The South China Morning Post appears to have landed Edward Snowden’s first post-outing interview. The independent Hong Kong newspaper has a short post up now promising a series of new information to come, including: “more explosive details on US surveillance targets” and “the steps he claims the US has taken since he broke cover in Hong Kong.” But for now all we have is a handful of pull-quotes, including this one: “I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American.” A few others:
“People who think I made a mistake in picking [Hong Kong] as a location misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to hide from justice; I am here to reveal criminality,” Snowden told the Post earlier today.
He vowed to fight any extradition attempt by the US government, saying: “My intention is to ask the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate. I have been given no reason to doubt your system.’’
The Post promises that its full story will be live “soon.” We’ll update with more once it is.
Update 11:55 a.m.: SCMP is up with its longer story, but there’s not a whole lot more of note. I’m certainly not seeing any of the promised “more explosive details on US surveillance targets” in the current story. The major thrust of the new article is about why Snowden says he picked Hong Kong in the first place. Check it out here if you want.
Update #2 3:15 p.m.: OK, now we’re getting closer to the promised “expolsive details.” The Hong Kong paper’s latest story includes Snowden claiming the U.S. has been hacking on China and Hong Kong for years.
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