More NSA Leakers Followed Snowden’s Footsteps, Whistleblower Lawyer Says

By ABC News

Oct 31, 2013 6:06pm

By BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ

Several more current and former National Security Agency insiders, inspired by American fugitiveEdward Snowden, have come forward as whistleblowers with details of the shadowy agency’s operations, according to an attorney at a whistleblower protection organization.

“I think the government hopes to chill speech by employees in the national security and intelligence fields, especially those at the NSA and CIA, but the unintended consequence is [that] more and more whistleblowers are coming through the doors of the Government Accountability Project (GAP),” said Jesselyn Radack, referring to the organization where she works as the National Security and Human Rights Director. “I think courage is contagious, and we see more and more people from the NSA coming through our door after Snowden made these revelations.”

Radack, an attorney who has met with and been in communication with Snowden, said “a handful” of people in the intelligence community have come forward since this summer when several major international newspapers began writing about the NSA’s classified foreign and domestic surveillance programs – stories based on thousands of secret NSA documents allegedly stolen by Snowden, a former NSA contractor.

FULL COVERAGE: NSA Surveillance

Snowden has been charged in the U.S. with espionage-related crimes, and America’s top intelligence officials said he is a traitor who has put America’s national security in jeopardy.

But the legal threats and high-level condemnation haven’t kept others from coming forward with new information, Radack said.

“There definitely could be more revelations in addition to those that Snowden has revealed and that are continuing to come out,” she told ABC News.

Snowden is currently living in Russia, after being granted temporary asylum there. Today his Russian lawyer said he had gotten a job at a major Russian website. Radack said she was unaware of any new employment for Snowden.

WATCH: Radack Speaks at Anti-Surveillance Rally at the Nation’s Capital

The NSA declined to offer immediate comment in response to an after-hours request by ABC News.

ABC News’ Lee Ferran contributed to this report.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/10/more-nsa-leakers-followed-snowdens-footsteps-whistleblower-lawyer-says/