Snowden to Join Board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation
Washington — Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor whose leaks of secret documents
set off a national and global debate about government spying, is
joining the board of a nonprofit organization co-founded by Daniel
Ellsberg, the well-known leaker of the Pentagon Papers during the
Vietnam War.
The announcement by the group, the Freedom of the Press Foundation,
is the latest contribution to a public relations tug of war between Mr.
Snowden’s critics, who portray him as a criminal and a traitor, and his
supporters, who say he is a whistle-blower and source for the news
media in the tradition of Mr. Ellsberg.
The foundation’s board
already includes two of the journalists Mr. Snowden gave N.S.A.
documents to, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. But the organization —
which consulted with lawyers about whether adding Mr. Snowden to its
board could jeopardize its nonprofit tax status — is trying to emphasize
parallels between Mr. Snowden and Mr. Ellsberg.
In
1971, the Nixon administration charged Mr. Ellsberg with violating the
Espionage Act because he gave the Pentagon Papers, a classified history
of decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and
other newspapers. A court eventually threw out the case for government
misconduct. Mr. Snowden has been charged under that same law.
“He
is no more of a traitor than I am, and I am not a traitor,” Mr.
Ellsberg said in an interview. He added that he was proud that Mr.
Snowden would serve alongside him on the group’s board, calling Mr.
Snowden a hero who “has done more for our Constitution in terms of the
Fourth and First Amendment” than anyone else Mr. Ellsberg knows.
The announcement comes days after the top Republican and Democratic lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee sought to paint a far more sinister portrait of Mr. Snowden,
saying he had aligned himself with America’s enemies and jeopardized
national security. They cited a classified defense intelligence report
they said concluded that most of the documents he took concerned
military activities rather than civil liberties.
“Make
no mistake, Snowden is no patriot and there is no way to excuse the
irreparable harm he caused to America and her allies, and continues to
cause,” said the chairman, Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of
Michigan. He added that Mr. Snowden’s “real acts of betrayal” were
“likely to have lethal consequences for our troops in the field.”
Ben Wizner,
an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer advising Mr. Snowden, called
such criticism “exaggerated national security fears” that amounted to
“an attack on the journalists who have published the stories based on
the documents.” He added. “The government said much more dire things
about what would happen if The New York Times published the Pentagon
Papers. None of them turned out to be true.”
In
a statement provided by the foundation, Mr. Snowden said he was honored
to serve the cause of a free press “alongside extraordinary Americans
like Daniel Ellsberg.”
Because Mr. Snowden is living in Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum, he will participate in board meetings by a remote link, according to the group’s director, Trevor Timm.
Mr.
Timm said that before offering Mr. Snowden a position, the group
consulted with lawyers about whether doing so could create legal
problems. The Internal Revenue Service recently granted the group
nonprofit status under a section of the tax code that allows donors to
deduct contributions from their taxable income, he said.
The
lawyers, he said, concluded that Mr. Snowden’s participation as a board
member — an unpaid position — should not jeopardize that status because
the I.R.S. has not penalized other groups with board members under
indictment. Rather, such tax status is generally put at risk when groups
stray from their mission.
Mr.
Timm said that the foundation’s mission was to encourage “news
organizations to publish government secrets in the public interest and
for brave whistle-blowers to come forward, even though it is personally
very risky.” He added: “Snowden embodies exactly what we started this
organization for, so I think we’re pretty safe.”
The foundation was started 14 months ago for the initial purpose of enabling donations to WikiLeaks
after firms like PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa began refusing to process
contributions. It rapidly expanded into other activities, including
raising funds for other organizations and hiring a stenographer to
produce daily transcripts of the court-martial trial of Chelsea Manning,
then known as Pfc. Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks’ main source.
It
raised about $650,000 last year, Mr. Timm said, of which about $500,000
went to various other organizations, including about $200,000 to
WikiLeaks.
The
group is increasingly focused on helping journalists protect the
security of their communications, including by disseminating and
managing a free software system to enable would-be sources to send leaked files to journalists in a way it says can evade surveillance.
“Journalism
isn’t possible unless reporters and their sources can safely
communicate, and where laws can’t protect that, technology can,” Mr.
Snowden said in his statement. “This is a hard problem, but not an
unsolvable one, and I look forward to using my experience to help find a
solution.”
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