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…

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.

“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…”

…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.”

I suggest watching the video interview all the way through. Many questions you would expect – are answered.



  1. jpfitz says:

    Snowden has made a video of his personal concerns regarding the amount and types of data retrieved and stored about Americans.

    As long as no information was copied to a portable medium, all Snowden did was express himself.

    His Federal crime is breaking the silence.

  2. Mextli says:

    Sarcasm.

    I see no problem since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, AKA Rubber Stamp) will reject any surveillance request that is not reasonable and justified.

  3. deowll says:

    What are the odds that this man is going to be arrested and spend most of the rest of his life in a small cage? I’d say it approximates certainty unless he defects to somewhere.

  4. jpfitz says:

    The infamous Carlyle Group owns the information along with the feds. How interesting, the war mongering corp of the century is involved. WAKE UP!

    “Booz Allen, which notes in securities filings that its business could be damaged by leaks, acknowledged in a statement that Mr. Snowden had been an employee.

    The company, based in Virginia, is primarily a technology contractor. It reported revenues of $5.76 billion for the fiscal year ended in March and was No. 436 on Fortune’s list of the 500 largest public companies. The government provided 98 percent of that revenue, the company said.

    Its rapid growth, fueled by government investment after the Sept. 11 attacks, led to a 2008 buyout by the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, followed by a public offering in 2010.

    Booz Allen has formed a particularly close relationship with the intelligence agencies, and others besides Mr. Clapper and Mr. McConnell have spent time in the company’s executive offices.”

    http://nytimes.com/2013/06/10/us/booz-allen-grew-rich-on-government-contracts.html?_r=0

  5. SPOCK says:

    i haven’t looked hard enough, but i’d be curious to read
    that powerpoint presentation regarding ‘prism’. i just
    poked around wired and saw the image of when each
    company (apple, facebook, google, microsoft, etc.) was
    added to the program. i want to know what they get
    for complying with the nsa. nobody freely joins without
    receiving some sort of benefit. the whole tech scene is
    getting out of control. i almost wish for the simple days,
    when there were no ‘smartphones’, or ‘transporters’.

    • MikeN says:

      The companies claim they know nothing of it. The powerpoint also refers to a total cost of $20 million which is way too cheap for government work.

  6. Data Mining says:

    How bizarre is all this?

    Millions of government employees and thousands of contractors with security clearances.

    Did anyone really think they could all keep a secret?

    So, how will terrorists modify their activities? Go with low-tech snailmail and smoke signals?

    For the rest of us, we need laws that guarantee the prosecution of ANY politician at ANY level for misuse of this data.

    A log of everyone requesting access to this data (who, what, when, why), along with the authorizing judge, needs to be kept as part of the process.

    • So What? says:

      “A log of everyone requesting access to this data (who, what, when, why), along with the authorizing judge, needs to be kept as part of the process.”

      As long as they use a phone or computer there will be.

    • noname says:

      The whole point of keeping secretes is to make it extrajudicial.

      Now it’s not a “secrete”, so what; you want Obama to also have a judicial process! Obama is a “Harvard Trained” constitutional lawyer!

  7. bobbo, in Repose says:

    Some guy on tv said something interesting: keeping secrets makes a government lazy and incompetent. I hadn’t thought of that aspect before. Ha, ha. The truth in that observation should be data mined for the value of that perspective.

    So many issues all mixed up and conflated with one another. Feelings more than facts. Fears more than reality.

    jp stumbles on a good question above: with PRISM in place, how come the Pressure Cooker Bombs in Boston of recent events?==WITH the added sore point of the Russians giving us specific warnings. Evidence that EVERYTHING IS HYPED??? — or that we need better algorithms? What is that Jeopardy Computer thinking about these days other than medical diagnoses?

    Massive data pools and artificial computer intelligence only get you so far. In the end, its feet on the ground, knuckles on your front door. The human interaction.

    Pro’s and Con’s to all we do.

    jpfitz, and others of like mind, DU–this very forum and thread “ought to be” a proper place for “extended exchanges of honest views” but the history is that few threads last more than 2-3 days. I don’t know why. ADD?

    Perhaps you will find what you want at a Dvorak sister site CAGE MATCH were some discussions will go on for a week or more. Core group right now of 4-5 with 4-5 less active.

    For what its worth: http://cagematch.dvorak.org/index.php/topic,11065.0.html

  8. Accremonious says:

    Now for sake of argument, and mental exercise, extrapolate this all into a future where cell phones are no longer needed because a micro chip is implanted into the mastoid bone at birth! Your thoughts will no longer be private, and you can’t turn the phone off! [I will be dead and decomposed by that time, thanx to this Universe!]

  9. Glenn E. says:

    Here’s a thought I question that I know, no one else has thought to ask. Because I just searched for it here and nothing came up.

    How come this “whistle blower” didn’t feel he could go to any of the domestic US newspapers, or media? But instead, could only trust the UK’s Guardian, to print what he had to say? To me, this sounds very bad, for the US’s freedom of speech. Because apparently, he know these papers no long have the guts they once had, back in the 1970s. I’m sure, after the exposed Nixon’s actions. The looses got tighten around all of domestic media’s collective necks. Either that, or the failure of DoJ to enforce any kind of anti-trust laws, has allowed politically sympathetic monopolists, to take over US newspapers and broadcast networks. And they’re all mostly on board with these Big Brother activities. Just as Hitler himself, had the support of big German industrialists.


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