Glenn Greenwald (C) testifies on Wednesday before a committee of the Brazilian Senate investigating reports about US, British and Canadian spying on the Latin American nation.
American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who first published secret documents leaked by US surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden, says Brazil should grant asylum to Snowden.
Greenwald of Britain’s Guardian newspaper made the remarks on Wednesday during a briefing to Brazilian senators investigating reports about US, British and Canadian spying on the Latin American nation.
In June, Snowden, a former CIA employee, leaked two top secret US government spying programs under which the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are eavesdropping on millions of American and European phone records and the Internet data from major Internet companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
Snowden also revealed information about NSA espionage activities targeting friendly countries across the world.
“We now have several denunciations that show that the spy program is not about terrorism. It is about increasing the power of the American government,” Greenwald told senators, speaking in Portuguese.
“There are many nations saying, ‘We’re glad to be learning all this information,’ but almost nobody wants to protect the person responsible for letting the world discover it,” the Brazil-based journalist said, referring to Snowden.
He added that if “a government is serious about defending privacy of data and freedom of the press,” it would protect Snowden.
Last month, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff canceled a planned visit to the White House over US spying on Brazilian officials and companies.
Brazil™s Globo TV has reported that the NSA spied on emails, phone calls and text messages of Rousseff and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
The report was based on documents released by Snowden.
Rousseff was scheduled to visit Washington in late October to meet her US counterpart Barack Obama and discuss a possible four-billion-dollar jet fighter deal, cooperation on oil and biofuels technology between the two biggest economies in the Americas, as well as other commercial projects.
In July, Brazil™s O Globo newspaper said the NSA has been spying on Brazilian companies and individuals for a decade.
The newspaper reported on July 7 that the NSA had collected data on billions of telephone and email conversations in the country.
The report said that information released by Snowden reveals that the number of telephone and email messages logged by the NSA in the 10-year period was near to the 2.3 billion captured in the US during the same period.
GJH/MHB
Copyright: Press TV