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The 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA tells The Guardian he expects to suffer for his actions.
Edward Snowden.
(Credit: Screengrab via The Guardian)
The person who revealed the National Security Agency's Internet surveillance program is a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA named Edward Snowden, according to an interview published by The Guardian.
"I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he told the newspaper, which said it was publishing Snowden's identity at his request.
"I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," he said in an interview from Hong Kong. But, he added, "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."
However, despite reports that Apple, Google, Facebook, and other major Internet companies had provided the NSA with direct access to their systems, that turned out not to be the case, according to a report late Friday by CNET's Declan McCullagh. The reports appear to be the result of misreading of a leaked Powerpoint document, a former government official said.The Guardian said Snowden, who has been working at the NSA for the past four years as a contractor employee, leaked documents to the newspaper revealing the agency's classified surveillance program called PRISM. According to recent reports in The Washington Post and The Guardian, the program grants "intelligence services direct access to the companies' servers" and that "from inside a company's data stream the NSA is capable of pulling out anything it likes."
Snowden was raised in North Carolina and later moved to Maryland, near NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, according to The Guardian. He joined the Army in 2003 and began training for the Special Forces. His first job at the NSA was as a security guard before transitioning to an IT security position at the CIA, where he displayed a talent for programming, the newspaper said.
After being stationed in Geneva in 2007, Snowden's exposure to CIA officers for three years led to disillusionment about how the U.S. government operates, the newspaper reported.
Defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton confirmed Sunday afternoon that Snowden had been an employee, working for less than three months with its Hawaii team. In a statement, the company said:News reports that this individual has claimed to have leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm. We will work closely with our clients and authorities in their investigation of this matter.
A former CIA technical worker has been identified by the UK's Guardian newspaper as the source of leaks about US surveillance programmes.
Edward Snowden, 29, is described by the paper as an ex-CIA technical assistant, currently employed by defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.
The Guardian said his identity was being revealed at his own request.
The recent revelations are that US agencies gathered millions of phone records and monitored internet data.
A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the matter had now been referred to the Department of Justice as a criminal matter.
The Guardian quotes Mr Snowden as saying he flew to Hong Kong on 20 May, where he holed himself up in a hotel.
He told the paper that the extent of US surveillance was "horrifying", adding: "We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place."
He added: "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded."
Mr Snowden said he did not believe he had committed a crime: "We have seen enough criminality on the part of government. It is hypocritical to make this allegation against me."
Asked what he thought would happen to him, he replied: "Nothing good."
Mr Snowden said he accepted he could end up in jail. "If they want to get you, over time they will," he said.
He said he also feared the US authorities would "act aggressively against anyone who has known me. That keeps me up at night".
Mr Snowden said he had gone to Hong Kong because of its "strong tradition of free speech".
Hong Kong signed an extradition treaty with the US shortly before the territory returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
However, Beijing can block any extradition if it believes it affects national defence or foreign policy issues.
Mr Snowden has expressed an interest in seeking asylum in Iceland.
However, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post quoted Iceland's ambassador to China as saying that "according to Icelandic law a person can only submit such an application once he/she is in Iceland".
'Core values'
In a statement, Booz Allen Hamilton confirmed Mr Snowden had been an employee for less than three months.
"If accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm," the statement said.
The first of the leaks came out on Wednesday night, when the Guardian reported a US secret court had ordered phone company Verizon to hand over to the National Security Agency (NSA) millions of records on telephone call "metadata".
The metadata include the numbers of both phones on a call, its duration, time, date and location (for mobiles, determined by which mobile signal towers relayed the call or text).
That report was followed by revelations in both the Washington Post and Guardian that the NSA tapped directly into the servers of nine internet firms including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to track online communication in a programme known as Prism.
All the internet companies deny giving the US government access to their servers.
Prism is said to give the NSA and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) access to emails, web chats and other communications directly from the servers of major US internet companies.
The data are used to track foreign nationals suspected of terrorism or spying. The NSA is also collecting the telephone records of American customers, but not recording the content of their calls.
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