The “Liberty Forum,” hosted by right-wing extremists calling themselves the Free State Project will take place in Manchester in February. Snowden will appear for 30-minutes via a video feed.
Organizers of the convention said have not yet decided on a topic for Snowden’s question and answer session, but told Yahoo News they are excited to “give him a platform.”
The goal of the Free State Project is to to form what they term a “free society,” by getting 20,000 far-right, anti-taxation, anti-government gun enthusiasts to move to the state of New Hampshire.
“The Free State Project is an agreement among 20,000 pro-liberty activists to move to New Hampshire, where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property,” according to the group’s mission statement.
The manifesto includes specifics such as, “The success of the Project would likely entail reductions in taxation and regulation, reforms at all levels of government to expand individual rights and free markets, and a restoration of constitutional federalism, demonstrating the benefits of liberty to the rest of the nation and the world.”
The group also sponsors a controversial Facebook page called Cop Block, which has been accused of extreme racism, sexism, and bigotry.
Edward Snowden is currently living under asylum in Russia and faces charges in the US for leaking millions of documents to journalist Glenn Greenwald in 2013, regarding the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of American citizens.
Snowden’s actions polarized the public, and he is regarded as either a hero or a traitor, with no middle ground.
