NSA Leaker Edward Snowden Should Be Executed: Trump

Former U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has suggested whistleblower Edward Snowden, who is wanted in the United States on espionage charges, should be executed.

The billionaire real estate tycoon also called Snowden a spy.

“You know, spies in the old days used to be executed,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “This guy is becoming a hero in some circles. Now, I will say, with the passage of time, even people that were sort of liking him and were trying to go on his side are maybe dropping out.”

“We have to get him back and we have to get him back fast. It could take months or it could take years, and that would be pathetic,” the business magnate added.

Snowden admitted that he leaked top secret information about the U.S. government’s surveillance programs. He left Hong Kong for Russia on Sunday to seek asylum in another country.

The former CIA employee has revealed to the news media details of secret surveillance programs under which the U.S. spy agencies collect massive amounts of data on people’s communications via telephone and the Internet.

“This guy’s a bad guy and, you know, there’s still a thing called execution,” Trump said.

“You really have to take a strong hand… You have thousands of people with access to material like this. We’re not going to have a country any longer,” he added.

Trump who has become an American television star spent over $1 million in 2013 looking for avenues for a possible run in the next presidential election.

His controversial remarks came one day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that terrorists would possibly attack the United States as they know how to protect themselves thanks to revelations about the U.S. government’s global spying programs.

“People may die as a consequence of what this man [Snowden] did,” Kerry told CNN.

“It is possible that the United States would be attacked because terrorists may now know how to protect themselves in some way or another that they didn’t know before. This is a very dangerous act,” he added.

Snowden is reportedly hiding at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he was in the transit area of the airport and he had no intention of handing him over to Washington.

The American whistleblower is reportedly awaiting a response to an appeal for asylum in Ecuador, while U.S. authorities insist that he should be brought back home to face prosecution.

Meanwhile, a petition demanding the Obama administration pardon Snowden has mustered over 120,000 digital signatures, way above the threshold where the White House should issue a response.

AGB/HJ

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