US politicians lie to Americans: Whistleblower

Former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden has accused senior politicians of continuously lying to Americans amid a massive US surveillance scandal.

The former CIA contractor said on Monday that he disclosed secret programs run by Washington to monitor telephone calls and Internet traffic, in order to expose the “continuing litany of lies” by senior members of the Obama administration and US elected officials.

“I imagine everyone’s experience is different, but for me, there was no single moment. It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress – and therefore the American people – and the realization that that Congress, specifically the Gang of Eight, wholly supported the lies that compelled me to act,” Snowden stated during a live chat on the website of The Guardian.

“Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper – the Director of National Intelligence – baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed,” Snowden said.

The technical analyst also reacted to accusations from former Vice President Dick Cheney that he is a traitor, saying, “[Cheney] is a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitful engineering [of] a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32,000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100,000 Iraqis dead.”

In response to threats of prosecution by Washington, the American whistleblower defiantly vowed to expose more secrets about American electronic spying bids – describing them as “aggressively criminal.”

Snowden’s revelations have led to a criminal investigation as US officials promised to hold Snowden responsible for leaking details of the surveillance to The Guardian and the Washington Post.

Snowden, who is reportedly seeking asylum in Hong Kong, said he does not expect to receive a fair trial in the US because the government is “openly declaring me guilty of treason.”