NSA Is Considering Offering An Amnesty To Snowden

The Us National Security Agency (NSA) is considering offering an amnesty to fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden if he stops leaking the secret documents, an NSA official said. The man incharge of assessing the leaks' damage, Richard Ledgett said he could be open to an amnesty deal. Te disclosures by the former intelligence worker have revealed the extent of NSA's spying activity. But the NSA director gen Keith Alexender has dismissed the idea. Mr Ledgett spoke to the US TV channel CBS about the possibility of an amnesty deal," In my opinion, yes, it is worth about having a conversation". " I would need the assurance that the remainder of he data could be secured and my bar for those assurances would be very high, would be more than assertions on his part." But gen Alexender who is retiring next year has rejected the idea of any amnesty to Mr Snowden. " This is nalogous to a hostage taker, taking 50 people hostage, shooting 10 and then say'if you give me full amnesty i will let the other 40 go, what do you do?". In an earlier interview with he Reuters News Agency, Me Ledgett said he was deeply worried about the highly classified documents not yet public that are among the 1.7 million files Mr Snowden is believed to accessed. Mr Snowden's disclosures have been 'cataclysmic' for the agency, Ledgett told Reuters. Earlier this month a UK newspaper editor told UK MPs only 1 % of the files leaked by Snowden has been published in the newspaper. The US has charged Mr Snowden with theft ogf government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information, and wilful communication of classified communication intelligence. Each of the charges carries maximum 10-year prison sentence. At the weekend NSA allowed CBS Television crew into their headquarters for the first time in its history, in an effort to be more open about what the agency does with the data it collects.