Today Edward Snowden has published An Open Letter to the People of Brazil, offering to help Brazil “investigate” the NSA for “crimes” against Brazilian citizens, in exchange for asylum.

There is a huge difference between legal programs, legitimate spying, legitimate law enforcement —where individuals are targeted based on a reasonable, individualized suspicion - and these programs of dragnet mass surveillance that put entire populations under an all-seeing eye and save copies forever.

These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.

Many Brazilian senators agree, and have asked for my assistance with their investigations of suspected crimes against Brazilian citizens.

I have expressed my willingness to assist wherever appropriate and lawful, but unfortunately the United States government has worked very hard to limit my ability to do so —going so far as to force down the Presidential Plane of Evo Morales to prevent me from traveling to Latin America!

Until a country grants permanent political asylum, the US government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak.

Do I need to point out the ridiculousness of Snowden claiming the US government is interfering with his “ability to speak” — in an open letter to a Brazilian newspaper?

Snowden also gloats that his actions are causing the collapse of US intelligence systems.

Six months ago, I revealed that the NSA wanted to listen to the whole world. Now, the whole world is listening back, and speaking out, too. And the NSA doesn’t like what it’s hearing.

The culture of indiscriminate worldwide surveillance, exposed to public debates and real investigations on every continent, is collapsing.

Meanwhile, Snowden’s public relations agent, Glenn Greenwald, is raging at every media outlet that reports Snowden’s words accurately, trying to browbeat them into spinning this story his way — because he obviously understands how bad it looks:

Are media outlets incapable of reading a short letter before they copy false headlines about it? It’s not that hard http://t.co/Ea8ctu41hu

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 17, 2013

Great opportunity to see how media outlets can distort things: compare headlines about Snowden letter to its content https://t.co/6R5lKpgZxA

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 17, 2013

Dear CNN: even for you, this is so remarkably reckless and false that it’s shocking https://t.co/p5u3EkOvKN

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 17, 2013

And guess what? It’s working.

We deleted an earlier and erroneous tweet on this topic. We regret the error and thank our followers for the feedback.

— CNN (@CNN) December 17, 2013

Notice that Snowden mentions asylum in the same sentence with his offer to help Brazil investigate US “crimes” — but Greenwald wants you to think it’s completely unrelated.