US rejects petition to pardon Snowden

The Obama administration has rejected a petition signed by almost 168,000 people calling on it to pardon former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden for leaking US government secrets.

The White House reiterated its tough stance against the exiled fugitive, whom supporters regard as a whistleblower, in response to the petition on its own website.

Lisa Monaco, an adviser on homeland security and counter terrorism, told the AFP news agency that Snowden’s “dangerous decision to steal and disclose classified information had severe consequences for the security of our country and the people who work day in and day out to protect it”.

She said that Snowden, who has been granted asylum in Russia after he leaked documents on vast US surveillance programmes to journalists, is “running away from the consequences of his actions.

“If he felt his actions were consistent with civil disobedience, then he should do what those who have taken issue with their own government do: challenge it, speak out, engage in a constructive act of protest and importantly accept the consequences of his actions.

“He should come home to the United States and be judged by a jury of his peers, not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime,” she wrote.