American whistleblower Edward Snowden has delivered his “Alternative Christmas Message” via Britain’s Channel 4, saying his revelations about the scale and scope of Washington’s spying activities were to enable people to have a say in how their governments are run.
“We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person,” Snowden said in an address filmed in Russia and aired by Channel 4.

“A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought,” he added.

Snowden’s Christmas message came days after he told The Washington Post that his “mission’s already accomplished” because he “wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.”

Documents disclosed by Snowden since June have altered the US government’s relationship with its own citizens and the rest of the world.

Snowden’s leaks showed, among other things, how the US National Security Agency collects phone records of all American citizens and tracks the use of US-based Web servers by all people around the world.

The documents also showed that the US government eavesdropped on phone calls of at least 35 world leaders, spied on Russia’s leadership with the help of Sweden, and spied on the 2010 G8 and G20 summits in Toronto as well as the 2009 G20 summit in London with the help of the host countries’ governments.

Snowden had fled to Hong Kong before exposing the NSA’s spying programs and on June 23 flew from Hong Kong to Russia where he was granted temporary asylum on August 1.

Rick Ledgett, head of the NSA task force responsible for assessing the damage Snowden’s leaks have done to the US spy agency, has said “it’s worth” allowing Snowden safe passage back to the US and granting him amnesty in exchange for a promise to end further revelations about the NSA’s spying activities.

However, some US officials, including former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton and former CIA director James Woolsey, say Snowden should be hanged if he is convicted of treason.

By Press TV

 

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