NSA releases e-mail from Snowden

Edward Snowden says he repeatedly raised constitutional concerns about National Security Agency surveillance internally, but an NSA search turned up a single e-mail in which Snowden gently asks for "clarification" on a technical legal question about training materials, agency officials said.

Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator whose leaks have exposed some of the agency's most sensitive spying operations, called himself a patriot in an interview this week with NBC News' Brian Williams.

Asked by Williams whether he first raised his qualms with his bosses, he said, "I reported that there were real problems with the way the NSA was interpreting its legal authorities."

On Thursday, NSA released the e-mail they said Snowden appeared to be referring to, which the agency says is the only communication from Snowden it could find raising any concerns. It was dated April 8, 2013, three months after Snowden first reached out to journalists anonymously. Former NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander said the agency could find no one to whom Snowden voiced concerns verbally either.

In the e-mail to NSA's general counsel's office, Snowden questions an NSA document showing the hierarchy of governing authorities, which appeared to put executive orders on par with federal statutes.

"I'm not entirely certain, but this does not seem correct, as it seems to imply executive orders have the same precedence as law," Snowden said in the e-mail. "Could you please clarify?"

An unidentified NSA lawyer began his reply, "Hello, Ed," and told Snowden he was correct: Executive orders cannot override federal law.

In an e-mail to The Washington Post, Snowden called the official release of the e-mail "incomplete", the newspaper reported late on Thursday.

Snowden said it did not include his correspondence with NSA compliance officials and concerns he had raised about "indefensible collection activities."

"If the White House is interested in the whole truth, rather than the NSA's clearly tailored and incomplete leak today for a political advantage, it will require the NSA to ask my former colleagues, management and the senior leadership team about whether I, at any time, raised concerns about the NSA's improper and at times unconstitutional surveillance activities," Snowden wrote to the Post. "It will not take long to receive an answer."

Associated Press