Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks and current U.S. fugitive, has said that Edward Snowden is the single source of President Obama’s plans to make changes to the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.
Assange (left) said that the president “validated Edward Snowden’s role as a whistle-blower” by proposing changes to the NSA programs in light of Snowden talking, reports USA Today. He argued that Obama never would have pursued reforms to NSA programs if Snowden (below) hadn’t come forward.
“But rather than thank Edward Snowden, the president laughably attempted to criticize him while claiming that there was a plan all along, ‘before Edward Snowden,’” Assange explained. “The simple fact is that without Snowden's disclosures, no one would know about the programs and no reforms could take place.”
Obama said Friday that his hopes of improving security within NSA programs and improving the availability of information about these programs were present before Snowden leaked information.
“I called for a thorough review of our surveillance operations before Mr. Snowden made these leaks,” the president said, and alleged that Snowden’s statements only created a “more rapid and passionate debate” that also distorted the NSA programs in question.
Obama’s proposed reforms are “a victory of sorts for Edward Snowden,” Assange said, according to the Huffington Post.
“As Snowden has stated, his biggest concern was if he blew the whistle and change did not occur,” continued Assange. “Well reforms are taking shape, and for that, the president and people of the United States and around the world owe Edward Snowden a debt of gratitude.”
Image: WikiCommons, WikiCommons
.jpg){kind=link}
There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}