in the dark.”
“If government does actually win our trust, because they go for some years and they do operate in a way that we should support, what happens when it changes?” he asked. “This is kind of the challenge that we're facing today in the United States with the result of the last election.”
The current US government has already filed espionage charges against him for leaking intelligence information in 2013. Snowden was skeptical a Trump administration would grant him a pardon. “Who knows?,” he said.
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Read all commentsI am so Happy that Snowden is now living in a non authoritarian country where the rights of the citizen are never abused and where the intelligence community never tramples on the human rights of it's people and fine orgainizations like RT continue to tell the unvarnished truth to the masses!!!!!!!! Continue with your Russian lessons Mr Snowden and spend the rest of your days enjoying democracy Putin style
Nov 15th, 2016 - 07:50 pm +2@orsrist65
Nov 15th, 2016 - 08:51 pm +1Or until they have finished with him. They only granted him leave to stay for three years.
Speaking of informed consent, that would include the reciprocal nature implicit in respecting the rule of law?
Nov 15th, 2016 - 05:28 pm -2Correct?
Come on home, Ed.
Let's discuss a plea bargain.
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