NSA leaker: I'll 'stay and fight' in Hong Kong

Zach Coleman | Special to USA TODAY

HONG KONG -- NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says he will leave his fate in the hands of the courts of Hong Kong rather than flee the city to avoid possible extradition, a Hong Kong newspaper said Wednesday.

The report from the South China Morning Post comes as some in Hong Kong announced a march in support of Snowden.

Snowden spoke with a reporter from the Post on Wednesday in his first emergence from hiding since revealing himself more than two days earlier as the person who leaked information about two secret U.S. domestic surveillance programs that target terrorist communications.

"My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate," he told the paper.

"I have had many opportunities to flee," Snowden said. "But I would rather stay and fight the United States government in the courts, because I have faith in Hong Kong's rule of law. I am not here to hide from justice. I am here to reveal criminality."

The Obama administration insists that the surveillance programs that Snowden leaked to the media are legal and that he has provided no evidence of wrongdoing. The U.S. government says Snowden illegally stole documents pertaining to the programs and may have alerted terrorists to the capabilities of investigators to track them.

The Hong Kong government has so far refrained from direct comment on Snowden's case, but Regina Ip, a member of the Cabinet and the legislature, said this week, "It's actually in his best interest to leave Hong Kong," referring to the city's extradition agreement with the U.S.

Even so, the agreement specifically excludes fugitives "if the offense of which that person is accused or was convicted is an offense of a political character."

Barry Sautman, who lectures on U.S.-China relations as an associate professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, told USA TODAY he has "no doubt that a court would construe what Snowden did as political."

The agreement also excludes cases where the offenses are not crimes in both places; Snowden has not yet been charged in the U.S., but it is not clear that the potential charges would be criminal in Hong Kong.

Having arrived as an American tourist, Snowden can potentially stay up to 90 days in the city. U.S. authorities have yet to bring file an extradition request with Hong Kong.

Snowden told the Post that he was "neither a traitor nor hero. I'm an American," and he revealed to the paper more secrets about U.S. electronic surveillance and cyber-attack capabilities.

Snowden said that the NSA has been hacking into computer systems in Hong Kong and mainland China since 2009.

Politicians and academics in Hong Kong have long suspected they might be under surveillance.

But until Snowden's revelation about the activities of the National Security Agency, most assumed China was to blame, according to Simon Shen, co-director of the International Affairs Research Centre at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Snowden named Shen's university as one of hundreds of NSA targets in Hong Kong and mainland China in an interview published late Wednesday by the South China Morning Post, but it was the only one he specifically identified.

Shen said the university was a key research base for the United States' Central Intelligence Agency when Hong Kong was under British rule and China was closed to most Western visitors.

Snowden claimed that overall there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally.

"We hack network backbones – like huge Internet routers, basically – that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one," he said.

Snowden said he was releasing the information to demonstrate "the hypocrisy of the U.S. government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries."

Snowden crowed about his revealing of the surveillance program, and criticized the United States for what he felt was pressure to have him extradited back to the USA to face possible charges.

"Last week the American government happily operated in the shadows with no respect for the consent of the governed, but no longer. Every level of society is demanding accountability and oversight."

The White House points out that the surveillance programs are legal and scrutinized by federal courts, which have found them to be constitutional. They are also overseen by elected members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, but kept secret so as not to alert adversaries.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Snowden's actions amounted to treason. Snowden is unapologetic.

"Things are very difficult for me in all terms, but speaking truth to power is never without risk," he said. "It has been difficult, but I have been glad to see the global public speak out against these sorts of systemic violations of privacy.

"The reality is that I have acted at great personal risk to help the public of the world, regardless of whether that public is American, European, or Asian."

Tens of thousands of Snowden's supporters have signed a petition calling for his pardon in the United States and some have donated money to a fund to help him. An advocate of digital freedom organizations, Snowden insisted he was being sought by the United States for "political" reasons. However, having been granted a security clearance Snowden would presumably have been under a legal obligation not to reveal classified material.

"All I can do is rely on my training and hope that world governments will refuse to be bullied by the United States into persecuting people seeking political refuge," he said.

Asked if he had been offered asylum by Russia, he said: "My only comment is that I am glad there are governments that refuse to be intimidated by great power."

Local media reports said Snowden may have sought to talk to a lawyer.

Snowden, 29, is a high school dropout whose computer skills won him a job as an analyst at the CIA. He later worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, a defense contractor that does work for a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii. While there he stole secret documents pertaining to data mining programs that seek to locate terrorists operating in the United States, according to the U.S. government.

Snowden gave the documents to the London-based newspaper The Guardian and to The Washington Post on two massive data collection systems that catalog vast numbers of phone call data, e-mails and other online communications by U.S. and foreign citizens in the United States and around the world.

The programs do not listen in on calls or allow the investigators to read e-mails but search for patterns that indicate possible communications with terrorist abroad, according to the U.S. government. While the Hong Kong government maintained its silence on Snowden, groups were moving forward with plans for a march to support him.

"Together let's protect people so brave and selfless as Snowden," said Angus Chiu as he registered for the event on its Facebook page.

The announcement of the "Rally to Support Edward Snowden" lists 15 groups as organizers, including the League of Social Democrats, a political party, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union and the Civil Human Rights Front, which organizes the city's biggest annual protest event, a march on the July 1 anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule.

"We call on Hong Kong to respect international legal standards and procedures relating to the protection of Snowden," the organizers said. "We condemn the U.S. government for violating our rights and privacy and we call on the U.S. not to prosecute Snowden."

Three legislators, the head of a local human rights group and a media activist are listed as confirmed speakers for the march, which is to start Saturday afternoon from a subway exit and proceed to the U.S. consulate and the offices of the city's government.

After six hours, nearly 100 people had indicated plans to attend with another 50 down as "maybe."

"This episode marks a crossroads in Hong Kong's future," the organizers say, suggesting that marchers bring signs bearing slogans such as "Betray Snowden = Betray Freedom" or "Defend Free Speech, Protect Snowden."

Contributing: Oren Dorell in McLean, Va.