Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden made light of Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Monday during an internet conference in Stockholm. “Donald Trump is just the president. It’s an important position. But it’s one of many,” Snowden reportedly said at the conference speaking via a video link from Moscow where the 33-year-old fugitive has been living since 2013.
Snowden is wanted in the U.S. under the Espionage Act for leaking classified information, which revealed that the NSA had been spying on Americans using the mass surveillance programs the U.S. had set up after 9/11.
In light of the Trump administration stepping up its efforts to arrest Snowden, the whistleblower on Monday defended his decision to leak classified information.
“I don’t care. The reality here is that yes, Donald Trump has appointed a new director of the Central Intelligence Agency who uses me as a specific example to say that, look, dissidents should be put to death,” he said. “But if I get hit by a bus, or a drone, or dropped off an airplane tomorrow, you know what? It doesn’t actually matter that much to me, because I believe in the decisions that I’ve already made.”
— source ibtimes.com