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Series: Glenn Greenwald on security and liberty
Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations
The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows
By Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras
Date: 10th June 2013
Source: The Guardian

Link to video: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things'

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said.

Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations – the NSA.

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, 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."

Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. "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 US government is doing."

He does not fear the consequences of going public, he said, only that doing so will distract attention from the issues raised by his disclosures. "I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me."

Despite these fears, he remained hopeful his outing will not divert attention from the substance of his disclosures. "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."

He has had "a very comfortable life" that 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 US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
 

'I am not afraid, because this is the choice I've made'

Three weeks ago, Snowden made final preparations that resulted in last week's series of blockbuster news stories. At the NSA office in Hawaii where he was working, he copied the last set of documents he intended to disclose.

He then advised his NSA supervisor that he needed to be away from work for "a couple of weeks" in order to receive treatment for epilepsy, a condition he learned he suffers from after a series of seizures last year.

As he packed his bags, he told his girlfriend that he had to be away for a few weeks, though he said he was vague about the reason. "That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world."

On May 20, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he has remained ever since. He chose the city 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 US government.

In the three weeks since he arrived, he has been ensconced in a hotel room. "I've left the room maybe a total of three times during my entire stay," he said. It is a plush hotel and, what with eating meals in his room too, he has run up big bills.

He is deeply worried about being spied on. He lines the door of his hotel room with pillows to prevent eavesdropping. He puts a large red hood over his head and laptop when entering his passwords to prevent any hidden cameras from detecting them.

Though that may sound like paranoia to some, Snowden has good reason for such fears. He worked in the US intelligence world for almost a decade. He knows that the biggest and most secretive surveillance organisation in America, the NSA, along with the most powerful government on the planet, is looking for him.

Since the disclosures began to emerge, he has watched television and monitored the internet, hearing all the threats and vows of prosecution emanating from Washington.

And he knows only too well the sophisticated technology available to them and how easy it will be for them to find him. The NSA police and other law enforcement officers have twice visited his home in Hawaii and already contacted his girlfriend, though he believes that may have been prompted by his absence from work, and not because of suspicions of any connection to the leaks.

"All my options are bad," he said. The US could begin extradition proceedings against him, a potentially problematic, lengthy and unpredictable course for Washington. Or the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, viewing him as a useful source of information. Or he might end up being grabbed and bundled into a plane bound for US 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."

Having watched the Obama administration prosecute whistleblowers at a historically unprecedented rate, he fully expects the US government to attempt to use all its weight to punish him. "I am not afraid," he said calmly, "because this is the choice I've made."

He predicts the government will 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".

The only time he became emotional during the many hours of interviews was when he pondered the impact his choices would have on his family, many of whom work for the US government. "The only thing I fear is the harmful effects on my family, who I won't be able to help any more. That's what keeps me up at night," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.
 

'You can't wait around for someone else to act'

Snowden did not always believe the US government posed a threat to his political values. He was brought up originally in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His family moved later to Maryland, near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade.

By his own admission, he was not a stellar student. In order to get the credits necessary to obtain a high school diploma, he attended a community college in Maryland, studying computing, but never completed the coursework. (He later obtained his GED.)

In 2003, he enlisted in the US army and began a training program to join the Special Forces. Invoking the same principles that he now cites to justify his leaks, he said: "I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression".

He recounted how his beliefs about the war's purpose were quickly dispelled. "Most of the people training us seemed pumped up about killing Arabs, not helping anyone," he said. After he broke both his legs in a training accident, he was discharged.

After that, he got his first job in an NSA facility, working as a security guard for one of the agency's covert facilities at the University of Maryland. From there, he went to the CIA, where he worked on IT security. His understanding of the internet and his talent for computer programming enabled him to rise fairly quickly for someone who lacked even a high school diploma.

By 2007, the CIA stationed him with diplomatic cover in Geneva, Switzerland. His responsibility for maintaining computer network security meant he had clearance to access a wide array of classified documents.

That access, along with the almost three years he spent around CIA officers, led him to begin seriously questioning the rightness of what he saw.

He described as formative an incident in which he claimed CIA operatives were attempting to recruit a Swiss banker to obtain secret banking information. Snowden said they achieved this by purposely getting the banker drunk and encouraging him to drive home in his car. When the banker was arrested for drunk driving, the undercover agent seeking to befriend him offered to help, and a bond was formed that led to successful recruitment.

"Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world," he says. "I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good."

He said it was during his CIA stint in Geneva that he thought for the first time about exposing government secrets. But, at the time, he chose not to for two reasons.

First, he said: "Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone". Secondly, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 gave him hope that there would be real reforms, rendering disclosures unnecessary.

He left the CIA in 2009 in order to take his first job working for a private contractor that assigned him to a functioning NSA facility, stationed on a military base in Japan. It was then, he said, that he "watched as Obama advanced the very policies that I thought would be reined in", and as a result, "I got hardened."

The primary lesson from this experience was that "you can't wait around for someone else to act. I had been looking for leaders, but I realised that leadership is about being the first to act."

Over the next three years, he learned just how all-consuming the NSA's surveillance activities were, claiming "they are intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them".

He described how he once viewed the internet as "the most important invention in all of human history". As an adolescent, he spent days at a time "speaking to people with all sorts of views that I would never have encountered on my own".

But he believed that the value of the internet, along with basic privacy, is being rapidly destroyed by ubiquitous surveillance. "I don't see myself as a hero," he said, "because what I'm doing is self-interested: I don't want to live in a world where there's no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity."

Once he reached the conclusion that the NSA's surveillance net would soon be irrevocable, he said it was just a matter of time before he chose to act. "What they're doing" poses "an existential threat to democracy", he said.
 

A matter of principle

As strong as those beliefs are, there still remains the question: why did he do it? Giving up his freedom and a privileged lifestyle? "There are more important things than money. If I were motivated by money, I could have sold these documents to any number of countries and gotten very rich."

For him, it is a matter of principle. "The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to," he said.

His allegiance to internet freedom is reflected in the stickers on his laptop: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation," reads one. Another hails the online organisation offering anonymity, the Tor Project.

Asked by reporters to establish his authenticity to ensure he is not some fantasist, he laid bare, without hesitation, his personal details, from his social security number to his CIA ID and his expired diplomatic passport. There is no shiftiness. Ask him about anything in his personal life and he will answer.

He is quiet, smart, easy-going and self-effacing. A master on computers, he seemed happiest when talking about the technical side of surveillance, at a level of detail comprehensible probably only to fellow communication specialists. But he showed intense passion when talking about the value of privacy and how he felt it was being steadily eroded by the behaviour of the intelligence services.

His manner was calm and relaxed but he has been understandably twitchy since he went into hiding, waiting for the knock on the hotel door. A fire alarm goes off. "That has not happened before," he said, betraying anxiety wondering if was real, a test or a CIA ploy to get him out onto the street.

Strewn about the side of his bed are his suitcase, a plate with the remains of room-service breakfast, and a copy of Angler, the biography of former vice-president Dick Cheney.

Ever since last week's news stories began to appear in the Guardian, Snowden has vigilantly watched TV and read the internet to see the effects of his choices. He seemed satisfied that the debate he longed to provoke was finally taking place.

He lay, propped up against pillows, watching CNN's Wolf Blitzer ask a discussion panel about government intrusion if they had any idea who the leaker was. From 8,000 miles away, the leaker looked on impassively, not even indulging in a wry smile.

Snowden said that he admires both Ellsberg and Manning, but argues that there is one important distinction between himself and the army private, whose trial coincidentally began the week Snowden's leaks began to make news.

"I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest," he said. "There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is."

He purposely chose, he said, to give the documents to journalists whose judgment he trusted about what should be public and what should remain concealed.

As for his future, he is vague. He hoped the publicity the leaks have generated will offer him some protection, making it "harder for them to get dirty".

He views his best hope as the possibility of asylum, with Iceland – with its reputation of a champion of internet freedom – at the top of his list. He knows that may prove a wish unfulfilled.

But after the intense political controversy he has already created with just the first week's haul of stories, "I feel satisfied that this was all worth it. I have no regrets."
 
 
 
 

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^ Check out Guardian's Section

 

 

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Freedom Rider

By Margaret Kimberely

Date: 11th June 2013
Source: BAR

 

No sooner had they learned Edward Snowden’s name, than bipartisan supporters of the National Security State proceeded to vilify him. "The congressional double cross only serves to confirm that once again there is unanimity in Washington about how best to screw the people."
 

"Republican and Democratic members of Congress have exploded in a rhetorical

competition to see who can vilify Snowden the most."

 

Edward Snowden has been called a traitor, a narcissist, a loser and a danger to national security. Reporters have questioned whether he was friendly enough to his neighbors or why he made a good salary despite having just a GED. He has even been criticized for leaving the military after he broke his legs. His whereabouts are unknown because the federal government is preparing to file charges against him.

Such extravagant and bizarre levels of vitriol can mean only one thing. When politicians and rich pundits all join together to deliver a very public beat down, the victim of the beating is probably someone who did the people a great service.

Snowden revealed the extent of the government’s levels of surveillance conducted in America and around the world. Millions of phone and email records are turned over to the National Security Agency (NSA) in something ominously called operation Boundless Informant. Yes, that is the real name of a program which gives information about millions of human beings from Verizon, ATT, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft to the United States government. We are all under government surveillance and weasel words like "metadata" should not make anyone feel better. Big brother is watching all of us.

Worse than the government’s disregard for our constitutional rights has been the acquiescence of Congress and the courts. The Obama administration and the Bushites before them all made sure that their lawlessness first passed muster with Congress. President Obama’s first line of defense after the story broke was to announce that congress knew and approved of all his plans.

 

"Raising the specter of terror has become the last refuge of scoundrels."

 

Republican and Democratic members of Congress have exploded in a rhetorical competition to see who can vilify Snowden the most. Far from giving a feeling of assurance, the congressional double cross only serves to confirm that once again there is unanimity in Washington about how best to screw the people.

The normally cool Obama and his top staffers are a bit off stride and noticeably panicking. In his increasingly annoying and halting monotone he assured us that wasn’t listening to our phone calls. And just in case that less than comforting statement didn’t work for you he also claims that the spying program has thwarted terror plots on our behalf. It wasn’t clear if these were the plots invented by the FBI and their informants, but I digress. Raising the specter of terror has become the last refuge of scoundrels.

Edward Snowden worked as a contractor for Booz Allen and Dell before he leaked the NSA information to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. Most people may not have been surprised that the government spies on them, but they don’t know that the dirty work is performed by private contractors and not government employees.

That is one of the reasons that politicians and courtier pundits are so angry with Snowden. Snowden opened the entire can of worms. All the levels of corruption were revealed in one fell swoop. Private corporations make a fortune off of work contracted out by the government which then proceeds to spy on us all. Thanks to Snowden another dirty little secret has been exposed.

 

"The Obama administration takes the sledge hammer approach to any revelation

or question and crushes anyone who dares to speak up."

 

Cases such as this do serve an important purpose. They tell us who can be trusted and who cannot. Equivocation about Snowden’s motives, or the rightness of his decision, or the dangers he presented to the government or to the Obama administration or the war on terror are proof of untrustworthiness. There aren’t many clear lines of demarcation but this is one of the rare instances where a point of view makes one politically suspect or not.

Daniel Ellsberg recently lamented that the Nixon administration illegal acts carried out against him are now perfectly legal. The Patriot Act and its extensions mean that just about anything the government wants to do is legal. They don’t need warrants to spy on us, they don’t event have to tell us they are spying. Whistleblowers are being dealt very harsh sanctions indeed. The Obama administration takes the sledge hammer approach to any revelation or question and crushes anyone who dares to speak up.

Edward Snowden risks facing years in prison like Bradley Manning or life forever on the lam like Julian Assange. Hopefully he was aware of the risks and will elude detection until well after Obama leaves office. He will need to be very lucky and careful if he is to avoid the long arm of United States law. Actually that statement applies to everyone. We can tell the truth but we shouldn’t expect anything resembling mercy.

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/dead

 

the backwards logic never fails to leave me both appalled and highly amused.

 

________

 

*addressing the thread*

 

that said...

i expect many sarcastic comments along the lines of  "ohhh 'muricaaa the land of the free" ...

 

but... i'm sort of over all that rubbish. Freedom w/in the context of the USA ...as far as a motto... was established less literally than a lot of people insist on applying it. "Land of the free" was not a motto, coined to represent, absolute freedom to act however the hell you want, and do w/e the hell you want ... privately or otherwise. It was in reference to the age of US establishment...when the forefathers fled to the new land to be free of religious persecution and later, in referencing freedom from British control.

 

So... while NSA's breach upon civil liberties should make people raise an eyebrow or two... it, itself, is not some hypocritical act (although, there's plenty of hypocrisy within). 

The perceived "freedoms" people in the US have, at one time, had the honour of having, were never inherent... and since they, again, were created hundreds of years ago, under much different circumstances.... to be shocked that these perceived freedoms are being altered to fit the times, is pretty shortsighted imo. 

 

Freedoms will always be challenged when they are abused. People w/in the US have abused them...people outside of the US have exploited them. The platforms in which perceived freedoms can be applied, have multiplied. The government is trying to keep up. Their approach is wrong, but their intentions are justified (whether we like the idea of "less freedom/privacy" or not)...and expected...a long time coming.

 

Public outrage is, as a result...slightly misguided. Be outraged that the government, without warning and secretively, has breached long upheld civil liberties. Be outraged that a highly racist/classist system gets to pick and choose who they apply these breaches to.....but acknowledge that many of these "liberties" are dated in the first place.

 

imo.

 

 

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you dont have to be doing something wrong for this issue to bother you. its an infringement on the rights of the people and that should be enough to get everyone riled up. 

last semester the nypd sent spies and informants on my campus to videotape muslim students doing anything suspicious. there was a heavy surveillance but no one knew this was going on until the nypd released a report detailing their plans and so the students and political science department had a series on protests on campus to end it. i just think its really worrisome when people this is ok and the government has the power to do this. 

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I am not doing anything illegal or wrong so I don't care tbh.

Don't care because you are not doing wrong?

Unfortunately, you doing no wrong does not shield you from anything.

Today, an individual can be put behind bars indefinitely based on suspicion despite lack of evidence without fair trial or due process. Obama has even granted the American Military the right to kill American Citizens. That is a wrong reinforced by law to be defined as a right, which just raises questions as to what exactly is wrong anymore, and what is right. We're made to believe that this is all 'national security', and are forced to comply with everything or else we are threats.

 

The frustrating part of this all is that we are given substantial information by a Whistleblower, but hardly any of us know how to act upon it. For months that spanned out to years, protests have broken out across America, and the result of all the efforts were unnoticeable. So what do we do to reverse this? Can we? All I sense is that despite the leak conditioning an 'uprise', it is all too late.

 

The problem is not just that the information of many millions are gathered, but also stored in what can only be mean to serve a purpose at some point.

Sometimes, I get spooked out by what I stumble across:

 

2:25

 

 

 

Prism NSA surveillance 'did not collect European data in bulk'

 

 

 

1984 is coming true... :twitch:

The book is now my #1 Summer must-read
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Don't care because you are not doing wrong?

Unfortunately, you doing no wrong does not shield you from anything.

Today, an individual can be put behind bars indefinitely based on suspicion despite lack of evidence without fair trial or due process. Obama has even granted the American Military the right to kill American Citizens. That is a wrong reinforced by law to be defined as a right, which just raises questions as to what exactly is wrong anymore, and what is right. We're made to believe that this is all 'national security', and are forced to comply with everything or else we are threats.

 

The frustrating part of this all is that we are given substantial information by a Whistleblower, but hardly any of us know how to act upon it. For months that spanned out to years, protests have broken out across America, and the result of all the efforts were unnoticeable. So what do we do to reverse this? Can we? All I sense is that despite the leak conditioning an 'uprise', it is all too late.

 

The problem is not just that the information of many millions are gathered, but also stored in what can only be mean to serve a purpose at some point.

Sometimes, I get spooked out by what I stumble across:

 

2:25

 

 

 

Prism NSA surveillance 'did not collect European data in bulk'

 

 

The book is now my #1 Summer must-read

 

Please don't quote me with that conspiracy theory bullshit.

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Please don't quote me with that conspiracy theory bullshit.

The main text to your post [first paragraph] can be backed by various new sources, including mainstream sources. That is if you ever decide to get out of the blissful ignorance state.

Otherwise, stay away from here.

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The main text to your post [first paragraph] can be backed by various new sources, including mainstream sources. That is if you ever decide to get out of the blissful ignorance state.

Otherwise, stay away from here.

I believe secrets and spying is need to a point. Our government does it for a reason and so do other governments too.

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I believe secrets and spying is need to a point. Our government does it for a reason and so do other governments too.

Well, if you believe that, despite blatantly violating their own Constitution, then so be it, however the core question of this all remains 'who benefits, and at what price?'.

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Well, if you believe that, despite blatantly violating their own Constitution, then so be it, however the core question of this all remains 'who benefits, and at what price?'.

I don't know or care about The Constitution. As long as I am happy and can do what I want with my life. I don't care if they spy on me.

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I don't know or care about The Constitution. As long as I am happy and can do what I want with my life. I don't care if they spy on me.

You're not even addressing any of the points that I have made and, quite frankly, I'm not willing to reiterate myself.

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You're not even addressing any of the points that I have made and, quite frankly, I'm not willing to reiterate myself.

I didn't ask you to reiterate yourself and I don't care about your points because I don't care if they spy on people. It doesn't hurt or stop me from going on with my daily life. I wish they use the spying more tbh. They should use it lot of child porn makers and uploaders in jail.

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"I didn't ask you to reiterate yourself" / Nor did I claim you did.

 

"and I don't care about your points" / If true, you should have taken the 'otherwise, stay away from here' as a hint instead of persisting to quote me to shove in your views, and not take on board the other side of the 'argument'. Defeats the purpose of having a conversation/'discussion'.

 

"because I don't care if they spy on people. It doesn't hurt or stop me from going on with my daily life." / Going back to my first response to you.

 

"I wish they use the spying more tbh. They should use it lot of child porn makers and uploaders in jail." / ... which, with resources, will and power, could have easily been reduced dramatically and even controlled before, but it was not. The moment you realize that Governments serve themselves, and not their people, will be the moment of shift in perception.

 

 

/ I'm out

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I don't know or care about The Constitution. 

 

this tbh...

 

the Constitution debate is a horribly flawed one... and if it is going to be the basis of outrage... well... people will always have legs to stand on in opposition to that point.

Not only is some of the Constitution/Bill Of Rights outdated (in the 21st century) almost to the point of being obsolete imo....

 

but... the country has, on a daily basis, for years, loopholed and ignored it. When you support gay marriage...you are in essence... ignoring the Constitution, as it is worded. When you call for gun bans... you are in essence..ignoring the Constitution. Those are just starters. 

 

Yet...i'm sure, many, who would come in here to cite Constitutional breach of privacy... committed by the NSA/US Government... would argue that, times change... in supportive reference to both of those controversial topics. It is difficult to ask someone to shift perception, when they are unwilling to recognize that there is more at play w/in society, than standard shady government. 

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