Snowden to NSA: Go ahead, deny I tried to raise the alarm [View all]

[Ichingcarpenter]

Whistle-blower Edward Snowden has challenged the National Security Agency to explicitly deny that he tried -- before leaking secret documents to journalists -- to use legal, internal means to raise a red flag about the possibly unconstitutional nature of the outfit's surveillance programs.

"The NSA at this point not only knows I raised complaints, but that there is evidence that I made my concerns known to the NSA's lawyers, because I did some of it through e-mail. I directly challenge the NSA to deny that I contacted NSA oversight and compliance bodies directly via e-mail and that I specifically expressed concerns about their suspect interpretation of the law, and I welcome members of Congress to request a written answer [from the NSA] to this question," Snowden told Vanity Fair in a feature that's scheduled for publication later this week.

The challenge came in response to a claim by NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett, who led the agency's investigation of Snowden and who Vanity Fair says told the magazine that Snowden made no formal complaints and that no one at the NSA has reported Snowden mentioning his concerns to them.

It's a key point. Snowden -- who's currently riding out a yearlong period of temporary asylum in Russia -- is wanted by US authorities under the Espionage Act, and the president of the United States himself has said that Snowden had other avenues at his disposal and shouldn't have leaked secret files.

We've contacted the NSA for comment and will update this post when we hear back.



http://www.cnet.com/news/edward-snowden-challenges-nsa-to-deny-he-tried-to-raise-alarm-legally/


So.. The balls in the NSA court... they either says he did or didn't and if they deny he did, Snowden produces the evidence and the NSA are proven they lied once again..... this will be interesting.

I liked this comment at the link


Rummy's paraphrased words could apply here to the NSA officials.....

'There are known emails. These are emails we know that we know about. There are known unknown emails. That is to say, there are emails that we know we don't know about. But there are also known unknown emails. There are emails we don't know we don't know about.' But trust us, Snowden is a criminal.