Edward Snowden is expected to offer his opinion of President Obama's NSA reforms during a Webcast question-and-answer session on Thursday.

 

It will be Snowden's first live chat since he began releasing classified internal documents last June that revealed the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, according to FreeSnowden.is, the support site hosting the hour-long Q&A. Snowden, who is currently living in exile in Russia, was charged with espionage after reportedly stealing 1.7 million classified documents from US government computers.

 

 

 The session, which is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. PT Thursday, comes less than a week after Obama ordered a redesign of the NSA's controversial phone-records program. During a speech Friday, the president announced that the secretive agency will now need court permission to get at stored data on calls and should no longer collect and store the information itself.

In recent months, support for Snowden has grown, with many, including the New York Times editorial board, calling for the whistleblower to be offered immunity. However, two members of the House Intelligence Committee have said that Snowden's leaking of NSA documents has endangered US troops and helped terrorists.