Former CIA insider on Sochi Olympics security, Edward Snowden
Former CIA Deputy Director and CBS News contributor Michael Morell joins the "CBS This Morning" co-hosts to discuss security at the Winter Olympics in Sochi,...

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Former CIA insider on Sochi Olympics security, Edward Snowden - Video

Glenn Greenwald I Defend Edward Snowden Like MSNBC Defends Obama "24 Hours A Day"

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Glenn Greenwald I Defend Edward Snowden Like MSNBC Defends Obama "24 Hours A Day" - Video

Edward Snowden, the former security contractor who exposed top-secret U.S. spying programs, said he worked alone in taking classified documents and denied American lawmakers claims that he was an agent for a foreign government.

Accusations that Snowden was working for Russia or another country when he took thousands of classified documents on U.S. spying programs are clearly false and wont stick, Snowden said in an interview with the New Yorker published on its website. The magazine said the interview was conducted via encrypted means, without elaborating.

The American people are smarter than politicians think they are, said Snowden, emphasizing that he clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no assistance from anyone, much less a government.

Snowden, whos in Russia under temporary asylum, leaked classified documents last year on National Security Agency surveillance programs, unleashing an international uproar about privacy and the reach of government in the post-Sept. 11 world.

Anatoly Kucherena, Snowdens Russian lawyer whos also a member of the Federal Security Services public council, reiterated his clients comments today and earlier denials that hed acted for a foreign power.

After months of debate instigated by the leaks, President Barack Obama responded Jan. 17 by endorsing action to assure American citizens and allies that their privacy is protected while committing to few specifics.

The U.S. has accused Snowden of theft and espionage for providing the documents to the U.K.s Guardian newspaper and the Washington Post last year that unveiled the breadth of the NSAs collection of Internet and telephone records.

Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican and the House Intelligence Committee chairman, in an interview Jan. 19 on NBCs Meet the Press, described the 30-year-old American as a thief who had possible Russian assistance and has incredibly harmed the U.S. military.

Rogers has offered the only public characterization of a classified Defense Department report on Snowden, saying it concluded that he downloaded about 1.7 million intelligence files while working for McLean, Virginia-based Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (BAH)

Dianne Feinstein, who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said while appearing with Rogers on NBC that Snowden may well have had assistance. Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican whos chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the same day on ABCs This Week that he thought Snowden had help.

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Snowden Denies Working as Foreign Spy, New Yorker Reports

Edward Snowden said he got no help from Russia in leaking US government secrets, according to the New Yorker magazine. Snowden was responding to comments made by US lawmakers.

Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden said he acted alone in leaking U.S. government secrets and that suggestions by some U.S. lawmakers he might have had help from Russia were "absurd," the New Yorker magazine reported on Tuesday.

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In an interview the magazine said was conducted by encrypted means from Moscow, Snowden was quoted as saying, "This 'Russian spy' push is absurd."

]Snowden said he "clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no help from anyone, much less a government," the New Yorker said. "It won't stick. ... Because it's clearly false, and the American people are smarter than politicians think they are," the publication quoted Snowden as saying.

The head of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Sunday he was investigating whether Snowden had help from Russia in stealing and revealing U.S. government secrets.

"I believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands - the loving arms - of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don't think that's a coincidence," Representative Mike Rogers told NBC's "Meet the Press," referring to the Russian intelligence agency that is a successor of the Soviet-era KGB.

Rogers did not provide specific evidence to back his suggestions of Russian involvement in Snowden's activities, but said, "Some of the things we're finding we would call clues that certainly would indicate to me that he had some help."

Snowden fled the United States last year to Hong Kong and then to Russia, where he was granted at least a year of asylum. U.S. officials want him returned to the United States for prosecution. His disclosures of large numbers of stolen U.S. secret documents sparked a debate around the world about the reach of U.S. electronic surveillance.

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Edward Snowden denies that he's a Russian spy

MOSCOW, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. secrets leaker Edward Snowden will ask Moscow for extra protection after a report U.S. civilian and military spies want him dead, his Russian lawyer said.

Two officials -- one from the Pentagon and the other a National Security Agency analyst -- were quoted by BuzzFeed as saying they wanted to kill Snowden personally.

"We are concerned with the situation around Edward. We see statements made by some U.S. officials containing potential and implicit threats to his life," Anatoly Kucherena told reporters in Moscow.

The Pentagon official, who was previously a U.S. Army Special Forces officer, was quoted in the BuzzFeed article Thursday as saying, "I would love to put a bullet in his head."

"I do not take pleasure in taking another human being's life, having to do it in uniform, but he is single-handedly the greatest traitor in American history," the official was quoted as saying.

The article, titled "America's Spies Want Edward Snowden Dead," said U.S. intelligence operators bristle at the thought of Snowden.

"In a world where I would not be restricted from killing an American, I personally would go and kill him myself," an NSA analyst told the website.

"A lot of people share this sentiment," the analyst said.

"Most everyone I talk to says he needs to be tried and hung -- forget the trial and just hang him," a U.S. defense contractor said.

An Army intelligence officer was quoted by BuzzFeed as describing how Snowden could be killed swiftly yet subtly.

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Snowden seeks extra Russian protection after U.S. threats