Edward Snowden: the whistle-blower behind the NSA surveillance revelations
The person responsible for leaking all those damaging stories
about the National Security Agency revealed himself in an interview with the UK
Guardian over the weekend. He's
a 29-year-old IT tech named Edward Snowden, who worked for defense contractor
Booz Allen Hamilton. Before that, he did
electronic security work for the CIA, and enlisted in the
Army because he wanted to fight in Iraq to "help free
people from oppression." To put it
mildly, he has grown disillusioned with the Army, the intelligence community,
and President Obama, who he says he originally supported.
Snowden comes off as a strange character in his Guardian interview. He lied about receiving epilepsy treatments, abandoning his family and a girlfriend in Hawaii, to set up his escape to a luxury hotel in Hong Kong. He has good reason to worry about facing prosecution in the United States (and may have overestimated the willingness of Hong Kong authorities to protect him from extradition) but also throws out conspiracy theories about the CIA hiring Chinese triad gangsters to take him out. Some of his particular complaints against the U.S. government seem fanciful or exaggerated, while he doesn't have much to say about the nefarious activities of the world's aggressor states.
Snowden's motivations and character don't change the explosive nature of his revelations about broad-based government surveillance of innocent American citizens, which are well-documented, and not much disputed. To put it bluntly, he can be both weird and right.
Snowden comes off as a strange character in his Guardian interview. He lied about receiving epilepsy treatments, abandoning his family and a girlfriend in Hawaii, to set up his escape to a luxury hotel in Hong Kong. He has good reason to worry about facing prosecution in the United States (and may have overestimated the willingness of Hong Kong authorities to protect him from extradition) but also throws out conspiracy theories about the CIA hiring Chinese triad gangsters to take him out. Some of his particular complaints against the U.S. government seem fanciful or exaggerated, while he doesn't have much to say about the nefarious activities of the world's aggressor states.
Snowden's motivations and character don't change the explosive nature of his revelations about broad-based government surveillance of innocent American citizens, which are well-documented, and not much disputed. To put it bluntly, he can be both weird and right.
ALL ABOUT THE WHISTLE BLOWER
HE COMES FORWARD!
Code name 'Verax'...
VIDEO: 29-year-old source behind biggest intel leak in NSA history explains motives...
'I don't want to live in society that does these sort of things'...
'I believed in Obama's promises'...
'Presidents openly lie to secure the office'...
'Government has granted itself power it is not entitled to'...
Suggests he's defecting -- to China?
Former CIA Officer: 'Potential Chinese Espionage'...
REPORT: NSA began hunt before leak...
Employer BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON Strikes it Rich Maintaining Government Secrets...
REPORT: Intel officials overheard saying NSA leaker should be 'disappeared'...
Snowden Checked Out Of Hong Kong Hotel...
Seeks refuge in Iceland?
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