Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations

Editor's note: the original 2013 version of this post reproduced the Guardian's full Snowden interview verbatim. It has been replaced with an original summary — the Guardian's interview remains the primary source.

On June 9, 2013, the 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA's history revealed himself: Edward Snowden, a former CIA technical assistant and then-employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews in Hong Kong, revealed his identity at his own request. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," he said. (Congress.gov record)

Snowden had worked at the National Security Agency for four years as an employee of outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell. He said he gave up a "very comfortable life" — a salary of roughly $200,000, a home in Hawaii with his girlfriend, a stable career — because he could not in good conscience let the US government build "this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," destroying privacy and basic liberties for people around the world.

To get away, he told his NSA supervisor he needed a couple of weeks off for epilepsy treatment and told his girlfriend he had to travel — then boarded a flight to Hong Kong on May 20. He chose the city for its "spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent," and its willingness to resist Washington.

His stated motive was simple: "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."

What happened next

The leaks — including the Verizon metadata order and the PRISM program, published June 5–7, 2013 — ignited a global debate about surveillance that continues to this day.

Snowden was charged with theft of government property and two violations of the Espionage Act in a criminal complaint filed June 14 and unsealed June 21. On June 23 he flew from Hong Kong to Moscow — his US passport revoked in transit — and spent 39 days in Sheremetyevo Airport's transit zone before Russia granted him temporary asylum on August 1, 2013. (CNN, Government Accountability Project timeline)

A decade on, the debate he said he wanted — about what kind of world citizens want to live in — is still unfinished.