14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not really surprising that US politicians keep saying that Snowden is actually a Russian spy and that he had outside help to get all the NSA files, since they’ve been doing it for months.
However, this time, Snowden steps up and denies all such claims. In an interview for The New Yorker, the whistleblower said that the “Russian spy push is absurd.”
Furthermore, not only was Snowden not helped by Russia, but he also did everything on his own. The whistleblower stressed that he “clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no assistance from anyone, much less a government.”
He believes that such statements won’t stick because they’re clearly false, pointing out that the “American people are smarter than politicians think they are.”
Snowden believes his entire story proves he’s not working for the Russians. After all, he went from Hong Kong to Moscow, where he was left stranded for forty days after the United States canceled his passport. Snowden wasn’t even supposed to remain there, but rather to catch a layover flight out to South America. “Spies get treated better than that,” he said.
Furthermore, the whistleblower says that Russia was never a place where he wanted to ask for asylum. “I was only transiting through Russia. I was ticketed for onward travel via Havana – a planeload of reporters documented the seat I was supposed to be in – but the State Department decided they wanted me in Moscow, and canceled my passport,” he said.
As far as allegations that his leaks have harmed US national security, he points out that no one, all these months, has credibly shown that any harm to national security has come following all the attention that the NSA is getting from the media.
Edward Snowden is scheduled to answer questions online on Thursday in the first Q&A he does since June 2013.