Two members of the House Intelligence Committee from opposing parties agreed Sunday that NSA leaker Edward Snowden should have stayed in the United States rather than fleeing to Russia.
Snowden addressed the British public via television on Christmas Day and talked to The Washington Post on Dec. 23. He said he is doing the work the government has failed to do.
"I'm not moved by the message at all," Schiff said on "Fox News Sunday."
"And I think there's a real irony here that he's giving this message from one of the foremost Big Brother states in the world, where he is living without any privacy, because there is no right or expectation of privacy in Russia whatsoever," he said.
Schiff admitted that Snowden "has kindled an important public debate," but he said it came from a "mixture of motivations." Snowden should have stayed in the United States and been willing to stand up for his beliefs, he said.
Likewise, Rogers, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," said Snowden "is somebody who had a troubled employment history, who ran to China and Russia."
Snowden himself swiped at both parties in his
Washington Post interview, in which he said he was "elected" to his post to "improve" the National Security Agency by Sen. Dianne Feinstein "when she asked softball questions" in committee hearings and by Rogers "when he kept these programs secret."
Rogers argued that the programs that keep metadata on Americans' phone and email communications were instituted after 9/11 because it was found that they could have prevented the worst act of terrorism on American soil. Members of relevant committees are briefed on everything, he argued.
Information is "well-overseen, locked away in a vault," Rogers said, and there is oversight over who gets access.
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