PHOTO: FILE
Kerry's comments came only hours after Snowden revealed that he was not just a low-level contractor working for the CIA, as the White House has consistently portrayed him.
"I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover overseas, pretending to work in a job that I'm not, and even being assigned a name that was not mine," he told NBC.
In his first interview in US media, Snowden said he had worked covertly as "a technical expert" for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, and as a trainer for the Defense Intelligence Agency.
"I don't work with people. I don't recruit agents. What I do is, I put systems to work for the United States. And I've done that at all levels, from the bottom on the ground all the way to the top," the 30-year-old Snowden said.
"So when they say I'm a low-level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'd say it's somewhat misleading."
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USA have just handled the case of Edward Snowden very badly. They never knew what to do him. Pardon him, be open to his opinion. In the end they did what was expected to be done to whistle blowers. They stripped him of his passport (a very unconstitutional action). They applied pressure on all of their alliances to trace him and send him back to America where he would face trial for treason. They tried to portray him as a spy for China. None of these actions worked and Mr Snowden emerged as the morally superior person. It was one man vs the strongest superpower in the world. Ultimately that paved way for Russia to grant him asylum. Now all the secrets of the America are in the hands of media and the ultimately the world. Worse still, Russia most probably would even know more as they could force Snowden to cooperate with their intelligence. The damage done to America is incalculable.
It is a pity that Mr Kerry does not do the manly thing and stand up for American people instead of being a flunky for a small Mediterranean country.