US charges NSA leaker Snowden with espionage

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is being accused of sharing classified documents with people who were not cleared to receive them. Officials did not describe the charges in detail since the papers have been filed under seal, and are not publically available.  NBC’s Pete Williams reports.

By Pete Williams and Becky Bratu, NBC News

Federal prosecutors filed espionage charges against alleged National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, officials familiar with the process said. Authorities have also begun the process of getting Snowden back to the United States to stand trial.

The charges were filed June 14 under seal in federal court in Alexandria, Va. — and only disclosed Friday.

Snowden has been charged with three violations: theft of government property and two offenses under the espionage statutes, specifically giving national defense information to someone without a security clearance and revealing classified information about “communications intelligence.”

Each of the charges carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.

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Snowden, who is a former employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, leaked details about far-reaching Internet and phone surveillance programs to The Guardian and The Washington Post earlier this month. He revealed his identity while in Hong Kong, where it is believed he is still hiding.

Top intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday that the programs made public this month have helped foil more than 50 terrorist plots since Sept. 11, including one to blow up the New York Stock Exchange.

President Barack Obama defended the programs in an interview with Charlie Rose of PBS on Monday. He stressed that it was important to him to set up checks on the system.

Officials said charges against Snowden were delayed because the United States and authorities in Hong Kong have been going back and forth to make certain that whatever charges the U.S. filed would conform to the extradition treaty with Hong Kong.

The U.S. has filed a “provisional arrest warrant,” formally asking the police in Hong Kong to arrest Snowden. Because the FBI has no jurisdiction outside U.S. borders, U.S. prosecutors must ask local police to make the arrest.

The arrest would start the formal extradition process in court, which will be governed by Chinese law and could take several months to resolve. 

Congressman Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Terrorism, backed the attempt to prosecute Snowden.

“I fully support the efforts of the United States government to indict and prosecute Edward Snowden to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. “He has betrayed his country and the government must demand his extradition at the earliest date.”

Andy Tsang, Hong Kong’s police commissioner, said that if an extradition request was sent from a country that had a “mutual legal assistance agreement” with Hong Kong, its government would “handle it in accordance with current Hong Kong laws and systems.”

Simon Young, a professor at Hong Kong University’s faculty of law, suggested it was unclear whether Snowden would win or lose any attempt to fight extradition.

He said theft was listed in the U.S.-Hong Kong extradition treaty. “There is an offence listed in the treaty of unlawful handling of property, but this raises the question as to whether information is property and the answer is not clear,” he said in an email.

He said there was a “catch-all” clause covering “any other offence which is punishable” under both countries’ laws.

But he added that “for legal arguments which I will not go into now, I am doubtful that offenses not specifically mentioned in either the treaty or FOO [Hong Kong’s Fugitives Offenders Ordinance] will be the subject of surrender.”

Young said that elements of the three alleged offenses “exist in neutral terms and cannot necessarily be said to be of a political character.”

“But more important for this exception will be all the surrounding circumstances including the motivation for the prosecution, the unfairness of his trial at home and his likely treatment in custody,” he added.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday said members of his anti-secrecy website have been in contact with Snowden’s lawyers and are helping him seek asylum in Iceland.

Related:

• Julian Assange says WikiLeaks helping Snowden gain asylum


• NSA leak: Why Edward Snowden’s Hong Kong gamble might pay off


• NSA leaker Edward Snowden: I’m not a spy for China

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 21, 2013 8:52 PM EDT

Open Channel

US charges NSA leaker Snowden with espionage

US charges NSA leaker Snowden with espionage

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is being accused of sharing classified documents with people who were not cleared to receive them. Officials did not describe the charges in detail since the papers have been filed under seal, and are not publically available.  NBC’s Pete Williams reports.

By Pete Williams and Becky Bratu, NBC News

Federal prosecutors filed espionage charges against alleged National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, officials familiar with the process said. Authorities have also begun the process of getting Snowden back to the United States to stand trial.

The charges were filed June 14 under seal in federal court in Alexandria, Va. — and only disclosed Friday.

Snowden has been charged with three violations: theft of government property and two offenses under the espionage statutes, specifically giving national defense information to someone without a security clearance and revealing classified information about “communications intelligence.”

Each of the charges carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.

---

Snowden, who is a former employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, leaked details about far-reaching Internet and phone surveillance programs to The Guardian and The Washington Post earlier this month. He revealed his identity while in Hong Kong, where it is believed he is still hiding.

Top intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday that the programs made public this month have helped foil more than 50 terrorist plots since Sept. 11, including one to blow up the New York Stock Exchange.

President Barack Obama defended the programs in an interview with Charlie Rose of PBS on Monday. He stressed that it was important to him to set up checks on the system.

Officials said charges against Snowden were delayed because the United States and authorities in Hong Kong have been going back and forth to make certain that whatever charges the U.S. filed would conform to the extradition treaty with Hong Kong.

The U.S. has filed a “provisional arrest warrant,” formally asking the police in Hong Kong to arrest Snowden. Because the FBI has no jurisdiction outside U.S. borders, U.S. prosecutors must ask local police to make the arrest.

The arrest would start the formal extradition process in court, which will be governed by Chinese law and could take several months to resolve. 

Congressman Peter King, chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Terrorism, backed the attempt to prosecute Snowden.

“I fully support the efforts of the United States government to indict and prosecute Edward Snowden to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. “He has betrayed his country and the government must demand his extradition at the earliest date.”

Andy Tsang, Hong Kong’s police commissioner, said that if an extradition request was sent from a country that had a “mutual legal assistance agreement” with Hong Kong, its government would “handle it in accordance with current Hong Kong laws and systems.”

Simon Young, a professor at Hong Kong University’s faculty of law, suggested it was unclear whether Snowden would win or lose any attempt to fight extradition.

He said theft was listed in the U.S.-Hong Kong extradition treaty. “There is an offence listed in the treaty of unlawful handling of property, but this raises the question as to whether information is property and the answer is not clear,” he said in an email.

He said there was a “catch-all” clause covering “any other offence which is punishable” under both countries’ laws.

But he added that “for legal arguments which I will not go into now, I am doubtful that offenses not specifically mentioned in either the treaty or FOO [Hong Kong’s Fugitives Offenders Ordinance] will be the subject of surrender.”

Young said that elements of the three alleged offenses “exist in neutral terms and cannot necessarily be said to be of a political character.”

“But more important for this exception will be all the surrounding circumstances including the motivation for the prosecution, the unfairness of his trial at home and his likely treatment in custody,” he added.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday said members of his anti-secrecy website have been in contact with Snowden’s lawyers and are helping him seek asylum in Iceland.

Related:

• Julian Assange says WikiLeaks helping Snowden gain asylum


• NSA leak: Why Edward Snowden’s Hong Kong gamble might pay off


• NSA leaker Edward Snowden: I’m not a spy for China

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 21, 2013 8:52 PM EDT

Open Channel

US charges NSA leaker Snowden with espionage

NSA Leaker Edward Snowden"s Father Speaks Out

LONNIE SNOWDEN: “Every place you read is ‘high school dropout, high school dropout, high school dropout’ … The fact is, is that Ed had an illness at the beginning of his sophomore year when his mother and I were going through a divorce … they believed that it was mono. I believe it was diagnosed as mono, but he missed approximately four or five months of school. So, he was gonna fall behind. And he asked if he could try to test into a program at the local community college … And, you know, there was some disagreement on whether he should do that. The bottom line is he did, and he completed his high school equivalency in advance of when he would have graduated from high school, and then continued taking college courses.”

RealClearPolitics Video Log

NSA Leaker Edward Snowden"s Father Speaks Out

NSA leaker: I"m "neither traitor nor hero"

Courtesy of the Guardian file

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defence contractor, is seen in this still image taken from video during an interview by The Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong June 6, 2013.

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Self-identified NSA leaker Edward Snowden broke the low profile he has kept since passing details of two classified American government surveillance programs to reporters, saying he is “neither traitor nor hero” in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

“People who think I made a mistake in picking [Hong Kong] as a location misunderstood my intentions,” Snowden told the paper. “I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality.”

The 29-year-old former government consultant’s whereabouts have been a mystery since he checked out of the Hong Kong hotel where he was last interviewed.

The paper reported that Snowden has hid out in “secret locations in Hong Kong” since the publication of the classified documents he claims to have leaked to reporters at The Washington Post and British newspaper The Guardian.

The self-proclaimed “spy” spoke of the south China city as a refuge in earlier interviews.

“It is really tragic that an American has to move to a place that has a reputation for less freedom,” Snowden told The Guardian in an interview published June 9. “Still, Hong Kong has a reputation for freedom in spite of the People’s Republic of China.”

Snowden has not been charged with a crime, and he said in his interview with the South China Morning Post that he will rely on the government in Hong Kong to defend him if the U.S. should request his extradition.

“My intention is to ask the court and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate. I have been given no reason to doubt your system,” Snowden said in the interview.

Whether the city will keep him is another matter. Hong Kong has a rendition treaty with the U.S. government, but its decisions are subject to approval in Beijing. Mainland China does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. That does not necessarily mean officials might be less likely to hand Snowden over.

“As a U.S. citizen, I think it is very hard to avoid getting sent back to the U.S,” New York attorney Robert Anello, who has handled extradition cases, told NBC News. “There are certain countries that might grant him asylum, but that very much depends on whether the country is willing to go to battle with the U.S. over this issue.”

Related:

• Edward Snowden, professed NSA leaker, may have few safe havens


• What we know about NSA leaker Edward Snowden


• Girlfriend of self-professed NSA leaker blogged that she felt ‘lost at sea’

NSA leaker: I"m "neither traitor nor hero"

Gellman, Greenwald feud over NSA leaker

The riff illustrates the balance between publishing secrets and protecting security. | AP Photo/Screengrab

The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald on Monday blasted investigative reporter Barton Gellman for making “false” claims about the man they shared as a source: Edward Snowden.

The public tiff between two journalists who have led the way on disclosing National Security Agency surveillance offers a rare window into high-stakes negotiations between reporters and their sources. It illustrates the balance between publishing secrets and protecting the nation’s security — and shows the risks that a source thought to be exclusive to one outlet might peddle his news scoop elsewhere.

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Snowden came forward on Sunday afternoon in both The Guardian and the Post, where Gellman wrote his piece, to say he was the source of the revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.

(Also on POLITICO: 10 things to know about Edward Snowden)

On Sunday evening, the Post published a story by Gellman detailing his interactions with Snowden. Gellman wrote that Snowden asked for a guarantee that the Post would publish, within 72 hours, all the PowerPoint slides he provided on PRISM. When Gellman said he couldn’t promise that, Snowden went to Greenwald, according to Gellman’s account.

Greenwald fired back via Twitter on Monday morning.

“Bart Gellman’s claims about Snowden’s interactions with me – when, how and why – are all false,” Greenwald wrote on Twitter.

(Also on POLITICO: Glenn Greenwald says U.S. wants to destroy privacy worldwide)

On the issue of conditions for publishing the information from Snowden, Greenwald tweeted, “I have no idea whether he had any conditions for WP, but he had none for us: we didn’t post all the slides.” He also wrote he had been “working with” Snowden since February, “long before anyone spoke to Bart Gellman.”

In the back-to-back scoop, Greenwald struck first in The Guardian with his bombshell about sweeping NSA surveillance of phone calls, while Gellman followed up quickly in the Post with the revelation about PRISM.

The spat continued during the day on Monday, with Gellman writing on Twitter: “Snowden didn’t bolt when I refused guarantees, just quit going steady.”

(PHOTOS: Pols, pundits weigh in on NSA report)

In his Post piece, Gellman described a series of “indirect contacts” he had with Snowden before their first “direct exchange” on May 16, Gellman wrote in an account for The Washington Post about his exchanges with his source. Snowden — who chose the name Verax, or “truth teller” in Latin for his code name, and called Gellman “Brassbanner” — “dropped a bombshell” on May 24 and asked Gellman for a guarantee that The Washington Post would publish, within 72 hours, all the PowerPoint slides he provided on PRISM.

Snowden told Gellman he wanted “to embolden others to step forward.”

(WATCH: NSA reactions in under 60 seconds)

Additionally, according to Gellman, Snowden requested that the Post publish online a “cryptographic key” so he could prove to a foreign embassy he was the source of the document leak.

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Gellman, Greenwald feud over NSA leaker