The NSA whistleblower is making his views known via a new letter

Nov 4, 2013 07:38 GMT  ·  By

Everyone has been following the NSA leaks for months now, most of the stories being told by reporters across the world. Now, Snowden has taken a small step forward and published a letter of his own in the German newspaper Der Spiegel.

In a letter titled “A Manifesto for the Truth,” the whistleblower talks about the NSA and its British counterpart and their desire to carry on mass surveillance with no oversight.

“The world has learned a lot in a short period of time about the irresponsibly operated intelligence agencies and, at times, criminal surveillance programs. Sometimes the agencies deliberately try to avoid the high officials or the public they control,” Edward Snowden wrote.

He does admit that while the NSA and the GCHQ seem to be the worst offenders according to the documents that have been published thus far, mass surveillance is indeed a global problem that needs global solutions.

“Such programs are not only a threat to privacy, they also threaten the freedom and open societies. The existence of spy technology should not determine policy. We have a moral obligation to ensure that our laws and values limit monitoring programs and protect human rights,” Snowden writes.

According the German magazine, the letter was sent on Friday from Moscow and provided to them through a “locked channel.”

The whistleblower points the finger to the governments that have been trying to squash debate about mass surveillance by launching a hunt for him and journalists publishing information about their wrongdoings.

“The debate they wanted to avoid is now taking place in countries across the world. And instead of causing damage, the use of this new public knowledge is causing society to ask for political reforms, oversight and new laws,” Snowden believes.