Snowden to vote for US president

Whistle-blower says he is disappointed the candidates are not talking about rights

Edward Snowden, in exile in Moscow after leaking US National Security Agency (NSA) documents, said yesterday he intends to vote in the US presidential election, but did not say which candidate he favours.

“I will be voting,” Snowden said, speaking at a conference in Athens by video link from Moscow. “But as a privacy advocate I think it’s important for me ... that there should never be an obligation for an individual to discuss their vote. And I won’t be doing so with mine.”

He added: “What I will say about the candidates is that I’m disappointed we’re not hearing ... very much about our rights.”

The 33 year old ahead of the opening movie Snowden.

Snowden thanked human rights groups for their campaign to seek a pardon for him from President Barack Obama. “I’m not actually asking for a pardon myself because I think the whole point of our system and the foundation of our democracy is a system of checks and balances,” he spoke of the said. “But ... I’m incredibly grateful and fortunate to be able to experience the support of the world’s three leading human rights organisations.”

A Republican-led bipartisan US House intelligence committee on Thursday released a report calling Snowden a “serial exaggerator and fabricator” who doesn’t fit the profile of a whistleblower. All of the committee members separately sent Obama a letter urging him not to pardon Snowden, who revealed the NSA’s collection of millions’ of Americans phone records.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are behind the campaign to pardon him.

Whistle-blower