Edward snowden leaks

The US National Security Agency is
considering offering an amnesty to fugitive
intelligence contractor Edward Snowden if he
agrees to stop leaking secret documents, an
NSA official says.
The man in charge of assessing the leaks'
damage, Richard Ledgett, said he could be open
to an amnesty deal.
Disclosures by the former intelligence worker
have revealed the extent of the NSA's spying
activity.
But NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander has
dismissed the idea.
Mr Ledgett spoke to US television channel CBS
about the possibility of an amnesty deal: "So my
personal view is, yes it's worth having a
conversation about.
"I would need assurances that the remainder of
the data could be secured, and my bar for
those assurances would be very high, would be
more than just an assertion on his part."
But Gen Alexander, who is retiring early next
year, rejected the idea of any amnesty for Mr
Snowden.
"This is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50
people hostage, shooting 10, and then say, 'if
you give me full amnesty, I'll let the other 40
go'. What do you do?"
In an earlier interview with the Reuters news
agency, Mr Ledgett said he was deeply worried
about highly classified documents not yet public
that are among the 1.7 million files Mr Snowden
is believed to have accessed.
Mr Snowden's disclosures have been
"cataclysmic" for the agency, Mr Ledgett told
Reuters.
Earlier this month, a UK newspaper editor told
UK MPs only 1% of files leaked by Mr
Snowden had been published by the
newspaper .
The state department says its position has not
changed and that Mr Snowden must return to
the US to face charges, says the BBC's Suzanne
Kianpour.
The US has charged Mr Snowden with theft of
government property, unauthorised
communication of national defence information
and wilful communication of classified
communications intelligence.
Each of the charges carries a maximum 10-year
prison sentence.
At the weekend, the NSA allowed a CBS
television crew into their headquarters for the
first time in its history, in an effort to be more
open about what the agency does with the data
it collects.