WASHINGTON — Fugitive US spy-secrets leaker Edward Snowden whined Sunday that he deserves leniency because he’s really a patriot — but the White House and top lawmakers called on him to face justice like a man.
Snowden argued in an open letter titled “A Manifesto for Truth” that recent calls for more congressional oversight of intelligence programs prove that he’s a hero and not a traitor.
“Those who speak the truth are not committing a crime,” Snowden pleaded in the letter that was published in the German magazine Der Spiegel.
“Instead of causing damage, the usefulness of the new public knowledge for society is now clear because reforms to politics, supervision and laws are being suggested,” he wrote.
“Citizens have to fight against the suppression of information about affairs of essential importance for the public,” he wrote. “We have a moral duty to ensure that our laws and values limit surveillance programs and protect human rights.”
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer disagreed.
“Mr. Snowden violated US law,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “He should return to the US and face justice.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has called for a full review of spy programs because of the revelations by Snowden, also blasted Snowden.
“He had an opportunity, if what he was was a whistleblower, to pick up the phone and call the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and say, ‘Look, I have some information you ought to see,’ ” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“We would certainly see him. That didn’t happen, and now he’s done this enormous disservice to our country,” she said.
On the same show, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) called leniency for Snowden a “terrible idea.”
“He needs to come back and own up,” said Rogers. “We can have those conversations if he believes there are vulnerabilities in the system he’d like to disclose. You don’t do it by committing a crime that puts soldiers’ lives at risk in places like Afghanistan.”
Snowden, 30, a former National Security Agency contractor,
was granted asylum in Russia for at least a year. But he remains one of the United States’ most-wanted fugitives.
A German diplomat who met last week with Snowden suggested he should be granted clemency for help investigating intelligence abuses.
In the manifesto, Snowden argued that mass surveillance was a global problem and that nations were engaged in “criminal surveillance programs.”