Edward Snowden named Glasgow University’s rector

“Intelligence whistleblower” and former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who now maintains temporary asylum in Russia having fled from the US in May, has been elected student rector at Glasgow University.

The fugitive who leaked a large number of classified NSA documents outlining global surveillance efforts to The Guardian and The Washington Post will serve a three year term as the student elected rector of Glasgow.

Snowden, who allegedly violated the US’ Espionage Act, was charged in June 2013 with espionage and theft of government property, and has President Obama urging his return to face his criminal charges in the US, will succeed the Liberal Democrat’s former leader Charles Kennedy as the Glasgow students’ elected rector. Snowden will join the ranks of former Glasgow rectors such as Winnie Mandela.

One student told the BBC, “I think we’ve shown that we oppose mass surveillance and intrusion to our private lives and that also we stand in solidarity – that we believe whistleblowers should be honoured and they’re heroes rather than traitors.”

Snowden has said of his motive to release classified documents, “to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”

“If any individual who object to government policy can take it in their own hands to publicly disclose classified information, then we will never be able to keep our people safe, or conduct foreign policy,” Obama said of the issue in January.

One representative from the students’ representative council told the BBC, “Of course I’m honoured as a Glasgow University student to be able to say now Edward Snowden is our rector – I think that’s pretty amazing.”

Image courtesy of wikipedia.org