Wow!

Legend has it that on Monday 6/10/2013 12:48 PM, Phil Scovell said:

>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: