Edward Snowden Says Why He Will Never Return to the United States – Free Speech TV

The Right Livelihood Awards celebrated their 40th anniversary Wednesday at the historic Cirkus Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, where more than a thousand people gathered to celebrate this years four laureates:

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg; Chinese womens rights lawyer Guo Jianmei, Brazilian indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa and the organization he co-founded, the Yanomami Hutukara Association; and Sahrawi human rights leader Aminatou Haidar, who has challenged the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara for decades. The Right Livelihood Award is known as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

Over the past four decades, its been given to grassroots leaders and activists around the globe among them the world-famous NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

At Wednesdays gala, Amy Goodman interviewed Snowden in front of the award ceremonys live audience via video link from Moscow, where he has lived in exile since leaking a trove of secret documents revealing the U.S. governments had built an unprecedented mass surveillance system to spy on Americans and people around the world.

After sharing the documents with reporters in 2013, Snowden was charged in the U.S. for violating the Espionage Act and other laws.

As he attempted to flee from Hong Kong to Latin America, Snowden was stranded in Russia after the U.S. revoked his passport, and he has lived there ever since.

Edward Snowden won the Right Livelihood Award in 2014. He accepted the award from Moscow, Russia.

Amy Goodman CIA Democracy Now! Edward Snowden Espionage Act Free Speech TV NSA Right Livelihood Awards United States Whstleblower

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Edward Snowden Says Why He Will Never Return to the United States - Free Speech TV