Edward Snowden: an informant who gave secrets to the NSA

A few hours ago, The Guardian newspaper reported the name of the person who submitted to the editorial office the secret documents of the US National Security Agency, including the presentation of the PRISM project and a request for information on all Verizon cellular subscribers. The largest leak in the history of the NSA was organized by a 29-year-old computer scientist, information security specialist Edward Snowden (Edward Snowden). Now he himself asked to reveal his identity - and explains the motives of this act.



Edward Snowden is not afraid of revenge from the US government, and for him the disclosure of information was a matter of principle.



Snowden is a former technical assistant at the CIA, and now a military contractor at Booz Allen Hamilton. For the past four years, Edward has worked for the NSA as a representative of various external contractors, including Booz Allen Hamilton and Dell.

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He says that from the very beginning he did not try to hide his identity, since he was initially sure that he was right. Snowden sincerely believes that society should be aware of secret programs that the National Security Agency and other US intelligence agencies are dealing with. Before being sent to the press, he carefully studied each document and made sure that publicity would not harm any of the officers and intelligence agents. He tried to disclose only technical information.



In the accompanying note to the first batch of documents, he wrote: “I understand that I will have to suffer for my actions”, but “I will be satisfied if a mixture of secret laws, unjust indulgences and an irresistible executive authority that rules the world, will be revealed at least instant".



Edward Snowden tried to not immediately draw attention to his person, because he did not want his name to be in the center of public attention. He wanted the public to discuss the powers that the NSA had appropriated for themselves, and their secret programs, and not his identity.



However, Snowden could be one of the most famous informers in the United States who revealed the secrets of state agencies in the press, along with Bradley Manning. And if the latter spoke about the crimes of the US Army, which were known before, Edward Snowden revealed the secrets of one of the most secret organizations in the world - the NSA.



Until today, Edward lived a rather comfortable life with a salary of about $ 200,000 a year. He and his girlfriend rented a house in Hawaii and worked in the local NSA office. Unfortunately, now everything will change. It is hardly possible to assume that the authorities will forgive him for issuing such important sensitive information.



“I’m ready to sacrifice all of this because I can’t, with a clear conscience, allow the US government to violate the privacy, freedom of the Internet and the basic freedoms of people around the world with the help of this huge tracking system that they are secretly developing.” Snowden says that at some point he realized that very soon the process of creating the NSA tracking network would become irreversible, so he had no choice but to inform the public.



As a small remark, the words of Sir Tim Berners-Lee about the global tracking system on the Internet should be noted yesterday. He said that this is a huge force, and if such a system is received by a corrupt government, then by continuously monitoring all the information transmitted on the Web, it, if desired, “will be able to retain its power forever . ”



Three weeks ago, Edward Snowden prepared all the documents, said goodbye to his girlfriend and took leave to the NSA due to poor health. On May 20th, the guy got on a flight to Hong Kong, rented a hotel room and is still there. He hopes that China will not give it up at the request of the United States, and in the future he will try to seek political asylum in Iceland, which he considers to be the leader on Internet freedom.



Interestingly, over the past three weeks, Edward has left the hotel room only three times. He reasonably believes that American intelligence has already calculated his identity and current location, so that they can take it into development. To avoid wiretapping, Edward put the doors to the hotel room with pillows, and enters the password on the laptop only with his head covered with a thick red cloth so that it will not be removed to the camera. As a former NSA technical officer, he, like no one else, understands what an arsenal of wiretapping intelligence tools are and how important it is to follow safety precautions.



Edward is pretty real looking at things. “For me, any options are bad,” he says, “whether it is a long extradition procedure, a call for interrogation by the Chinese authorities or an abduction,” which the American special forces can crank. “The CIA office is very close, right down the street, at the local consulate of Hong Kong. I can imagine how difficult a week they will have. And with all these fears, I will have to live to the end of my life, no matter how long or short it is. ”



Most likely, the informer is accused of espionage and violation of the Espionage Act, probably also betraying the Motherland with the prospect of capital punishment.



“The only thing I am afraid of is the disastrous consequences for my family, which I can no longer help. This is what keeps me awake at night, ”says Edward Snowden, and his eyes are moistened with tears.



Video interview with Snowden, see The Guardian .



Petition in support of Snowden