Edward Snowden asks Brazil for asylum

By Donna Bowater, Rio de Janeiro

Edward Snowden, the US intelligence services whistle-blower, has indicated he would be prepared to help Brazil investigate American spying programmes if he were granted permanent political asylum. 

In an "open letter to the Brazilian people", Snowden said he was willing to help the Brazilian government "where appropriate and legal" but said the US government would prevent him from acting unless he was granted asylum. 

Snowden is currently in hiding in Russia after revealing the National Security Agency's spying programmes through leaked documents to the Guardian. 

Among the revelations were that the America government intercepted communication by the Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff as well as spying on the state-owned oil company Petrobras. 

Snowden said many Brazilian senators had "asked me to help with their investigations into suspected crimes against Brazilian citizens." 

In the letter published by Folha de São Paulo, he wrote: "I've expressed my willingness to assist where it's appropriate and legal, but, unfortunately, the US government has been working hard to limit my ability to do so. 

"Until a country grants me permanent political asylum, the US government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak out." 

He also described how his biggest fear when leaking the NSA documents was that his message would be ignored and praised the response of the Brazilian government. 

"Never before was I so happy to have been so wrong. The reaction in certain countries has been especially inspiring to me, and Brazil is one of them, no doubt," he said. 

According to reports in Folha, Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist who broke the story, will campaign for the Brazilian president to grant Snowden political asylum. 

Greenwald, who lives in Rio with his partner David Miranda, said: "If the Brazilian government is grateful to his for the revelations, it's logical to protect him." 

Mr Miranda added: "Brazil is the ideal place because it is a politically strong country, where the revelations have had a strong impact." 

In October, Ms Rousseff cancelled a visit to Washington in the wake of the revelations as well as ordering fibre optic lines to be laid between Europe and South America to distance the country from the US. 

Concluding his letter, Snowden added: "If Brazil only hears one thing from me, it is the following: when we all unite against injustice and in defence of privacy and basic human rights, we defend ourselves against even the most powerful systems."