NSA surveillance leaksEdward Snowden, an NSA contractor employee, says he is the source of NSA leaks
Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant in the CIA and more recently an employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, has identified himself as the source of the leaks about three massive NSA surveillance schemes. Snowden says the NSA’s surveillance activities are all-consuming; these activities “are intent on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world known to [the NSA].” He said that once he concluded that the NSA’s surveillance scheme would soon be irrevocable, it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. “What they’re doing” poses “an existential threat to democracy,” he said.
Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant in the CIA and more recently an employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, has identified himself as the source of the leaks about three massive NSA surveillance schemes.
As an employee of the defense contractor, Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency (NSA) for the last four years.
Snowden, who is now holed-up in a Hong Kong hotel, told the Guardian that he never intended to remain anonymous. “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,”
The Guardian is one of the two newspapers — the other is the Washington Post – which last Wednesday and Thursday broke the stories about the NSA’s access to metadata of phone customers of Verizon and Internet customers of the seven largest U.S. ISPs.
The Guardian reports that Snowden attached a note to the first batch of NSA documents he gave the newspaper, in which he wrote: “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.”
He also told the newspaper he wanted to avoid publicity. “I don’t want public attention because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the U.S. government is doing.”
Snowden also told the Guardian that he does not want his personal story to divert attention from the larger story revealed by his disclosures. “I know the media likes to personalize political debates, and I know the government will demonize me.”
“I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in.” He added: “My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”
Snowden told the Guardian he has had “a very comfortable life” which included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. “I’m willing to sacrifice all of that because I can’t in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the
