Edward Snowden offers to help Brazil in exchange for political asylum
In a letter to a Brazilian newspaper, the NSA whistle-blower volunteers services to probe US spying in return for political asylum
National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has offered to help Brazil investigate US spying on its soil in exchange for political asylum, in an open letter to the Brazilian people published by a Brazilian newspaper.
Snowden wrote in a lengthy letter that he's been inspired by the global debate ignited by his release of thousands of NSA documents, and that the NSA's culture of indiscriminate global espionage "is collapsing."
In the letter, published by the newspaper and released widely online, Snowden commended the Brazilian government for its strong stand against US spying.
He said he'd be willing to help the South American nation investigate espionage on its soil, but could not fully participate in doing so without being granted political asylum.
"Until a country grants permanent political asylum, the US government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak," he says.
Revelations about the NSA's spy programmes were first published in June, based on some of the thousands of documents Snowden handed over to the Brazil-based American journalist Glenn Greenwald.
The documents revealed that Brazil is the top NSA target in Latin America, spying that has included the monitoring of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's mobile phone and hacking into the internal network of state-run oil company Petrobras.
