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Perhaps I am out of line here, but I am growing tired hearing the GOP calling Snowden a traitor. Before he leaked that the government is spying on all of the people in just about every way possible. I had no clue. If we, the freeest people since the beginning of time, cannot compose a simple email without it being opened and read by who knows who, then I say, we have lost freedom of the most basic nature and I am, if no one else, is better knowing it because of Snowden than not. Am I off base on...

Fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden controls dangerous information that could become the United States' "worst nightmare" if revealed, a journalist familiar with the data said in a newspaper interview. Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst. "Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinian...

One of the axioms utilized by H.L. Mencken in analyzing politics in the United States stated that Americans were unable to grasp arguments on their face and instead needed them recast in pure Manichean terms, with the most repellent of devils on one side and the purest of angels on the other. Mencken was on to something there, something that still holds true today, as is shown by the debate concerning the NSA scandal. This scandal is being fought out -- particularly among conservatives -- on purely Manichean grounds. Certain commentators insist that since the NSA operates to protect national...

Fugitive document-leaker Edward Snowden announced Friday that he is submitting a request for political asylum in Russia, where he has been stranded at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport since June 23. Eventually, the 30-year-old former contractor for the National Security Agency said in a meeting with human rights activists and lawyers, he still hopes to be granted asylum in Latin America.

Airport spokeswoman Anna Zakharenkova confirmed about 10 people had been invited to the meeting which was scheduled to take place in the transit area at around 17:00 local time (14:00 GMT). "We will provide access and premises," she was quoted as saying. "The exact list (of attendees) is not known." A large press scrum gathered at the airport ahead of the meeting, while Interfax reported Mr Snowden had moved from his room in the airport's Capsule Hotel to attend the meeting. In the message, the 30-year-old fugitive complained that the US government was waging an "unlawful campaign" to prevent him...

Microsoft has collaborated closely with U.S. intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, top-secret documents obtained Thursday by the British Guardian show. The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month. According to the Guardian, the documents show that: snip

An Aeroflot plane en route from Moscow to Havana has deviated from its course, FlightAware live flight tracking indicates. The news has sparked online speculation that NSA leaker Edward Snowden may be aboard the aircraft. However upon arrival in the Cuban capital, crew members told reporters that Snowden was not on board the flight. Aeroflot flight 150 to Havana took off from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport at 14:10 pm local time (10:10 GMT) on Thursday and landed around 22:30 GMT. Whistleblower Edward Snowden has been holed up in the airport for the past two weeks. The flight route usually passes over...

Diplomacy: National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden seems to have taken Venezuela's asylum offer, an odd choice for a man supposedly motivated by a desire for transparency. He should prepare for life as a pawn. U.S. surveillance is "not something I am willing to live under," Snowden told the U.K. Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, in a story published Monday, condemning yet again the NSA, whose operations, he claims, motivated him to hack into its computers, steal U.S. secrets, leak them to the press, and then flee a $100,000-a-year job and a pole-dancing girlfriend on the island paradise of Hawaii for a...

Or at least wake me when we get to Luxembourg. The tawdry revelations from the bottom of the Edward Snowden cache continue to seep out, this time in Brazil, where the newspaper O Globo reports in shock that US intelligence services collect information on Latin America. In other news, O Globo also reports that water is wet, or something: A Brazilian newspaper on Tuesday published an article it said is based on documents provided by the former American contractor Edward Snowden asserting that the United States has been collecting data on telephone calls and e-mails from several countries in Latin...

Weeks after the fiery death of investigative journalist Michael Hastings , who was probing abuses by the CIA and NSA and had recently informed others that he was being investigated by federal authorities, suspicions about his mysterious car crash are still swirling around the Internet. While police officially ruled the death an “accident,” serious questions are still surfacing — even in the establishment media and among prominent officials. Based on e-mails Hastings sent out shortly before he died about working on a “big story” and needing to go “off the radar,” it has become clear that he was worried, too....

The head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee says Edward Snowden has accepted Venezuela's offer of political asylum. Alexei Pushkov made the statement on his Twitter account Tuesday. The message did not clarify how he learned of Snowden's purported acceptance, but Pushkov has acted as an unofficial point-man for the Kremlin on the Snowden affair.

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been holed up in a Moscow airport for more than two weeks, has agreed to an offer of political asylum from Venezuela, a top pro-Kremlin lawmaker said on Tuesday.

In second part of Glenn Greenwald interview, NSA whistleblower insists he is a patriot who regards the US as fundamentally good. Edward Snowden predicted more than a month ago while still in hiding in Hong Kong that the US government would seek to demonise him, telling the Guardian that he would be accused of aiding America´s enemies.

Editor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and "Governing America." (CNN) -- During the weeks of debates triggered by Edward Snowden and his release of information about a classified National Security Agency spying program, the story has moved further and further from the actual surveillance and centered instead on the international cat-and-mouse game to find him. What has been remarkable is how Democrats have expressed little opposition to the surveillance program. Many Democrats have simply remained silent as these revelations have emerged while others, like...

Leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have provided new insight into how the government monitors domestic and foreign communications for threats to national security. Although the government has disclosed some additional details about the programs in response to the leaks, important questions remain about the nature and scope of the surveillance programs. Without that additional information, it is impossible to know the extent to which the government is peering into the lives of Americans in the name of national security, according to privacy advocates. 1. What other data is being collected under the Patriot Act? The first...

Edward Snowden denied Icelandic citizenship after being voted down by its parliament The vote leaves Snowden - believed to be staying in a transit area at a Moscow airport - with one option fewer as he seeks a country to shelter him from U.S. espionage charges. Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, was denied citizenship by Iceland.A bid by Edward Snowden for Icelandic citizenship failed when the country's parliament voted not to debate it before the summer recess, lawmakers said on Friday. The vote leaves Snowden - believed to be staying in a...

MANAGUA — Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Friday his government was willing to give political asylum to US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden "if circumstances permit" it. "We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua," Ortega said at a public event.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden might soon be living up to his frigid last name as Icelandic lawmakers have put legislation on the table that would make the NSA's most wanted man a citizen of the polar country. Member of Iceland's parliament Ögmundur Jónasson first made the proposition this morning, the last day before the 63-member legislative body begins their summer leave. Granting citizenship to Snowden, who admits to revealing key details of U.S. surveillance activities would circumvent the rule that he must be on Icelandic soil to apply for asylum there.

France has apologised to Bolivia for refusing to allow President Evo Morales' jet into its airspace, blaming "conflicting information". Bolivia accused France, Italy, Spain and Portugal of blocking the plane. It said some wrongly believed US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board. Speaking in Berlin, French President Francois Hollande said he granted permission as soon as he knew it was Mr Morales' plane. President Morales was flying back to Bolivia from Moscow when the plane was forced to stop in Vienna.

Bolivia is furious that a plane carrying President Evo Morales was forced to land in Vienna on Tuesday night after false rumors circulated that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board. The country has called it a "direct attack" on the leader. Bolivian President Evo Morales hadn't intended to spend Tuesday night enjoying the comforts of the VIP lounge in Vienna's international airport.