RAY McGOVERN, rrmcgovern at gmail.com
McGovern is a veteran CIA analyst whose responsibilities included chairing National Intelligence Estimates. He recently presented Edward Snowden with the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, in Moscow, along with past Sam Adams award recipients and whistleblowers Thomas Drake, Jesselyn Radack and Coleen Rowley. They have signed a RootsAction.org petition for Snowden to have his passport reinstated, which now has over 44,000 signatories. See: SupportEdwardSnowden.org.

Also see McGovern’s piece: “Snowden Accepts Whistleblower Award.”

ELIZABETH MURRAY, emurray404 at aol.com
Murray is also a member of Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence and served as deputy national intelligence officer for the Near East in the National Intelligence Council before retiring after a 27-year career in the U.S. government. Murray wrote the piece “Why Snowden’s Fate Matters.”

McGovern and the other three signers write: “Vindictive U.S. officials revoked the passport of Snowden, whose disclosures have informed and educated the people of the United States and the world about secret surveillance and massive data-gathering that the NSA and other government agencies are engaged in within the U.S. and around the world. …

“Proposals for serious reforms that will enhance security as well as preserve constitutional rights are now being studied and debated in Congress as a result of the disclosures. Snowden made it clear in our conversation with him that achieving debate and reform of the unethical, illegal and counter-productive massive data collection was his sole motivation and remains his focus. He hopes to play a continuing role in that debate, even if it’s at long-distance from Russia where he was granted temporary asylum.

“The least we can do in recognition of Snowden’s personal sacrifices on behalf of all of our civil liberties and human rights is to sign and share this petition urging Secretary of State John Kerry to restore the NSA whistleblower’s passport.”