Snowden leaked info published in Guardian before arriving at Sheremetyevo - Kucherena
MOSCOW. July 31 (Interfax) - Edward Snowden shared classified materials published in The Guardian on Wednesday before arriving in Moscow and promising not to take any action that might be damaging the United States, lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told Interfax.
"I know about the issue. He warned me that he had handed over several exposing materials and secret documents to the press but could unfortunately not stop them from being published," Kucherena said.
He said that after the former CIA employee arrived in Moscow and found himself in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport he did not share any more documents with journalists.
On Wednesday The Guardian published materials supplied by Snowden about the XKeyscore classified program of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
This is one of the most secret NSA programs permitting analysts to look through vast databases containing information about electronic messages, Internet chats and personal data of millions of people without advance permission.
According to the information received by The Guardian, the program permits the collection practically everything that an Internet user does on the web.
Snowden fled to Hong Kong in May 2013 and then released information concerning secret surveillance operations of the U.S. special services on the Internet. Snowden is currently in the transit area of the Sheremetyevo airport. He had a transit flight through Moscow but could not leave the Russian capital because the U.S. authorities cancelled his passport.
The United States continues to pursue Snowden's extradition to charge him with releasing secret information. Snowden has officially requested temporary asylum in Russia.
