10,000+ People Want Obama to Pardon Edward Snowden

More than 10,000 people have signed a White House petition demanding President Barack Obama pardon NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

On Sunday, Snowden, 29, identified himself as the source behind the revelations on widespreadNSA surveillance program posted on The Guardian and The Washington Post.

"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," Snowden wrote in a note about his leaks published by The Guardian.

The petition calls Snowden a "national hero" who "should be immediately issued a a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed."

Snowden, however, might not welcome the attention. "I don't want public attention because I don't want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the U.S. government is doing," he wrote.

It may be too late for that, as several commentators have opined that Snowden's decision to out himself as the NSA source will undoubtedly shift part of the focus away from the NSA programs and towards Snowden's motivations and his future.

Speaking about the leaks last Friday, 

"There's a reason why these programs are classified," Obama said. "I think that there is a suggestion that somehow any classified program is a 'secret' program, which means it's somehow suspicious."White House petitions require 100,000 signatures before the White House is obligated by its own rules to respond.Snowden was working for the NSA via private security contractor Booz Allen Hamilton for approximately three months before leaking evidence of NSA surveillance programs and absconding to Hong Kong. Formerly an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, Snowden told The Guardian it was during his time at the CIA in 2007 that he first became disillusioned with the United States' international surveillance apparatus.Snowden's future is difficult to predict. The U.S. and Hong Kong have an extradition treaty with one another, but Hong Kong's foreign affairs are dictated by China; China does not have such a treaty with the U.S. The two countries have cooperated on law enforcement issues in the past, but that does not guarantee China would arrest and transfer Snowden upon an American request.

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