Edward Snowden, an NSA contractor employee, says he is the source of NSA leaks

world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”

Snowden took the final steps of his campaign three weeks ago. He told his superiors at the NSA office in Hawaii, where he worked, that he needed some time off to be treated for epilepsy, a condition he was discovered to have a year ago. He told his girlfriend he would be away for a while, not giving her any reason (“That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world,” he told the Guardian).

On 20 May he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he is now. He told the newspaper because “they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent,” and because he believed that it was one of the few places in the world that both could and would resist the dictates of the U.S. government.

Snowden told the Guardian that the NSA police and other law enforcement officers have twice visited his home in Hawaii and already contacted his girlfriend. He believes. Though, that the visits were probably prompted by his absence from work, and not because of suspicions the he was the source of the leaks.

“All my options are bad,” he said. The United States could begin extradition proceedings against him, or the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, or he might end up being grabbed and bundled into a plane bound for U.S. territory.

“Yes, I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads. Any of their agents or assets,” he said.

“We have got a CIA station just up the road — the consulate here in Hong Kong — and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week. And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be.”

He says the government will likely launch an investigation and “say I have broken the Espionage Act and helped our enemies, but that can be used against anyone who points out how massive and invasive the system has become.”

Snowden’s disillusionment with the U.S. intelligence  community began in 2007, when he was stationed, under diplomatic cover, in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was exposed