WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) – Former U.S. National Security
Agency contractor Edward Snowden, charged with leaking secret
U.S. surveillance information, on Monday said the Obama
administration was denying him his right to seek asylum,
according to a statement released by the WikiLeaks organization.
“It is being reported that after promising not to do so, the
President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of
nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum
petitions,” Snowden said in a statement published on the
WikiLeaks website, referring to President Barack Obama and Vice
President Joe Biden. “This kind of deception from a world leader
is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile.”
In the statement, Snowden blamed the Obama administration
for adopting “the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon” in
its efforts to block his search for asylum and said he was
“unbowed in his convictions.”
(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by Will Dunham)
