Kansas Congressman: Cut Edward Snowden from SXSW schedule …

Can SXSW do better? A Kansas congressman thinks so.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) wrote an open letter to the organizers of the film, music and technology conference in Austin, Texas, asking them to axe whistleblower Edward Snowdens talk on Monday.

In the letter, Pompeo, who is a member of the House intelligence panel, sarcastically called Russia the beacon of First Amendment freedoms and suggestsSnowden is appearing to soak in the spotlight and pursue the agenda of his new overlords.

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Certainly an organization of your caliber can attract experts on these topics with knowledge superior to a man who was hired as a systems administrator, wrote Pompeo on March 6.

Snowden, who is exiled in Russia, is scheduled to speak to conference-goers about national security and surveillance through a video conference titled A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden.

By allowing Snowden, who Pompeo described as a treasonous fugitive, to speak, the appearance will validate his behavior and actions of stealing thousands of classified documents, handing them over to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras on a thumb drive, and then fleeing to Russia.

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In the letter, Pompeo says the conference will only be a softball interview, and gives a common criminal and traitor a venue to stay in the good graces of his new home nation, he wrote.

Once Snowden ends his outreach shaming the U.S., he stops being useful to the Kremlin, he says.

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Kansas Congressman: Cut Edward Snowden from SXSW schedule ...