PRISM whistleblower Edward Snowden accuses President Obama of deception
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind the PRISM leaks to The Guardian has condemned the Obama administration for pressuring countries he has applied for asylum within to reject him, and accused the US president of "deception".
Former intelligence services contractor, Snowden has been on the run from US authorities in recent weeks having leaked classified NSA information on the global data gathering project it has been running in recent years.
He has released a statement on Wikileaks while continuing to seek asylum in 21 countries, including Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela.
"President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions," read the statement.
"This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."
He also mentioned fellow whistleblowers against the US, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake and claimed that the US was more afraid of the reaction of the people as a result of the information that was leaked, than the whistleblowers themselves.