[Peace-discuss] Edward Snowden: the Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations

[David Johnson via Peace-discuss]

    Edward Snowden: the Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance
    Revelations


edward-snowden 
<http://worldtruth.tv/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/edward-snowden.png>

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.

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US 
political history is Edward Snowden 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/edward-snowden>, a 29-year-old former 
technical assistant for the CIA 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/cia> and current employee of the 
defense 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 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/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 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/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 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/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."

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