Edward Snowden
Responding to questions from Brazilian legislators about details of the files, Greenwald said, "I did not do an exact count, but he gave me 15,000, 20,000 documents. Very, very complete and very long. The stories we have published are a small portion. There will certainly be more revelations on the espionage activities of the US government and allied governments... on how they have penetrated the communications systems of Brazil and Latin America."
According to AFP, Greenwald said he could not give the Brazilian lawmakers details about the content of the files because the US government is currently conducting investigations. But he said, "The pretext [given by Washington] for the spying is only one thing: terrorism and the need to protect the [American] people. But the reality is that there are many documents which have nothing to do with terrorism or national security, but have to do with competition with other countries, in the business, industrial and economic fields."
Although Snowden had approached Greenwald while he worked as a contractor for the NSA, the files in Greenwald's possession were handed to him when Snowden was hiding at a hotel in Hong Kong, before he flew to Moscow.
According to AFP, in an interview last month, Greenwald confirmed that Snowden gave him the documents in Hong Kong, after he fled the US.
Greenwald writes for The Guardian as well as the Brazilian O Globo magazine. After he published the Snowden leaks in The Guardian, he revealed information about the US surveillance programs targeting Brazil and several other Latin American countries in O Globo.
In his testimony, he claimed that some Brazilian companies have collected data for the National Security Agency (NSA). He urged the Brazilian government to investigate the complicity of the companies.
O Globo recently published a story that claimed the US government had maintained a spy center in Brasilia that was part of a network of 16 other spy facilities worldwide. The publication alleged that the US government used the facilities to intercept satellite transmissions by foreign countries.
Reacting to the damaging allegations of extensive spying by the US government in Brazil and Latin America, Vice President Joe Biden called the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to offer an explanation. Although details of the discussion between the two leaders are unknown, the US Ambassador to Brazil Thomas Shannon had earlier denied that the NSA was engaged in telecoms spying in the Brazil.
Foreign Ministers of the South American trade bloc Mercosur have discussed their position on the allegations of NSA surveillance in Latin America with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
On July 12, the foreign ministers issued a statement after a summit in Montevideo, Uruguay, that called for the UN to consider measures to stop international spying and impose sanctions on the US.
Analysts, however, point out that the UN cannot impose sanctions against the US because, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the US holds a veto over any resolution to impose sanctions against it.
The latest revelations from the Snowden cache identified a secret surveillance program codenamed XKeyscore, which the US intelligence services allegedly used to monitor Internet traffic.
According to Greenwald, in addition to collecting metadata, XKeyscore collects "the content of emails and what is being discussed in telephone conversations. It is a powerful program which frightens."
The Russian government granted Snowden temporary political asylum earlier this month. A WikiLeaks statement issued Aug. 1, 2013, said: "Edward Snowden has successfully acquired refugee status in Russia and will shortly leave the airport."
His Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said he left the airport at about 2 p.m. local time after having lived at the Sheremetyevo airport's transit zone for two months.
The US is seeking Snowden's extradition to face felony charges for leaking classified documents related to the country's electronic surveillance programs.
I read that the US may charge him with several crimes against the US government and try to extradite him for prosecution. I hope he is able to stay free and keep up the pressure...