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:
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