Oliver Stone to make Snowden film

LONDON: Oliver Stone is to make a film about fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, based on a book by a British journalist, it was announced Monday.

Luke Harding, the author of "The Snowden Files: The Inside Story Of The World's Most Wanted Man", said on Twitter that the US film-maker has bought the movie rights to the book.

Harding, who writes for British newspaper The Guardian, said Stone would write and direct the film with his long-term producing partner Moritz Borman.

"I'm thrilled and delighted," the journalist said.

Stone, an Oscar-winning director whose films include "Wall Street", "JFK", and "Nixon", said he was looking forward to making the film.

"This is one of the greatest stories of our time. A real challenge," he said.

The Guardian said Stone had begun writing the screenplay, while Borman was "fast-tracking it as a major European co-production" to start filming before the end of the year.

Harding and other Guardian journalists are due to act as production and story consultants.

"The story of Edward Snowden is truly extraordinary, and the unprecedented revelations he brought to light have forever transformed our understanding of -- and relationship with -- government and technology," said Alan Rusbridger, The Guardian's editor-in-chief.

"We're delighted to be working with Oliver Stone and Moritz Borman on the film."

Snowden is wanted by the American authorities for leaking series of US intelligence secrets, and is currently living in Russia. His US passport has been revoked.

Snowden has said he is open to the possibility of clemency or amnesty and would like to return home one day.

But he maintains he carried out a patriotic act by exposing huge surveillance dragnets he said infringed the US Constitution.

Washington says Snowden is welcome to return home but only to face trial for exposing sensitive top secret information it says aided US enemies.

The Stone film is not the only one being made about Snowden, based on a Guardian writer's book.

Sony Pictures Entertainment said last month it has acquired the rights to the new book by Glenn Greenwald, who led the Pulitzer Prize-winning team at The Guardian that covered the story.

James Bond franchise producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will make the movie version of "No Place to Hide", described as "a political film that will resonate with today's moviegoers."

NSA leaks fuelled needed debate on spying: Snowden

WASHINGTON: Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said on Monday he has no regrets over his leaks about mass surveillance programs, saying they sparked a needed public debate on spying and data collection.
Snowden, who spoke via video link from Russia to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, said he revealed the programs of the US National Security Agency and other such services to foster "a better civic understanding" about what had been secret programs.
He said his decision to leak documents to journalists "wasn't so I could single handedly change the government; what I wanted to do was inform the public so they could provide their consent to what we should do."
Snowden, a former NSA contractor who has been in hiding in Russia and has been charged in the United States with espionage, maintained that "every society in the world has benefited" from the debate on surveillance.
"Regardless of what happens to me, this is something we have a right to know," he said on the link with members of the American Civil Liberties Union, who noted that the hookup was routed through seven proxy servers to keep his location secure.
Snowden, who appeared against a backdrop of a giant copy of the US constitution, said the NSA programs have fundamentally altered the rights outlined in the charter.
"The interpretation of the constitution has been changed from 'no unreasonable searches and seizures,' to 'any seizure is fine, just don't search it,'" he said.
Snowden said he chose to speak to SXSW because he believes it is important to encourage technology companies to make changes to stem mass surveillance.
"The people who are in the room in Austin right now, they are the folks who can really fix things through technical standards," he said.
Snowden said more companies should adopt robust encryption that is built into communications without users having to use complex technical tools.
He maintained that if encryption is too complex, "people aren't going to use it; it has to happen automatically, it has to happen seamlessly."
If online communications are fully encrypted at all stages, Snowden said, bulk data collection would become too difficult for intelligence agencies.
He also said the NSA and other agencies have devoted too many resources to this type of bulk collection and not enough to traditional methods to catch criminals and terrorists.
"We've had tremendous intelligence failures because we are monitoring everybody's communications, instead of suspects," he said.
He cited the Boston marathon bombings as an example, saying "if we hadn't spent so much on mass surveillance, if we followed traditional models, we might have caught" the suspects.
Congress needs watchdog:
One of the questions came via Twitter from Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, who thanked Snowden and asked how to make an intelligence oversight system more accountable.
Snowden said "the key factor is accountability" and that Congress needed a watchdog because it failed to adequately oversee the NSA.
"We can't have officials who can lie to the Congress and not face any consequences," he said. "We need a watchdog that watches Congress."
Documents leaked by Snowden in 2013 revealed widespread surveillance of individuals and institutions in the United States and around the world.
He received temporary asylum in Russia in August a move that infuriated the United States and was a key factor behind President Barack Obama's decision to cancel a summit with counterpart Vladimir Putin last year.