4 Americans Meet Snowden to Give Him an Award

[CaseyJones]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/father-nsa-agent-snowden-arrives-moscow-20526263


Four former U.S. government officials who met with former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden said Thursday that he is adjusting to life in Russia and expresses no regrets about leaking highly classified information. Separately, Snowden's father arrived to see his son.

The Americans, who once worked for the CIA, FBI, Justice Department and NSA, have criticized the U.S. government and exposed what they believed was wrongdoing in the security agencies. All supporters of Snowden, they are the first Americans known to have met with him since he was granted asylum in Russia in August.

In interviews with The Associated Press, they described spending the previous evening with Snowden to present him with an award given annually by a group of retired national security officers.

"He spoke about going out and about and getting to understand Russia and its culture and the people," said Thomas Drake, who started working for the NSA in 2001 and disclosed an electronic espionage program that he saw as invasive. "This is where he lives now, and so where you live is your home."

Snowden's father, Lon, did not say when or where he would meet his 30-year-old son, but expressed optimism about his situation.

"You know, I have heard so many things through the media, and my assumption is certainly, given the circumstances, he's doing as well as could be expected," Lon Snowden told the AP shortly after he arrived in Moscow. "He's safe and he's free, and that's a good thing."

The elder Snowden said he doubts his son will return to the United States, where he is charged with violating the Espionage Act for disclosing the NSA's surveillance of phone and Internet usage around the world.

The four former U.S. officials refused to say where they met with Snowden or where he is living.

"For his own safety it's best that no one else knows where he actually lives," Drake said. "But I believe he is making the best of his circumstances and is living as normally as possible."

[Lucille]

Drake and the other Americans — Raymond McGovern, Jesselyn Radack and Coleen Rowley — said Snowden was in good spirits and still believes he did the right thing in disclosing the NSA surveillance program.
[...]
McGovern, a 74-year-old retired CIA officer who had worked with Adams, said the anti-secrecy group had facilitated its trip to Moscow and that WikiLeaks staffer Sarah Harrison, who had arrived with Snowden from Hong Kong in June, remained by his side.

The Americans said they saw no evidence that Snowden was under the control of Russian security services, as many in the U.S. government believe.

"He spoke very openly about a whole range of things, a number of which I won't get into here, but it certainly didn't involve any kind of manipulation by the Russian government or anyone else for that matter," said Radack, a former U.S. Justice Department adviser now with the Government Accountability Project. "He definitely is his own person and makes his own decisions, and says and does what he wants to."

Does anyone believe that he's under control of Russian Security Services but "government officials" and other neo-Trotskyites?

[KingRobbStark]

The award is bugged. :D

[tod evans]

Good to know Mr.Snowden is doing well!

[Natural Citizen]

Sam Adams Prize for Integrity and Intelligence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Adams_Award)to be clear. The Sam Adams Award is given annually by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired CIA officers, to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. It is named after Samuel A. Adams (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_A._Adams), a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".

RT discusses this news with the past whistleblowers and activists who met with and presented this award to Snowden, Jesselyn Radack (former ethics adviser to the United States Department of Justice who came to prominence as a whistleblower after she disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation committed what she believed to be an ethics violation in their interrogation of John Walker Lindh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_Lindh) (the "American Taliban" captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan) without an attorney present, and alleged that the Department of Justice attempted to suppress that information. The Lindh case was the first major terrorism prosecution after 9/11. Her experience is chronicled in her memoir, TRAITOR: The Whistleblower and the "American Taliban".

She is currently the National Security and Human Rights Director of the Government Accountability Project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Accountability_Project), a whistleblower organization)

Thomas Andrews Drake (former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran. In 2010 the government alleged that Drake "mishandled" documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. Drake's defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailblazer_Project). He is the 2011 recipient of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ridenhour_Prizes) and co-recipient of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Adams_Associates_for_Integrity_in_Intelligence ) (SAAII) award.
On June 9, 2011, all 10 original charges against him were dropped.)

Ray McGovern ( retired CIA officer McGovern was a Federal employee under seven U.S. presidents over 27 years, presenting the morning intelligence briefings at the White House for many of them.)

Coleen Rowley ( former FBI agent and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district, one of eight congressional districts in Minnesota in 2006) in the studio.

These are the citizens who met with the whistleblower in Moscow and presented him with the award.

Is so much more than just "4 Americans Meet Snowden to Give Him an Award". I swear, I can't stand the way these mainstream sources editorialize and then the dumbed down fodder gets shoved all over the www. Please take the time to look at what these people who presented the award have done and continue to do to bring awareness to the American people across a broad range of subjects you simply won't get from the kinds of sources in the OP and support their efforts by researching and acknowledging not only what they do but what they continue to do and how you can help them since you simply won't get any of their work or relevence thereof from corporate run media.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3lP5MYUpIc

[Natural Citizen]

//

[jmdrake]

"He spoke about going out and about and getting to understand Russia and its culture and the people," said Thomas Drake, who started working for the NSA in 2001 and disclosed an electronic espionage program that he saw as invasive. "This is where he lives now, and so where you live is your home."

I am proud to share that man's last name! I think if I have another son I'll name him Eric Snowden Drake.

[Origanalist]

Sam Adams Prize for Integrity and Intelligence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Adams_Award)to be clear. The Sam Adams Award is given annually by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired CIA officers, to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. It is named after Samuel A. Adams (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_A._Adams), a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".

RT discusses this news with the past whistleblowers and activists who met with and presented this award to Snowden, Jesselyn Radack (former ethics adviser to the United States Department of Justice who came to prominence as a whistleblower after she disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation committed what she believed to be an ethics violation in their interrogation of John Walker Lindh (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_Lindh) (the "American Taliban" captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan) without an attorney present, and alleged that the Department of Justice attempted to suppress that information. The Lindh case was the first major terrorism prosecution after 9/11. Her experience is chronicled in her memoir, TRAITOR: The Whistleblower and the "American Taliban".

She is currently the National Security and Human Rights Director of the Government Accountability Project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Accountability_Project), a whistleblower organization)

Thomas Andrews Drake (former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran. In 2010 the government alleged that Drake "mishandled" documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. Drake's defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailblazer_Project). He is the 2011 recipient of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ridenhour_Prizes) and co-recipient of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Adams_Associates_for_Integrity_in_Intelligence ) (SAAII) award.
On June 9, 2011, all 10 original charges against him were dropped.)

Ray McGovern ( retired CIA officer McGovern was a Federal employee under seven U.S. presidents over 27 years, presenting the morning intelligence briefings at the White House for many of them.)

Coleen Rowley ( former FBI agent and was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) candidate for Congress in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district, one of eight congressional districts in Minnesota in 2006) in the studio.

These are the citizens who met with the whistleblower in Moscow and presented him with the award.

Is so much more than just "4 Americans Meet Snowden to Give Him an Award". I swear, I can't stand the way these mainstream sources editorialize and then the dumbed down fodder gets shoved all over the www. Please take the time to look at what these people who presented the award have done and continue to do to bring awareness to the American people across a broad range of subjects you simply won't get from the kinds of sources in the OP and support their efforts by researching and acknowledging not only what they do but what they continue to do and how you can help them since you simply won't get any of their work or relevence thereof from corporate run media.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3lP5MYUpIc

And this is why I come here, somebody usually has more in depth analysis.

Edit; To be fair, this was in the link....


All but McGovern are past recipients of the Sam Adams Award, named for a CIA analyst during the Vietnam War who accused the U.S. military of underestimating the strength of the enemy for political purposes. The award is given annually by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.

[Origanalist]

Maybe someday he can come back to a country grateful for his sacrifice.

[tod evans]

Maybe someday he can come back to a country grateful for his sacrifice.

Under the current crop of political appointees it wouldn't be safe.

The DA's and sitting judges as well as the entire upper management of every alphabet agency must be stripped of all authority before there's even a slim chance Mr.Snowden would be "safe" from our government...

Can we start now?

[Origanalist]

Under the current crop of political appointees it wouldn't be safe.

The DA's and sitting judges as well as the entire upper management of every alphabet agency must be stripped of all authority before there's even a slim chance Mr.Snowden would be "safe" from our government...

Can we start now?

I don't think we have the numbers yet.

[youngbuck]

Hopefully that'll keep his spirits up.