Snowden said the president’s alleged failings influenced his decision. | AP Photos Edward Snowden blames Obama

NSA leaker Edward Snowden on Monday criticized President Barack Obama for empty promises in a wide-ranging online interview, saying that the president’s alleged failings influenced his decision to release the secret information on government surveillance.

“Obama’s campaign promises and election gave me faith that he would lead us toward fixing the problems he outlined in his quest for votes. Many Americans felt similarly. Unfortunately, shortly after assuming power, he closed the door on investigating systemic violations of law, deepened and expanded several abusive programs, and refused to spend the political capital to end the kind of human rights violations like we see in Guantanamo, where men still sit without charge,” Snowden said in a response to a question from a commenter on The Guardian’s website.


Snowden was responding to this question: “Why did you wait to release the documents if you said you wanted to tell the world about the NSA programs since before Obama became president?”

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Speaking further about his mindset in deciding to release the information, Snowden said Congress and the administration also spurred him to act.

“There was no single moment. It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress - and therefore the American people - and the realization that that Congress, specifically the Gang of Eight, wholly supported the lies that compelled me to act. Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper - the Director of National Intelligence - baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy,” Snowden wrote.

Snowden appeared to be referring to the so-called intelligence gang of eight, the four leaders (ranking members and chairs) of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the four leaders of the House and Senate.

But Snowden, answering questions from an unknown location, said there was still a chance for the president to redeem himself.

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”This disclosure provides Obama an opportunity to appeal for a return to sanity, constitutional policy, and the rule of law rather than men. He still has plenty of time to go down in history as the President who looked into the abyss and stepped back, rather than leaping forward into it. I would advise he personally call for a special committee to review these interception programs, repudiate the dangerous “State Secrets” privilege, and … begin a tradition for all Presidents … by appointing a special investigator to review the policies of their years in office for any wrongdoing,” Snowden said.

During the 1 1/2 hour-long session, Snowden gave responses covering everything from the technical details of the surveillance programs, to his salary, to the media response to his coming forward.

Snowden repeatedly disputed claims that his actions harmed national security.

”Bathtub falls and police officers kill more Americans than terrorism, yet we’ve been asked to sacrifice our most sacred rights for fear of falling victim to it,” Snowden said to one commenter.

“I did not reveal any US operations against legitimate military targets,” Snowden wrote in another response.

Snowden also said the U.S. would not be able to silence him.

“All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped,” Snowden said when asked by Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald what would happen to the information he possessed if something happened to him.

The 29-year-old also addressed how the public debate has been shaped by his leak, lamenting media attention on the personal details of his life.

”Unfortunately, the mainstream media now seems far more interested in what I said when I was 17 or what my girlfriend looks like rather than, say, the largest program of suspicionless surveillance in human history,” Snowden said.

Snowden addressed some points of contention with his initial interview. On the topic of his salary, which he claimed was $200,000 but which his last employer Booz Allen Hamilton said was $122,000, Snowden said the $200,000 figure was a “career high,” and Booz Allen Hamilton was not the most he’d been paid..

Responding to pushback from lawmakers defending the program that any content of phone calls or emails requires a warrant, Snowden said “Americans’ communications are collected and viewed on a daily basis on the certification of an analyst rather than a warrant. They excuse this as ‘incidental’ collection, but at the end of the day, someone at NSA still has the content of your communications.”

He explained that “content” of emails includes “all of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything. And it gets saved for a very long time.”

He also was asked if he stood by his initial claim “I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you, or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President if I had a personal email.”

Snowden affirmed he stood by that statement, which was disputed Sunday by former NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden.

“US Persons do enjoy limited policy protections … and one very weak technical protection — a near-the-front-end filter at our ingestion points. The filter is constantly out of date, is set at what is euphemistically referred to as the “widest allowable aperture,” and can be stripped out at any time.”

He defended his decision to flee to Hong Kong, claiming the U.S. government did what he expected when the story came out and ruined his chance of a fair trial.

“First, the US Government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason and that the disclosure of secret, criminal, and even unconstitutional acts is an unforgivable crime,” Snowden wrote.

Snowden was also asked why he did not go immediately to Iceland, which he initially said was his best hope of asylum. Snowden explained that he was concerned about being intercepted en route to wherever he fled, and felt that Hong Kong offered the best chance of finding somewhere to work immediately.

“Leaving the U.S. was an incredible risk, as NSA employees must declare their foreign travel 30 days in advance and are monitored. There was a distinct possibility I would be interdicted en route, so I had to travel with no advance booking to a country with the cultural and legal framework to allow me to work without being immediately detained,” Snowden wrote, saying he would “not put that past the current U.S. administration” to intervene if he tried to go to Iceland.

The Guardian had more than 700 comments posted when the Q-and-A began, and the number grew to well over 3,000 by the end of the session. Spending just over an 1 1/2 hours online, Snowden gave 16 responses, including to some questions from Greenwald