The White House declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing probe.
But a spokesman confirmed that Clapper will carry out an assessment of the damage allegedly wrought by the leaks, and confirmed that Obama had been briefed by senior staff over the weekend about the revelations.
Snowden told the Guardian he hopes to win asylum in Iceland, but the head of Iceland’s Directorate of Immigration said it had received no formal request and said Snowden would have to be on Icelandic soil to make one.
There was much speculation Monday about Hong Kong’s likely stance in the event Washington asks for Snowden’s extradition, and analysts divided on whether the territory’s ultimate rulers in Beijing would intervene.
The case has also turned the spotlight on the United States’ widespread use of outside contractors for sensitive intelligence work; Snowden is a former low-level CIA employee now employed by private outfit Booz Allen Hamilton.
Snowden and his many supporters, who have taken to the Internet to condemn the US government and the private web giants which cooperated with its secret surveillance, defended his actions, saying he had struck a blow for freedom.
“My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them,” Snowden said, in a Guardian video.
He said he had gone public because he could not “allow the US government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”
Snowden flew to Hong Kong on May 20 after copying at the NSA’s office in Hawaii the documents he intended to disclose, the Guardian said.
The US consulate in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong security bureau refused to comment on the case, but a senior pro-Beijing lawmaker in Hong Kong told reporters Snowden should probably leave the city.
Hong Kong is “obliged to comply with the terms of agreements” with the US government, Regina Ip said.
Julian Assange, the Australian founder of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks who is resident in the Ecuadoran embassy in London as he fights extradition to Sweden, meanwhile advised Snowden to seek asylum in Latin America.
“I would strongly advise him to go to Latin America,” Assange said on CNN. “Latin America has shown the past ten years that it is really pushing forward in human rights, there’s a long tradition of asylum.”
Under the PRISM program, revealed by Snowden, the NSA can issue directives to Internet firms like Google or Facebook to win access to emails, online chats, pictures, files, videos and more, uploaded by foreign users.
About The Author
