‘Second Snowden’ Leaks Docs on US Drone Killings
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A cache of classified documents on the inner workings of US drone operations in Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan, has been released by an American whistle-blower, who the media refer to as the “New Snowden”.
On Thursday, the Intercept website published an investigation called "The Drone Papers." It is based on a collection of secret documents about the US government's targeted killing program.
Reporter Jeremy Scahill said the documents came from a "new whistleblower" who wanted the public to know more about drone killings in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. The source's identity is kept anonymous.
Snowden has been in exile since June 2013. The possibility of a "second Snowden" was first raised in August 2014, when the Intercept reported on "Obama's secret terrorist-tracking system."
The Thursday's report said the information came from a "source within the intelligence community who worked on the types of operations and programs described in the slides."
The new whistle blower believes the public has a “right to understand the process by which people are placed on kill lists and ultimately assassinated on orders from the highest echelons of the US government”.
Scahill declined to comment in any more detail about when and how the source made contact with the Intercept.
"This administration has been relentless in its war against whistleblowers," he said in an email, "and I admire the courage of anyone who takes such risks to bring vital information to the American public so that we can have an honest debate about these life and death issues."
Scahill also declined to comment on "the methods by which we obtained these documents."
Glenn Greenwald, who along with Scahill is a co-founding editor of the site, said on Twitter that the "whistleblower came to The Intercept with a huge trove of secret docs about Obama's drone killings."