Former National Security Agency intelligence analyst Edward Snowden has received the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence for leaking classified documents on the US government™s massive spying programs.
Since 2002, an association of retired CIA officers has been giving the award to people who take a stand for truth. The award is named after a former CIA analyst who exposed the US military™s wrongdoings during the Vietnam War.
Snowden, who resides in an unknown location in Russia, told four former US government agents-turned-whistleblowers at a secret dinner this week that he was glad his actions have had an impact.
He said he has no regrets for disclosing government secrets despite having to live his life on the run.
The dinner Wednesday evening marked Snowden’s first public appearance since being granted temporary asylum in Russia on August 1, as he fled criminal prosecution in the United States.
“He made his decision and didn’t hesitate for a second when we asked if he would do it again, and he prepared it well enough so I think he takes a measure of satisfaction that he didn’t end up like Bradley Manning,” said former CIA agent Ray McGovern who visited Snowden in Russia, referring to the former US soldier recently sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking classified documents.
In addition to McGovern, the meeting was attended by former NSA executive Thomas Andrews Drake and former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, and UK WikiLeaks activist Sarah Harrison.
McGovern said the whistleblowers had contacted anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks two months ago and told it they would like to meet Snowden in person to give him the Sam Adams Award.
Snowden rocked the US government earlier this year by revealing to the news media hundreds of thousands of top secret documents that detail aspects of several surveillance programs targeting American citizens, foreign nationals, foreign governments and offices. He obtained the files while working for the NSA as a tech specialist.
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Copyright: Press TV