In interviews Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who revealed details of the government's collection of data, has also revealed details about himself. Some question his descriptions and the facts that are known paint an unclear picture of the leaker, currently hiding in Hong Kong.?
This photo shows Edward Snowden, who worked as a contract employee at the National Security Agency, in Hong Kong, Sunday. The man who told the world about the U.S. government?s gigantic data grab also talked a lot about himself.
AP Photo/The Guardian
EnlargeThe man who told the world about the U.S. government's gigantic data grab also talks a lot about himself.
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Mostly through his own words, a picture of Edward?Snowden?is emerging: fresh-faced computer whiz, high school dropout, wanna-be Army commando, disillusioned cog in a secret bureaucracy.
He has retained an aura of secrecy despite sitting for several days of interviews with The Guardian, some posted in online video.?Snowden?combines an earnest, deeply serious demeanor with a flair for the dramatic.
Snowden, 29, fled the U.S. for a Hong Kong hotel last month to go public with top secret documents gathered through his work in Hawaii as a contractor through Booz Allen Hamilton with the National Security Agency, where he worked as a systems analyst. He revealed startlingly voracious spy programs that sweep up millions of Americans' telephone records, emails and Internet data in the hunt for terrorists.
With the United States considering criminal charges against him,?Snowden?told the South China Morning Post he hoped to stay in the autonomous region of China because he has faith in "the courts and people of Hong Kong to decide my fate."
He's also talked of seeking asylum from Iceland or Russia. And he suggested the United States might hire Chinese gangs to get him. The adversaries he's made by disclosing secrets are so powerful that "if they want to get you, they'll get you in time,"?Snowden?told The Guardian newspaper of London, which first reported his revelations.
Why would a man "living in Hawaii in paradise and making a ton of money" decide to leave everything behind, he asked. Because he realized that his computer savvy was helping erect an ever-expanding "architecture of oppression" and he believed the people must be told.
From a secret location in Hong Kong, he told the newspaper: "The reality is that I have acted at great personal risk to help the public of the world, regardless of whether that public is American, European, or Asian."
Snowden's?leaked documents have had an enormous impact. Some have questioned, however, his descriptions of his power as a Booz Allen contractor and other details of his life.
For example, he said he was earning $200,000 a year. When Booz Allen fired him, they said his salary was $122,000.
"I, sitting at my desk, had the authority to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email,"?Snowden?told The Guardian on videotape.
Former NSA and CIA director retired Gen. Mike Hayden called?Snowden's?claim "absurd legally and technologically." Former NSA Inspector General Joel Brenner also doubts it.
"I do not believe his statement," Brenner said. "And if he tried, I believe he would be discovered, stripped of his clearance, and summarily fired."
Brenner said, however, that?Snowden?appears to have had extraordinary access to things he should not have and that will be investigated.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/1IQIekUPNFs/Who-is-Edward-Snowden-Many-questions-remain.
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