Thomas Drake, a former NSA executive who became a critic of the agency, praised Snowden for speaking truth to power.

“Russia, to its credit, recognized international law and granted him asylum,” he said, asserting that U.S. officials drove Snowden into Russia’s arms by making him stateless. The United States points out that Snowden remains a citizen even though his passport was revoked and that he should return home to answer the charges against him.

“This is an extraordinary person,” said Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst. “He’s convinced what he did was right.”

The raging global discussion about the proper limits of surveillance of the past few months will become harder to ignore

From internet leaders Tim Berners-Lee and Mark Zuckerberg, to the leaders of Brazil and US national intelligence, Dilma Rousseff and James Clapper, powerful voices in politics, culture and academia are recognising the need for debate on state surveillance

Republican Jim Sensenbrenner prepares to publish legislation and says it‘s time ‚to put their metadata program out of business‘

On Thursday the Daily Mail described the Guardian as the ‚The paper that helps Britain‘s enemies‘. We showed that article to many of the world‘s leading editors. This is what they said

Patriot Act author Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said on Wednesday that „in the next few days,“ he will submit a bipartisan bill to end the bulk collection of data and phone records by the National Security Agency.

Edward Snowden holds the Sam Adams award for integrity in intelligence, with (left to right) former US government officials Coleen Rowley and Thomas Drake, UK WikiLeaks journalist Sarah Harrison, and ex-US officials Jesselyn Raddack and Ray McGovern

Two Canadians freed at the weekend after being held in Egypt for more than six weeks without charge were allowed to leave the country on Thursday when authorities lifted a travel ban.

Rep. Justin Amash has been highlighting for months how Rep. Mike Rogers, the head of the House Intelligence Committee seems to have gone out of his way to withhold information from Congress. In a recent speech, he teed off on Rogers, noting that while his job as head of the Intelligence Committee is supposed to be „oversight,“ it‘s actually been one of collusion with the White House to „cover up“ the intelligence community‘s activities.

The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Thursday urging the United Nations to consider establishing a full-fledged peacekeeping force in virtually lawless Central African Republic.

Americans’ approval of Congress, most notably the GOP, hit a second all-time low within two weeks as the government closure continues.

Was hier vorgeht, ist der Fluss der Gesetzesmissachtung herunter von den Bundesbehörden zu den Polizisten auf den Strassen. Wie Kinder, die ihre Eltern beobachten und deren unsanktioniertes, unangebrachtes und sogar noch wiederholtes Verhalten imitieren, so rüsten sich Polizisten mit militärtauglicher Ausstattung auf und machen dasselbe, wenn sie sehen, dass das Militär Regierungsverbrechen durchzieht, das Gesetz missachtet und die Verfassung umgeht.

The Republican party has scored the worst favorability rating of any political party over the last 20 years…

This is the lowest favorable rating measured for either party since Gallup began asking this question in 1992.

With a potential debt ceiling increase afoot, liberals brace for Obama to once again push for Social Security cuts

The fact that Jay Carney is out there saying the president has been open to negotiations all year long and remains so today means that the polling data or the focus grouping, whatever they‘re doing, must really be bad for them. We‘re just supposed to forget? Just a couple of days ago Obama said he would never negotiate on this.

• Carney says president would sign ‚clean‘ extension
• ‚But we don‘t know if that‘s what we‘re going to get here‘
• House leader John Boehner offers temporary debt fix

House Republicans, looking for a way out of a budget standoff they began, will offer to President Obama at a White House meeting Thursday a plan to increase the debt limit through Nov. 22, in exchange for a promise to negotiate a deal for long-term deficit reduction and a tax overhaul.