Iceland opens door for NSA whistleblower

There’s been speculation the NSA-phone records scandal whistleblower is defecting to China, and another report says intelligence officials were overhead discussing how he should be “disappeared.”
But officials in Iceland say they are working on preparations to help him should the wave-maker decide to seek asylum there.
According to a report in Forbes, Birgitta Jonsdottir, member of Iceland’s parliament, and Smari McCarthy, executive director of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, have issued a statement supporting Edward Snowden.
It was leaks of information that he apparently facilitated that allowed The Guardian to reveal how the National Security Agency was collecting phone data and details from tens of millions of Americans and storing it, possibly for use later.

That happened because Verizon was ordered to give cell phone records to the NSA.
Also revealed were details about how the government had access to a long list of top Internet companies, including behemoths such as Facebook, Microsoft and Google, and the details they have about Americans.
Jonsdottir and McCarthy said, “Whereas IMMI is based in Iceland, and has worked on protections of privacy, furtherance of government transparency, and the protection of whistleblowers, we feel it is our duty to offer to assist and advise Mr. Snowden to the greatest of our ability. We are already working on detailing the legal protocols required to apply for asylum, and will over the course of the week be seeking a meeting with the newly appointed interior minister of Iceland, Mrs. Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, to discuss whether an asylum request can be processed in a swift manner, should such an application be made.”
Iceland already has a record of working to protect privacy, in the WikiLeaks case, which was revealed in 2010. At that time the Nordic nation offered to be a safe haven.

There was no evidence that a request for asylum had been made and press office officials told the newspaper they couldn’t comment on individual cases such as Snowden’s.
The group based in Iceland earlier promoted the protection of those who reveal government secrets in the WikiLeaks case, including where a leaked video was released showing that journalists and civilians were killed in Baghdad in April 2010.
But Snowden, who had fled a residence in Hawaii and was taking refuge in a Hong Kong hotel, later was noted to be on the move again.
Snowden earlier had said he was interested in refuge in a nation “with shared values. The nation that most encompasses this is Iceland.”
Snowden, 29, is blamed for the leaked documents that show that top secret order to Verizon as well as an executive order from President Obama telling the NSA to draw up a list of cyberattack targets. WND reported that Snowden said he expected to face the wrath of the Obama administration in revealing the information.
“I’m willing to sacrifice all,” Snowden told the Guardian, “because I can’t in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”

The Guardian reported Snowden, a former CIA information technology employee who has since been contracted to work at the National Security Administration offices in Hawaii, copied documents on a massive, NSA surveillance program of U.S. citizens. He contacted the Guardian and Washington Post to blow the whistle on the U.S. government collecting data on phone calls and a separate program, code-named PRISM, that collects the Internet data of foreigners from major Internet companies.
“I could not do this without accepting the risk of prison,” Snowden confirmed. “You can’t come up against the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies and not accept the risk. If they want to get you, over time they will. … I do not expect to see home again.”
Ominous words aside, Snowden told the Guardian he wants the world more concerned about the government abuses he helped expose.
“I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in,” Snowden said. “My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.
“The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won’t be able to help any more,” he said. “That’s what keeps me up at night.”

Meanwhile, the next move in his case could be up to Hong Kong, and how officials decide to address the issue.
And American officials were reported already reviewing the leak information and its impact, and at the same time attacking the source.
One report said, “One former CIA official said that it was extremely unusual for the agency to have hired someone with such thin academic credentials, particularly for a technical job, and that the terms Snowden used to describe his agency positions did not match internal job descriptions.”
Snowden reportedly said he lacked a high school diploma.
And the report said, “Snowden’s claim to have been placed under diplomatic cover for a position in Switzerland after an apparently brief stint at the CIA as a systems administrator also raised suspicion.”
“‘I just have never heard of anyone being hired with so little academic credentials,’ a former CIA official said. The agency does employ technical specialists in overseas stations, the former official said, “but their breadth of experience is huge, and they tend not to start out as systems administrators.”

Also questioned was how Snowden got access to such documents from an NSA station in Hawaii.
Among the related developments:

• A report in the New York Times documents how the whistleblower’s employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, earned $1.3 billion over the last year – just by providing intelligence work for the federal government. And there’s more than business deals involved with the Obama administration, since Obama’s chief intel officer, James Clapper Jr., is a former Booz Allen executive.
• Another report documents how NSA insiders are aghast at the revelations about their work. “There is complete freakout mode at the agency right now, “a former intel officer told the Daily Beast. “There has never been anything like this in terms of the speed of referral of a crime report to the Justice Department.”

Federal officials confirm they are investigating.
“Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law,” said spokesman Shawn Turner.