New Jersey Gov: Rand Paul, Mike Lee stand with Snowden

Presumed US Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie says GOP Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee are standing with “criminal” NSA surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden.

In an interview with on Wednesday, the New Jersey governor criticized Republican presidential candidate Paul  and Mike Lee for their efforts to end the spying of the National Security Administration (NSA) that Snowden has disclosed. 

“He’s a criminal, he’s a criminal and he’s hiding in Russia, and he’s lecturing to us about the evils of authoritarian government while he lives under the protective umbrella of Vladimir Putin?” Christie said of Snowden.

“That’s who Mike Lee and Rand Paul are siding with — with Edward Snowden?” he added. “Come on.”

Snowden, a former NSA contractor, began leaking classified intelligence documents in June 2013, revealing the extent of the NSA's spying activity.

The disclosures have revealed that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans and foreign nationals as well as political leaders around the world.

Snowden, who lives in Russia where he has been granted asylum, has said that US government surveillance methods far surpass those of an ‘Orwellian’ state, referring to George Orwell’s classic novel “1984,” which describes a society where personal privacy is continuously invaded by spy agencies.

Governor Christie’s criticism comes as the Senate is making a last-ditch bid to save sections of the controversial Patriot Act used by the NSA as a legal basis for spying on people, which are scheduled to expire on Sunday midnight.

Signed into law by former President George W. Bush, USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) is an Act of Congress that followed September 11, 2001 attacks in United States.

Christie said on Wednesday that lawmakers like Lee and Paul did not understand what spying capabilities the NSA would lose without a deal.

“I agree with the folks in the intelligence community who have kept us safe for the last 14 years since 9/11,” he said.

“And the fact is, all the different people expressing opinions on this in the Senate right now, none of them have used the Patriot Act, none of them have prosecuted terrorists — I have,” said Christie. “They talk about it from a speculative perspective.”

Most Americans are against the Patriot Act, a recent poll shows.

According to the poll released last week, 60 percent of the people in US think the Patriot Act should be reformed “to limit government surveillance and protect Americans’ privacy”.

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