Former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey
"Respectfully, I say to Sweden, 'America has done wrong in this instance. Stand up to her. Grant Edward Snowden asylum. You will do the people of the United States a great favor to resist their government in this matter and at this moment," Humphrey wrote Wednesday morning.
Humphrey said Sweden would be the "ideal country" for the NSA leaker because it is only a one hour flight from the Russian border and "no overflight is necessary of countries likely to cooperate with the U.S. in forcing down an aircraft carrying Mr. Snowden to asylum."
Additionally, Humphrey said Sweden "has a reputation for high-mindedness" and "a strong tradition of justice."
"And even though Sweden is warmly friendly towards the United States, it is firm in its determination to act independently."
According to WikiLeaks, Snowden has not applied for asylum in Sweden.
Humphrey, who represented New Hampshire for two terms in the Senate and was on the Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Judiciary Committees, said he will be rallying a few former Members of Congress to "join together in appealing to Sweden and other Western countries to stand up to Washington and grant Mr. Snowden asylum."
He said he has not reached out to the administration to express his views and believes at the moment it is more useful to appeal to the public than the government.
In an e-mail to Snowden published by the Guardian on Tuesday, Humphrey said he thinks the former NSA contracter did "the right thing" in leaking information about government surveillance programs.
"I believe you have done the right thing in exposing what I regard as massive violation of the United States Constitution," Humphrey wrote to Snowden. "Having served in the United States Senate for twelve years as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, the Armed Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee, I think I have a good grounding to reach my conclusion."
In an e-mail to journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story about Snowden, Humphrey called Snowden a "courageous whistle-blower."
"Yes. It was I who sent the email message to Edward Snowden, thanking him for exposing astonishing violations of the U.S. Constitution and encouraging him to persevere in the search for asylum," Humphrey wrote. "To my knowledge, Mr. Snowden has disclosed only the existence of a program and not details that would place any person in harm's way. I regard him as a courageous whistle-blower."
In a thank you note to Humphrey, Snowden said that the information he has cannot be compromised, not even by U.S. intelligence agencies.
"No intelligence service - not even our own - has the capacity to compromise the secrets I continue to protect. While it has not been reported in the media, one of my specializations was to teach our people at DIA how to keep such information from being compromised even in the highest threat counter-intelligence environments (i.e. China)."
Snowden added "you may rest easy knowing I cannot be coerced into revealing that information, even under torture."
Snowden could leave the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow this week, Reuters reports. Snowden has been held up in the transit area of the airport since fleeing Hong Kong in late June. Anatoly Kucherena, who is helping Snowden with his request for temporary asylum in Russia, said he expects Snowden to stay in Russia for the time being.
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