National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, an analyst with a U.S. defence contractor, is seen in this still image taken from a video during an interview with the Guardian in his hotel room in Hong Kong June 6, 2013.
Image by: HANDOUT / REUTERS
Image by: HANDOUT / REUTERS
US whistleblower Edward Snowden yesterday vowed to stay in Hong Kong to fight any extradition bid, and promised new revelations about US surveillance targets, the South China Morning Post reported.
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"I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American," he told the Hong Kong newspaper in an interview.
In a teaser posted online before it publishes the full interview, the newspaper reported that the former contractor for the NationalSecurity Agency would offer "more explosive details on US surveillance targets".
Snowden will also discuss his fears for his family and his immediate plans, the newspaper said after it interviewed the former CIA analyst earlier yesterday at a secret location in Hong Kong.
"People who think I made a mistake in picking Hong Kong as a location misunderstand my intentions.
"I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality," he told the newspaper.
Snowden also vowed to fight any extradition attempt by the US government, the newspaper said, after he went to Hong Kong on May 20 and leaked a global eavesdropping operation by the NSA to The Guardian and The Washington Post.
"My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate. I've been given no reason to doubt your system."
Snowden revealed a top secret court order issued on April 25 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that granted a three-monthrenewal for the large-scale collection of American phone records.
That programme allows the NSA to gather hundreds of millions of US phone records to search for possible links to terrorists abroad. Snowden also disclosed another programme that allows the government to tap into nine US internet companies and gather all communications to detect suspicious behaviour that begins overseas.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued senior US government officials on Tuesday to strike down the NSA's broad telephone surveillance.
The lawsuit filed in US District Court for the Southern District of New York claims the US government's collection of vast communications records violates rights to free speech and privacy as guaranteed by the US constitution.
After stories from Snowden's leaks appeared in The Guardian of Britain and The Washington Post, US National Intelligence director James Clapper declassified some details of the programme, acknowledging it existed.
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