WASHINGTON - The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman says National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden’s disclosures about U.S. surveillance programs have undermined U.S. relationships with other countries and affected what he calls “the importance of trust.”
Gen. Martin Dempsey told CNN’s State of the Union in an interview broadcast Sunday that the U.S. will “work our way back. But it has set us back temporarily.”
Russian off icials say Snowden has been stuck in the transit area of a Moscow airport since arriving on a flight from Hong Kong two weeks ago.
Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered asylum.
The head of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, said he “absolutely” thinks that one of the countries will give Snowden travel documents.
Rogers, R-Mich., said the U.S. should look at trade agreements with the nations that are offering asylum “to send a very clear message that we won’t put up with this kind of behavior.”
Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he wasn’t surprised that those nations were offering asylum. “They like sticking it to the United States,” Menendez, D-N.J., told NBC’s Meet the Press.
He also mentioned re-examining U.S. trade policies and foreign aid to any country that might take in Snowden.
“Clearly such acceptance of Snowden to any country … is going to put them directly against the United States, and they need to know that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s foreign minister said Sunday that his government is worried over a report that the United States has collected data on billions of telephone and email conversations in his country and promised an effort for international protection of Internet privacy.
The O Globo newspaper reported over the weekend that information released by Snowden shows that the number of telephone and email messages logged by the National Security Agency in January alone was not far behind the 2.3 billion reportedly collected in the United States.
Brazil’s Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota, speaking from the colonial city of Paraty where he was attending the nation’s top literary festival, expressed “deep concern at the report that electronic and telephone communications of Brazilian citizens are being the object of espionage by organs of American intelligence.”
The Brazilian government has asked for clarifications through the U.S. Embassy in Brazil and Brazil’s embassy in Washington, he said.
Patriota also said Brazil will ask the U.N. for measures “to impede abuses and protect the privacy” of Internet users, laying down rules for governments “to guarantee cybernetic security that protects the rights of citizens and preserves the sovereignty of all countries.”
The spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Brazil’s capital, Dean Chaves, said diplomats there would not have any comment.
But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement saying, “The U.S. government will respond through diplomatic channels to our partners and allies in the Americas. … While we are not going to comment publicly on specific alleged intelligence activities, as a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations.”
Patriota’s reaction in Brazil extended diplomatic turbulence the U.S. has faced from friends and foes around the world since Snowden began releasing details of the surveillance.
In Washington, a privacy-rights group plans to file an emergency petition with the Supreme Court today asking it to stop the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans.
The group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said it is taking the unusual legal step of going directly to the Supreme Court because the sweeping collection of the phone records of U.S. citizens has created “exceptional circumstances” that only the nation’s highest court can address.
The group also said it was taking its case to the Supreme Court because it could not challenge the legality of the surveillance program at the secret court that approved it, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and because lower federal courts did not have the authority to review the secret court’s orders.
Germany’s top security official suggested last month that Internet users could shun operations that use U.S.-based computer servers to avoid security worries. France’s interior minister used a July 4 garden party at the U.S. Embassy in Paris to complain about alleged U.S. spying, saying “such practices, if proven, do not have their place between allies and partners.”
Hong Kong officials last month declined a U.S. request to extradite the former National Security Agency contract worker amid indications of displeasure over his revelation that the former British colony had been a target of Americanhacking.
Brazil was among several nations asked to provide political asylum by Snowden in recent days. The foreign ministry said last week that it did “not plan to respond” to the leaker’s request, though spokesmen declined to say they explicitly denied his application.
Also on Sunday, an influential Russian parliament member who often speaks for the Kremlin encouraged Snowden on Sunday to accept Venezuela’s offer of asylum.
Alexei Pushkov, who heads the international affairs committee in Russia’s parliament, posted a message on Twitter saying: “Venezuela is waiting for an answer from Snowden.This, perhaps, is his last chance to receive political asylum.”
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Saturday his country hasn’t yet been in contact with Snowden. He has been unable to travel from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport because the U.S. annulled his passport.
Jaua said he expects to consult with Russian officials Monday about Snowden’s situation.
Pushkov’s comments appeared to indicate that the Kremlin is now anxious to be rid of the former National Security Agency systems analyst, whom the U.S. wants returned to face espionage charges.
There has been no response from the Kremlin or Russian Foreign Ministry to the asylum offer made by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
For Snowden to leave for South America, he would need for Venezuela to issue him travel documents and he would need to find a way to get there. The only direct commercial flight from Moscow goes to Havana, Cuba, and Snowden had booked a seat on this flight the day after arriving from Hong Kong, but failed to show up.
In Cuba, Raul Castro showed support for Latin American countries willing to take in Snowden, but didn’t say whether Cuba itself would offer him refuge or safe passage.
Pushkov joked that if Snowden doesn’t find shelter in Venezuela, “he will have to stay and marry Anna Chapman,” the redheaded Russian spy who was among 10 sleeper agents deported from the U.S. in 2010. The 31-year-old Chapman proposed to Snowden, who just turned 30, on Twitter last week.
Information for this article was contributed by Jenny Barchfi eld,Marco Sibaja, John Rice, Lynn Berry, Fabiola Sanchez, Carlos Valdez, Peter Orsi and staff members of The Associated Press; and by James Risen of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 07/08/2013