When Horace Edwards saw a recent showing of the documentary Citizenfour, which chronicles former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowdens leak of classified documents, he was aghast. <\/p>\n
I was kind of amazed a bit shocked, I guess as it dawned on me what it was a story about, Edwards, 89, said Wednesday at his west Topeka home. <\/p>\n
So I got indignant. Then I got angry. So it occurred to me that instead of this being something else were going to complain about, what can I do? <\/p>\n
What Edwards did was contact a longtime friend, Shawnee-based attorney Jean Lamfers, and filed a lawsuit requesting that a constructive trust be imposed to prevent Snowden and the films producers from profiting. <\/p>\n
This deters breaches of fiduciary duty, addresses irreparable damage to the safety of the American people and prevents dangerous disruption of foreign affairs due to irresponsible conduct of disloyal government operatives and entertainment industry collaborators, the lawsuit states. <\/p>\n
Named as defendants in the suit, which was filed Dec. 19 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., are Snowden, Praxis Films Inc., Participant Media, The Weinstein Company and producers Laura Poitras, Diane Weyermann and Jeffrey Skoll. Attempts to contact several defendants Wednesday werent successful. <\/p>\n
Snowden was working as an NSA contractor for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton when, in the summer of 2013, he released thousands of documents to journalists, revealing the agencys national and international surveillance efforts. He was charged with violating the Espionage Act and has spent the past 18 months in asylum inside Russia. <\/p>\n
Edwards, who served in the Navy during World War II, says he was granted a number of security clearances by the Atomic Energy Commission while working as an engineer in the 1950s and 60s. But, he says, he never considered leaking classified documents. <\/p>\n
It never even dawned on me, Edwards said. <\/p>\n
Edwards went on to serve as president and CEO of ARCO Pipeline Co. before becoming the secretary of the Kansas Department of Transportation in 1987. In 2004, he attempted to challenge incumbent Sen. Sam Brownback but was unable to obtain enough signatures to be placed on the ballot as an independent candidate. <\/p>\n
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