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Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013...r-surveillance
Brief summary of this long news article:
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. "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.
"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."
"I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me."
At the NSA office in Hawaii where he was working, he copied the last set of documents he intended to disclose.
"That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world."
He worked in the US intelligence world for almost a decade.
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.
Or the Chinese government might whisk him away for questioning, viewing him as a useful source of information.
"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.
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.
Snowden did not always believe the US government posed a threat to his political values. His family moved later to Maryland, near the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade.
By his own admission, he was not a stellar student.
In 2003, he enlisted in the US army and began a training program to join the Special Forces.
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.
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.
"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.
He said it was during his CIA stint in Geneva that he thought for the first time about exposing government secrets.
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.
His allegiance to internet freedom is reflected in the stickers on his laptop: "I support Online Rights: Electronic Frontier Foundation," reads one.
"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.
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.
As for his future, he is vague.
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Originally Posted by southerncross
