Snowden should 'man-up' and face trial: Kerry
US Secretary of State John Kerry says that Snowden should return to the US and face charges.
PHOTO: FILE
WASHINGTON:
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday lashed out at whistle-blower Edward Snowden urging him to "man-up" and do his patriotic duty by returning to face trial for leaking intelligence secrets.
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."
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday lashed out at whistle-blower Edward Snowden urging him to "man-up" and do his patriotic duty by returning to face trial for leaking intelligence secrets.
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."