Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald declared on Monday that some U.S. officials were partaking in "a fear mongering campaign" in their extreme criticisms of Edward Snowden's National Security Agency leak.
Greenwald, one of the first to cover the NSA's secret domestic surveillance programs, challenged claims that Snowden might be planning to provide U.S. secrets to a foreign government on CNN's "AC360". He acknowledged to Anderson Cooper, "...If huge amounts of secrets were to simply be turned over en masse to another government, it is true that would be damaging." But, he added, Snowden has "been very clear that's not his intention. If it were his intention, he could have done that in lots of different ways."
Greenwald suggested this could be an effort to distract from the substance of the information leaked, explaining, "I think what this really is, is a fear mongering campaign on the part of the U.S. government to turn Americans and the public against him."
Earlier in the day, Greenwald helped facilitate an online chat with Snowden, who denied allegations that he was a spy for the Chinese and declared, "The U.S. government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped."
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