Edward Snowden joined those calling for officials to release a memo that's said to have information about the government's surveillance abuses. The secrecy of the document, according to the NSA whistleblower, contributed to the reauthorization of a government spying bill narrowly approved by Congress this week.
The vote to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for six more years, which came despite the objections of privacy and civil liberties advocates, will allow the government to spy on the electronic communications of Americans without a warrant.
Officials confirm there's a secret report showing abuses of spy law Congress voted to reauthorize this week. If this memo had been known prior to the vote, FISA reauth would have failed. These abuses must be made public, and @realDonaldTrump should send the bill back with a veto. https://t.co/BEwJ9EyIq0
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 19, 2018
And the ACLU agreed:
The Intelligence Committee memo about government surveillance abuses should have been made public and given to members of Congress before the FISA Section 702 vote.
Trump must veto the bill so there can be a real debate on these powers. https://t.co/VZOLmYXdrj— ACLU (@ACLU) January 19, 2018
Calls to #ReleaseTheMemo have been heard largely from Republicans including Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who was cleared by an ethics committee last month of giving classified information to the Trump administration as he accused the Obama administration of revealing the names of U.S. officials in documents gathered through foreign surveillance.
Snowden denied that he was aligning himself with Nunes generally, arguing that transparency about a memo that could impact the privacy of Americans, should be out in the open for the good of all citizens regardless of political affiliations.
Ugh, you planting your flag with @DevinNunes ?
— Peter B (@StrangeCapn) January 19, 2018
Of course not, but when the chairman of House Intel (HPSCI) claims there's documented evidence of serious surveillance abuses, it matters. If true, the citizens must see the proof. If false, it establishes HPSCI lies and has no credibility. Either outcome benefits the public. https://t.co/IsRcR1azvP
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 19, 2018
In his series of tweets, Snowden acknowledged that right-wing pundits and GOP lawmakers could very well being using the "release the memo" call as a self-serving political distraction, but said there are easy ways to test whether or not this is true:
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Steve King (R-Iowa), both of whom have called for an end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, are among those calling for a release of the memo.
There is one signal that will tell you if the Republican's #ReleaseTheMemo campaign is legitimate: whether or not @RealDonaldTrump signs the FISA 702 reauth into law in the next 10 days. If he doesn't veto 702 and send it back to Congress for reform, this is nothing but politics. https://t.co/TBwt0T0lBm
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 19, 2018
Meanwhile, journalist Glenn Greenwald, who reported some of the most hard-hitting stories based on the NSA documents leaked by Snowden, also joined the call for transparency even as he, too, made it clear he wasn't interested in aligning with Donald Trump Jr. or others using the demand as a cynical ploy:
This makes no sense for multiple reasons: 1) your dad could declassify the docs, which he should do if they really show pervasive criminality & spying abuses; 2) it's not "stooping" to reveal high-level crimes; it's a duty; 3) refusal to release this suggests it's all bullshit. https://t.co/c1mhXVHPwu
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2018
Indeed, Greenwald made it clear that it remains House Republicans and President Trump himself, not Democrats, who have the clear authority to make the document public:
Dear conservatives: you cannot fall for this fraud they're perpetrating on you. They want you to focus on a memo that *only they* (Trump & GOP leaders) have the power to let you see. The only reason you can't see it is because they're concealing it. You must realize this, right? https://t.co/QQU16vcfZp
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2018
Dear conservative members of Congress claiming this memo (and, critically, the underlying source materials) exposes widespread criminality & spying abuses: Ellsberg's quote below is what a patriot does when they really believe that. And Secure Drop works: https://t.co/ZaOomCmiH0 https://t.co/r9ZYxIE3a5
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2018
