Press TV has conducted an interview with James H. Fetzer, a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth in Madison.

– Can you paint the picture for us of what is going on here because we are having this temporary silence given by Russia? At the same time, Edward Snowden has revealed the fact that no matter what Americans do on the net, it is being followed, it is being tracked down. But, one of the preconditions for Russia was that Snowden should not reveal anymore of this spying program that the US has enacted.

– Well, the situation is laden with profound historical irony. Dissidents seeking escape refuge from the Soviet Union used to seek asylum in the United States and now Edward Snowden, who has been upholding his constitutional oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States has to seek asylum in Russia.

The Obama administration has made more attacks on whistleblowers than all previous administrations in history.

It has initiated a snitch program where members of the federal government are supposed to spy on other member of the federal government; shades of stall and ask procedures.

It is shocking, I believe that the American people, by and large would agree that the Nobel [Peace] Prize should be taken away from Barack Obama and given instead to Edward Snowden.

– And what about the fact that Russia comes out and says that this is not going to affect our relations between the US and Russia? I am guessing that Russia, I mean this is a guess and some are actually alluding to this also, Russia has extracted all the information that it wanted from Snowden regarding any spying that perhaps the US has done on Russia itself and therefore it could come out and make a statement like that.

– Well I believe [Russian President Vladimir] Putin doesn’t want to appear to be supporting what the American government is claiming to be illegal activities by one of its former employees.

But, the fact of the matter is that more revelations are emerging where the NSA (National Security Agency) has been using what’s known as ‘hop analysis.’ So, if it identifies a suspect it can look not just at his phone records, but also those of everybody he calls, everyone who calls those people and everyone who calls those people. So, if the average person called 40 unique people, three hop analyses would allow the government to mine the records of 2.5 million Americans when it’s allegedly only investigated a single suspect. Even James Sensenbrenner, who is the author of the Patriot Act, has been outraged by this.

And the recent Senate vote of 2005 to 2017, which failed by only a dozen votes is highly suggestive; the American people are outraged by this – the situation is going to change – my surmise would be that at least 13 who didn’t participate in the vote have been induced not to do so by blackmail by the NSA.

One more illustration, a powered exercise with a program that incidentally was initiated in February 2001; seven months before 9/11 and therefore cannot be justified on the grounds of 9/11 alone.