WASHINGTON: Americans might oppose intrusive surveillance if they realized the government can see their most intimate e-mailed pictures, comic John Oliver suggested to fugitive intelligence technician Edward Snowden.

The British television host scored a rare one-on-one interview in Moscow with the notorious former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor for Sunday’s edition of his weekly US cable comedy news show “John Oliver Tonight.”

Oliver didn’t give the man behind one of the biggest leaks in US intelligence history an easy ride, insisting he must take responsibility for information in press reports that put current anti-terror operations in jeopardy.

But he also expressed sympathy with Snowden’s efforts to trigger a public debate about the balance to be struck in a free society between the security provided by blanket surveillance and the public’s right to privacy.

And he suggested a crude but perhaps effective way to focus public attention on the issue.

Oliver suggested that the NSA’s Internet surveillance could intercept e-mailed photographs of a private or sexual nature.

Snowden laughed but played along with the line of thought, describing in some detail how the various intelligence gathering authorities and techniques that he revealed in a trove of leaked NSA documents could violate the private realm.