Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) on Sunday called former NSA contractor Edward Snowden a whistleblower, not a traitor, and said that members of Congress would have been left in the dark about the NSA’s spy tactics if it weren’t for the information leaks.
Speaking on “Fox NewsSunday”, the Michigan
Republican, who is a prominent critic of the National Security
Agency, applauded Snowden for publicizing classified information
that lawmakers would have otherwise never known about.
“Without his doing what he did, members of Congress would not
have really known about [those programs],” Amash said.
“Members of Congress were not really aware on the whole about
what these programs were being used for and the extent to which
they were being used. Members of the intelligence committee were
told, but rank-and-file members really didn’t have the
information.”
When asked by Fox’s Chris Wallace if Amash would go so far as to
call Snowden a whistleblower, the lawmaker said he would, arguing
that the former NSA contractor provided Congress with important
information that should have already been known. Amash thereby
joined the 55 percent of Americans who consider
Snowden a whistleblower, rather than the 34 percent who call him
a traitor.
“Yes,” Amash said. “As I said, he may be doing things
overseas that we’d find problematic, that we’d find dangerous…
we’ll find those facts out over time. But as far as Congress is
concerned, sure, he’s a whistleblower. He told us what we need to
know.”
Amash has been a vocal opponent of NSA surveillance, and last
month introduced a bipartisan amendment to the Defense
appropriations bill that would defund the NSA’s data-collection
of phone records. The vote failed
in the House by a narrow margin, but Amash has continued to
stand
up against the NSA.
During Sunday’s interview, Amash also expanded on his thoughts
about the controversial program.
“It’s important to understand that what the Justice Department
and intelligence community are relying on is a third party
doctrine,” he said. “They are saying that because you’ve
given your data, because it’s shared with a third party, it
becomes public property.”
Other congressional lawmakers have taken a more hostile stance
toward the former NSA contractor. House Speaker John Boehner
called Snowden a “traitor”, and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
accused him of committing an act of treason. Sen. Angus King
(I-Maine) called him dangerous, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.) has condemned Snowden’s actions and urged him to
“come back and face the music.”
With Snowden out of
reach of US authorities, lawmakers continue to express
frustration with both his inaccessibility and the NSA’s spy
tactics — and Amash believes the whistleblower did an honorable
thing by revealing them.
Republished from: RT