SIR – In his letter of July 5, Will Richards doubted that Edward Snowden risked his career by divulging malpractice.
The journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote that Mr Snowden ‘gave up his life of career stability and economic prosperity, living with his long-time girlfriend in Hawaii, in order to inform his fellow citizens (both in America and around the world) of what the US government and its allies are doing to them and their privacy’.
On the same day as Mr Richards’ letter, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said that Mr Snowden had clearly acted as a whistleblower, exposing in the PRISM and Tempora programmes what the EU Justice Commissioner has identified as breaches of what should be ‘mutual trust and good practices in relations between friends and allies’.
She added that ‘European states owe him a debt for exposing the action that the US was taking against them’.
Indeed, if anyone is to be accused of betraying their country, surely it should be those who are responsible for conducting a secret surveillance programme that targets ordinary citizens.
NEIL LAURENSON
Worcester Green Party
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