US Intelligence Committee Blaming Snowden for Breaching Security Lacks Evidence

The recent US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence report alleging NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden damaged US national security when he leaked a cache of documents about the government’s mass surveillance is lacking in evidence, a prominent international human rights watchdog said Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The report came just a day before Friday's US release of "Snowden," a biographical drama directed by Oliver Stone exploring the story behind the whistleblower's leak.

"The report might have been an opportunity to seriously assess the claims of the intelligence agencies of harm or evaluate benefit to the public. But unfortunately, devoid of accurate and hard evidence, it seems to do neither…all we can see from two years of investigations are the same unsupported assertions," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.

HRW noted the coincidence and stressed that secrecy should be counterbalanced by public oversight to prevent abuse.

The report has not been made public yet except for its conclusion published on Thursday.

In 2013, Snowden revealed that the personal communications of dozens of world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been monitored by US intelligence agencies. The revelations triggered a major public outcry in Germany, with Merkel accusing the United States of breaching the trust of its allies. Snowden has been living in Russia since 2013 after being granted asylum in the country on the basis that he could face spying charges in the United States.

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International called on US President Barack Obama to pardon Snowden.