Ecuador grants asylum to former NSA agent
25/06/2013 - 6:55 a.m.
Renata Giraldi *
Brazil Agency reporter
Brasília - The Foreign Minister of Ecuador, Ricardo Patiño, confirmed the granting of asylum to American Edward Snowden, former agent of the National Security Agency of the United States (whose acronym is NSA). Snowden is accused by the U.S. government to reveal the monitoring of communications on the internet and phone calls.
Patiño said that asylum was granted because Snowden runs "danger of persecution" in the United States. "The man who tried to bring transparency to the facts that affect everyone is persecuted by those who ought to explain to governments and citizens," said the chancellor.
Snowden sent a letter to the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, to seek asylum. The Chancellor read the correspondence, in which the U.S. says it may be "arrested and executed" on the charge of spying for the U.S. authorities.
The U.S. reported that the NSA and the U.S. Federal Police (FBI) had access to phone records. He also had access to Internet servers, such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Facebook. The secret program, code named Prism, is active since 2007 and allows the NSA to connect to corporate servers to query information about users.
Snowden worked in a private company subcontracted by the NSA.
* With information from public agency news of Portugal, Lusa
Edition: Grace Adjuto
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