By Charles S. Clark, March 25, 2014
On Wednesday, an alliance of pro-whistleblower activists is set to deliver petitions containing more than 100,000 signatures to the State and Justice Departments demanding that former National Security Agency contractor-turned-leaker Edward Snowden have his passport reinstated so that he can end his current exile in Russia.

The petitions are addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry and Attorney General Eric Holder. They call Snowden, who formerly worked with highly classified telephone metadata in the Hawaii office of Booz Allen Hamilton, “a whistleblower who has educated the public about threats to our privacy and precious constitutional rights.” The petitions urge officials “to make an unequivocal public commitment not to interfere with [Snowden’s] travels or political asylum process.”

The push comes as President Obama has given some ground to critics and prepared a proposal to reform the controversial NSA domestic surveillance program to limit its scope. (More here.)