text of forwarded message follows:
.... for this young man? I'm sure his life is in extreme danger.
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
. Q&A with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I do not expect to see home
again'
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."
SOURCE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance
text of forwarded message ends:
|