Snowden not a patriot, Obama says

President Obama said Friday that National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden
wasn’t a patriot for disclosing classified surveillance programs, and there
were other avenues he could have pursued to address his concerns.

“I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot,” Obama was asked
at a news conference.

“I called for a thorough review of our surveillance
operations before Mr. Snowden made these leaks,” he said. “My preference, and I
think the American people’s preference, would have been for a lawful, orderly
examination of these laws — a thoughtful fact-based debate that would then lead
us to a better place.”

Snowden’s disclosures of top-secret NSA phone and Internet surveillance programs have sparked a major debate over the government’s
spying activities.

{mosads}Obama has defended the need for the NSA programs to root out potential terrorism
plots, but he also announced a series of reforms on Friday to provide more
transparency that came in response to the backlash over Snowden’s leaks.

Privacy advocates have praised the former NSA contractor’s
disclosures and called him a whistle-blower for exposing the surveillance
activities.

Obama said that Snowden had other means to raise the issues
he had, noting that he signed an executive order that provided some
whistle-blower protections to the intelligence community.

“There were other avenues available for somebody whose
conscience was stirred and thought that they needed to question government
actions,” Obama said.

He called on Snowden, who has been charged by the U.S. with espionage,
to return to American soil and face trial.

“If, in fact, he believes that what he did was right, then,
like every American citizen, he can come here, appear before the court with a
lawyer, and make his case,” Obama said.

Snowden has been given temporary asylum in Russia, a move
that, along with other relations issues, prompted Obama to cancel a bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir
Putin.