Edward Snowden revealed data about a highly developed underground civilization. Who is Edward Snowden Who is Snowden and what did he do

Biography

Edward Joseph Snowden is an American technician and special agent, a former employee of the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. At the beginning of June 2013, Snowden handed over to The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers classified NSA information regarding the total surveillance of American intelligence services over information communications between citizens of many countries around the world using existing information and communication networks, including information about the PRISM project, as well as X-Keyscore and Tempora. According to a classified Pentagon report, Snowden stole 1.7 million classified files, most of the documents relating to “vital operations of the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.” In this regard, in the United States on June 14, 2013, Snowden was charged in absentia with espionage and theft of government property. Put on the international wanted list by the American authorities. Soon he fled from the United States, first to Hong Kong, then to Russia, where he spent more than a month in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport. On August 1, 2013, he received temporary asylum in the Russian Federation, a year later - a three-year residence permit, which in 2017 was extended until 2020. Lives in Russia outside of Moscow (according to other later reports - in Moscow); its exact location is not disclosed for security reasons.

Snowden's revelations have sparked heated debate (in the United States and elsewhere) about the permissibility of mass surveillance, the limits of government secrecy, and the balance between privacy and national security in the post-9/11 era.

Edward Snowden was born on June 21, 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He grew up in Wilmington in the same state. His father, Lonnie Snowden, who lives in Pennsylvania, served in the US Coast Guard and has been retired since 2009; Elizabeth Snowden's mother is a lawyer whose entire career was spent in the justice system, now working in federal court in Baltimore. Edward Snowden's parents are now divorced; Lonnie Snowden remarried Upper Macungie Township resident Karen Haberbosch, and lives there with her. Edward's older sister, Jessica Snowden, works at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC.

He spent his childhood in Elizabeth City and lived in Maryland, near the NSA headquarters (Fort Meade).

In 1999, he and his family moved to Ellicott City (Maryland). He studied computer science at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, but was not able to get a diploma right away. According to his father, he missed several months of school due to illness, but as soon as he returned, he was able to pass the General Educational Development tests at the local community college. He continued his studies remotely via the Internet until receiving a Master's degree from the University of Liverpool in 2011.

From May 7 to September 28, 2004, he served in the US Armed Forces (as a Special Operations Forces reservist). Snowden, he said, joined the military because he wanted to fight in the Iraq War because he “felt that as a human being I had an obligation to help people free themselves from oppression.” He left the service after breaking both legs during a training exercise and never completed his military training course. He then worked for the NSA, beginning a career guarding a secret facility at the University of Maryland, presumably CASL. Received Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level clearance; According to experts, Snowden had access not only to top secret, but also to “Special Intelligence” information containing technical details of intelligence operations of the United States and its allies. While working as a systems administrator at an NSA base in Hawaii, Snowden convinced 20 to 25 colleagues to give him their usernames and passwords, explaining that he needed them for his job.

After the NSA, he worked in the information security department of the CIA, in particular, from March 2007 to February 2009, he worked under the diplomatic cover of the US permanent mission to the UN (Geneva). His work was related to ensuring the security of computer networks.

In 2009, Edward left and began working for consulting companies working with the NSA, first at Dell, then at defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (less than 3 months until June 2013).

One of Snowden's main interests is Japanese and East Asian popular culture in general, including anime, video games and martial arts, which he became interested in while working at a US military base in Japan and learning Japanese. At one time he worked for an American anime production company. He also studied Mandarin and thought he could make a good career in China or Hong Kong; In addition, in his application form when enlisting in the US Armed Forces, he indicated “Buddhism” in the “religion” column, because the answer “agnosticism” was “strangely absent” in that application form.

According to Spiegel magazine, Snowden practices Buddhism, is a vegetarian, does not drink alcohol and does not drink coffee. He spends a lot of time at the computer and reading books on Russian history.

In one of his interviews, Snowden claimed that he did not vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, although he believed his campaign promises. During Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign, Snowden twice donated $250 to the campaign.

Snowden stated in 2013 that he has a wife and children. By Snowden's own admission, he suffers from epilepsy.

In July 2014, his longtime girlfriend Lindsay Mills moved to Edward from Hawaii, and since then they have lived together in Snowden’s Moscow apartment.

In March 2015, he expressed a desire to leave Russia and move to Switzerland. In March 2016, he stated that he would like to return to the United States.

Changing attitude towards service

In the process of working for American intelligence agencies, Snowden became increasingly disillusioned with their activities. So, according to him, in 2007 he witnessed how CIA officers recruited a Swiss bank employee. First, they deliberately got him drunk and persuaded him to get behind the wheel and go home. When he was arrested for drunk driving, CIA agents offered to help him, which allowed him to be recruited to gain access to the bank's secrets.

“A lot of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government operates and what it brings to the world,” Snowden said afterwards. “I realized that I was part of something that was doing a lot more harm than good.”

According to him, then for the first time he thought about disclosing official secrets, but did not do so for two reasons. First, “most CIA secrets are about people, not about machines and systems; and I would not feel comfortable disclosing anything that could put anyone in danger.”

Second, he hoped for change after the election of Barack Obama. But he soon became convinced that with the advent of Obama the situation only worsened.

PRISM

Disclosure of Information

In January 2013, Snowden finally decided to act. He wrote an email to Laura Poitras, an American journalist, film director and producer, and one of the founders of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. At the same time, Snowden did not reveal his name, but said that he had important secret information. He soon contacted Glenn Greenwald, a journalist for the English newspaper The Guardian, and publicist Barton Gellman, who wrote articles for the Washington Post.

Communication took place through encrypted e-mail messages. Snowden wrote that his identity would eventually be revealed, whether by his own will or against it, but until then he asked that lengthy quotes from his messages not be made for fear of being identified through semantic analysis. The intelligence services, he suggested, would "almost certainly kill you if they think you are the key person through whom to stop the release of this information."

In the second half of May 2013, Snowden began transmitting key information about the PRISM program to Greenwald and Gellman, but asked not to disclose it immediately.

According to NSA head Keith Alexander, Snowden handed over up to 200 thousand secret documents to journalists. The status of the disclosed documents turned out to be significantly higher than that of materials previously published on WikiLeaks and relating to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The nature of the information disclosed.

Snowden disclosed information about the PRISM program, which includes mass surveillance of negotiations between Americans and foreign citizens via telephone and the Internet. According to him, PRISM allows the Agency to view email, listen to voice and video chats, view photos, videos, track sent files, and find out other details from social networks. The PRISM program includes Microsoft (Hotmail), Google (Gmail), Yahoo!, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, AOL, Apple and Paltalk.

Snowden provided reporters with a copy of the secret FISC court order dated April 25, 2013. Under this regulation, one of the largest American cellular operators, Verizon, is required to transmit daily to the NSA “metadata” about all calls made within the United States or between the United States and another country, including the telephone numbers of the calling and receiving subscribers, IMEI phones, time and call duration, call location. However, the audio recording of the conversation itself should not be transmitted.

The decree also prohibited all public and private employees involved in the collection of such information from disclosing the very existence of such a decree until 2038. In this regard, journalists subsequently suggested that similar resolutions could have been sent to other US cellular operators.

Snowden said that since 2009, US intelligence agencies have illegally infiltrated the computer networks of the East Asian fiber-optic network Pacnet, as well as Chinese mobile operators, to gain access to millions of SMS messages. According to a statement by the Hong Kong Sunday Morning Post, he handed over documents confirming this to the editor.

Snowden disclosed the existence of the British surveillance program Tempora, and also said that he does not use the iPhone because of the integrated software that allows him to spy on the user. Instead of modern smartphones, Snowden prefers a regular mobile phone.

On June 17, The Guardian newspaper, citing Snowden's data, reported that British intelligence services monitored computers and intercepted telephone calls of foreign politicians and officials participating in the G20 summit in London in 2009. The secret work was carried out by the UK Government Communications Center and the US National Security Agency. In addition, British intelligence services intercepted telephone conversations of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the summit.

This was later confirmed by NSA Director General Keith Alexander, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in Baltimore, Maryland. He said that Snowden handed over to reporters from 50 to 200 thousand secret documents that will continue to “float out.” But, unlike Snowden, Keith believes that leaks are deliberately organized in such a way as to cause maximum damage to the NSA and US national interests. According to press reports, Snowden gained access to electronic intelligence data not only from the United States, but also from Great Britain; he may have up to 58 thousand British secret documents at his disposal.

According to a classified Pentagon report, the contents of which became known in January 2014, Snowden stole 1.7 million secret files, most of the documents related to “vital operations of the US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force.” A few days later, the heads of the intelligence committees of the US House of Representatives and Senate, Michael Rogers and Dianne Feinstein, suggested that Snowden did not have the technical capabilities to independently open and steal hundreds of thousands of secret documents and that such large-scale actions, as well as unimpeded movement around the world after his escape from the United States could have been carried out with the help of Russian intelligence. An investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation found no evidence that Snowden was assisted by foreign intelligence agencies. Snowden himself denied allegations of the involvement of foreign countries in the leak of information organized by him.

Reasons for disclosure

In a note accompanying the first batch of documents, Snowden wrote: “I understand that I will have to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the secret laws, unequal impunity and overwhelming executive power that rules the world I love are revealed.” at least for a moment." “I really want the focus to be on these documents and I hope that it will spark a conversation among citizens around the world about what kind of world we want to live in.”

More recently, Edward was living a fairly comfortable life with a salary of about $200,000 a year, renting a house in Waipahu, Hawaii with his girlfriend, and working in the office of Booz Allen Hamilton.

“I am willing to sacrifice all of this because I cannot in good conscience allow the US government to violate the privacy, freedom of the Internet and the fundamental freedoms of people around the world with this enormous surveillance system that they are secretly developing,” he told the Guardian.

“If my motive was money, I could sell these documents to any number of countries and get rich.”

At some point, he came to the conclusion that the process of creating the NSA surveillance network would soon become irreversible. “You can't wait for someone else to take action. I was looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about being the first to act.” “I don’t consider myself a hero because I act in my own self-interest: I don’t want to live in a world where there is no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.”

Snowden explained his action by the principle proclaimed by the Nuremberg Tribunal:

Every person has obligations to the international community that are higher than the obligation to obey local laws. Therefore, citizens must violate the internal laws of the country in order to prevent crimes against peace and humanity.

After disclosure

Hong Kong

year 2013

On May 20, 2013, Snowden said goodbye to his girlfriend for several weeks and took leave from the NSA under the pretext of treatment for epilepsy, he flew to Hong Kong, where he rented a hotel room and continued email correspondence with journalists. According to Julian Assange, WikiLeaks sent Sarah Harrison to Hong Kong and carried out a special operation to help Snowden reach Hong Kong safely.

On June 6, 2013, an alarmed Snowden told Gellman: “The police visited my home in Hawaii this morning.” On the same day, with his permission, The Washington Post and The Guardian published revelations about the PRISM program.

On June 9, 2013, Snowden decided to reveal his identity. He invited journalists, including Greenwald and Poitras, to Hong Kong for interviews. This video interview and his real name were published by The Guardian at his own request. However, he stated: “I have no intention of hiding who I am, because I know that I have not done anything wrong.”

After revealing his identity, Snowden continued to send classified materials to journalists. Some former NSA and CIA employees have expressed concerns that Snowden could provide classified information to China. Snowden rejected these suggestions, saying that in this case he would have been in the palace in Beijing long ago.

On June 10, 2013, around noon, Snowden left The Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, where he was hiding from US authorities. He planned to seek political asylum in Iceland or in another country that supports freedom of speech.

On June 11, 2013, the press secretary of the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov, announced Russia’s readiness to consider Snowden’s application for political asylum, if one were received. Later, this position of the Russian authorities was confirmed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

On June 21, 2013, on Edward's 30th birthday, he was charged in the United States with theft of state property and disclosure of state secrets.

On June 22, 2013, it became known that the US State Department had asked the Hong Kong authorities to detain Snowden and extradite him to the United States. Hong Kong authorities refused to extradite Snowden, citing incorrect wording in the request. A White House spokesman noted that American authorities do not believe that the decision to allow Snowden to fly further instead of handing him over to them was made by Hong Kong leaders, and not Beijing.

Snowden wanted to seek asylum in Hong Kong, which was supported by the local and Chinese public, but Snowden's Hong Kong lawyer said that a Chinese "mediator" visited Snowden and made it clear to him that he would not be welcome in China. At the same time, Chinese officials denied any involvement in this matter.

As Russian President V. Putin admitted on September 4, 2013, during his stay in Hong Kong, Snowden first met with Russian diplomatic representatives and explored the possibility of moving to Russia.

Russia

“The Russians greeted him with almost undisguised pleasure,” noted American Pulitzer winner David Remnick.

June

On June 23, 2013, as reported in the media, Snowden, accompanied by WikiLeaks representative Sarah Harrison, arrived at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. He did not have a Russian visa, and he could only legally stay in the transit area of ​​the airport - supposedly a few hours before his connecting flight. According to the media, citing unnamed sources at Sheremetyevo and the passengers of the plane, after landing the plane was driven to the far parking lot of the airport, Snowden and Harrison were taken out of the plane and put into a car with diplomatic license plates that drove up close to the ramp, which then disappeared in an unknown direction. and none of the journalists saw Snowden until the meeting he convened on July 12 with human rights activists. According to evidence obtained by media correspondents, Snowden did not stay at the Sheremetyevo Hotel, located in the transit zone of the airport. At the same time, a number of media outlets mention the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport as Snowden’s location after his arrival in Russia. A month later, sources in Sheremetyevo services clarified that Snowden was in the rest room of the duty personnel.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, on the evening of June 23, Snowden asked for asylum in this country. According to press reports, Snowden was planning to leave Moscow the next day for Venezuela (possibly Ecuador or Bolivia) via Havana, but his seat on the plane was empty. According to the Kommersant newspaper, Cuban authorities, under pressure from the United States, stated that the Aeroflot plane would not be allowed to land in Havana if Edward Snowden was on board; but subsequently Fidel Castro denied this information. According to a statement from the US State Department, Snowden's identity card was officially revoked by US authorities, but this did not deprive him of his citizenship, according to the US State Department press service. According to Julian Assange, Ecuador provided Snowden with a refugee passport in return. The Ecuadorian authorities explained that the issuance of transit documents by the consul was not authorized by the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, therefore the documents are invalid.

According to V. Putin in July 2013, the Americans knew what they were doing when they revoked Snowden’s identity card: “As soon as he, while in the air, announced that he was flying in transit, it became known to everyone, and the American side, in fact, blocked his further flight.”

On June 25, 2013, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced at a press conference in Moscow that Russia had nothing to do with Snowden’s movements around the world, and Russian authorities learned about Snowden’s plans to travel to South America from information in the press. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Snowden is in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport, where a Russian visa is not required, he did not cross the Russian border and did not commit any crimes in the country, and therefore there are no grounds for his detention and extradition to the United States. Putin also said: “Our special services have never worked with Mr. Snowden and are not working today.” On June 30, in an interview with Echo of Moscow, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov clarified that Putin, on the contrary, prefers that Snowden be dealt with by special services.

Observers note that staying in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport without a Russian visa (regular or transit) is allowed for a period of no more than 24 hours. However, later the Ministry of Justice of Russia, in response to a request from Interfax, reported that “the period of stay of a foreign citizen in the transit zone of the airport, as well as responsibility for staying for a long time without documents in the transit zone of the airport are not established by the legislation of the Russian Federation,” and E. Snowden can legally stay there for as long as possible. for as long as you like.

According to RIA Novosti, for five days after his arrival, none of the journalists saw Snowden in Moscow.

On June 28, 2013, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that he was ready to grant Snowden political asylum. During the press conference, Maduro recalled that the United States provided asylum to Luis Posad, who was sentenced to prison in Venezuela. The father of the ex-CIA employee said on the same day that his son could return to the United States under certain conditions; At the same time, he emphasized that he was expressing only his personal opinion; he had not communicated with Edward himself since April.

On June 30, 2013, Snowden asked for political asylum in Russia. At 22:30, British citizen Sarah Harrison, who was accompanying him, submitted the relevant documents to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

July

On July 1, 2013, at a press conference in Moscow, Vladimir Putin announced that Snowden would be able to stay in Russia, but “there is one condition: he must stop his work aimed at causing damage to our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound from my lips." The next morning, Dmitry Peskov said that Snowden was not satisfied with the conditions put forward by Putin.

On July 2, 2013, the governments of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, as well as a number of other European countries, prohibited the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales from entering the airspace of their countries after taking off from Moscow, and therefore the plane was forced to land in Vienna. The ban was due to concerns that Snowden was on board the plane. When the plane was inspected in Vienna by the Austrian security service, it turned out that Snowden was not there.

On July 4, 2013, the general director of the RBC-TV channel A. Lyubimov invited Snowden to work as a TV presenter of the show “Snowden. Detective technologies" (this work can be performed remotely, including in the transit area of ​​the airport).

On July 7, 2013, it became known that, having sent applications for political asylum to more than 20 countries, Snowden received three positive responses - from Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

On July 12, 2013, Snowden held a meeting in the Sheremetyevo transit zone, where representatives of the international human rights organizations Amnesty International, Transparency International, Human Rights Watch, the Polish human rights organization Creed Legal, as well as the UN representative in Russia. In addition, State Duma deputy Vyacheslav Nikonov, member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation Olga Kostina, Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, as well as lawyers Anatoly Kucherena, Genrikh Padva and Henry Reznik received invitations. At the meeting, Snowden read out a prepared statement. In particular, he announced his intention to ask for temporary asylum in Russia, since his safety can now only be ensured if he temporarily remains in Russia, although he plans to settle in Latin America in the future. Two years later, Julian Assange said that he advised Snowden to seek asylum and remain in Russia; According to J. Assange, Snowden could have been kidnapped or even killed in Latin America, and Russia is one of the few countries that are not under the influence of the CIA. Human Rights Watch representative Tatyana Lokshina said at the meeting that on the way to the airport, the American Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul called her and asked her to tell her that the United States considers Snowden not a whistleblower, but someone who broke the law. In the evening, the presidents of Russia and the United States, Putin and Obama, discussed the situation by telephone. Three days later, V. Putin said that the Americans scared everyone and no one wants to take him, “this is such a gift for the Nativity of Christ,” and Putin also expressed the hope that as soon as Snowden has the opportunity to leave Russia, he will immediately take advantage of it.

On July 13, 2013, Stefan Swallfors, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, spoke in favor of awarding Snowden the Nobel Peace Prize.

On July 16, 2013, Snowden officially applied to the Federal Migration Service with a request for temporary asylum in Russia.

On July 17, 2013, US Senator Lindsey Graham calls for a boycott of the Sochi Olympics in response to Russia granting asylum to Edward Snowden.

On July 24, 2013, it became known that Snowden wants to stay in Russia forever, find work here and has already begun to learn Russian, which was announced after another meeting in the Sheremetyevo transit zone by the lawyer representing his interests, Anatoly Kucherena.

August

On August 1, 2013, Snowden received a certificate of temporary asylum on the territory of the Russian Federation, issued on July 31, 2013 by the Office of the Federal Migration Service for the Moscow Region and valid until July 31, 2014 (with the possibility of extension); this document gives the right to freely move throughout the territory of Russia and find employment in any workplace (with the exception of the civil service) without obtaining a work permit. On the same day, Snowden crossed the Russian border, leaving the transit zone of Terminal E of Sheremetyevo Airport and leaving, according to lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, in a taxi, accompanied by Sarah Harrison, in an unknown direction. Anatoly Kucherena, showing a copy of his asylum document, said that for security reasons, the whereabouts of Snowden, one of the world's most wanted people, would not be disclosed.

On the same day, Snowden was offered a job at VKontakte.

August 6. According to A. Kucherena, Snowden found housing in Russia and was registered at his place of residence, but not in Moscow. Kucherena sent invitations to enter Edward's father, Lon Snowden, as well as an American lawyer and several of Snowden's friends, who plan to come to Russia in August 2013. On the same day, member of the Russian Federation Council Ruslan Gattarov offered Snowden cooperation in the field of protecting citizens' personal data RF; He also organized a fundraiser to help Snowden and announced plans to create a website helpsnowden.ru.

On August 7, due to the situation with Snowden, US President Obama canceled a meeting with Russian President Putin in Moscow scheduled for September, as well as bilateral negotiations in St. Petersburg.

On August 8, the owner of the Lavabit email service, Ladar Levison, announced the closure of the service and that he could not legally talk about the reasons for the closure of the service. Snowden used this service to send messages to the media by email, including from the airport transit area. In conclusion, Leidar Levison said that he does not advise Internet users to trust their personal data to companies registered in the United States.

The American lawyer of Snowden's father, Bruce Fein, said that it is better for Snowden to refrain from communicating with the press for now, since all publications could be used against him; and also that the US authorities do not want a public trial of Snowden.

On August 10, the law firm Derek Rothera & Company announced the creation of a charitable Journalistic Source Protection Fund to provide legal and information support to media whistleblowers. She chose Snowden as the first recipient of such assistance. By the end of October 2013, about 500 people had contributed a total of about $50,000.

On August 13, Snowden, despite his lawyer's advice not to speak to the press, gave an interview to New York Times journalist Peter Maass via encrypted correspondence through Laura Poitras. Snowden opined that after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many major news outlets in America abandoned their role as government watchdogs for fear of appearing unpatriotic and suffering financial losses. Snowden also said that reporters should encrypt their email communications and that any unencrypted message sent over the Internet is delivered to every intelligence agency in the world. Using a similar secure Internet chat, Snowden was able to communicate with his father.

On August 16, Snowden, in a letter to The Huffington Post, stated that many media outlets had been misled and were spreading incorrect information about the events taking place with him; and that neither his father Lon Snowden nor the family's lawyer Bruce Fein has any special information or is authorized to make any comments on behalf of Edward Snowden.

September

On September 7, US Ambassador to the Russian Federation Michael McFaul, in an interview with NBC, said that American diplomats tried to meet or contact Snowden, but he apparently refused to make contact with them.

On September 12, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission of the Chamber of Deputies of the Brazilian Parliament decided to send a delegation to Russia to meet with Snowden in order to obtain more detailed information about the US intelligence services wiretapping telephone conversations between the President of Brazil and the state oil company Petrobras.

On September 30, Snowden became one of the main candidates for the 2013 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

October

On October 1, Snowden addressed the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee with a request to create a mechanism to protect whistleblowers about human rights violations.

On October 7, Kucherena reported that Snowden lives in Russia with money from donations from foundations, is mastering the Russian language, walks the streets freely and is considering several job offers. However, there is no published evidence in the press or blogosphere that anyone accidentally met Snowden on the street, in public places or in the office. According to Kucherena, the likely sphere of application of Snowden’s forces in Russia will be the IT sector or human rights activities.

On October 9, Snowden met in Moscow with US intelligence veterans Colleen Rowley from the FBI, Thomas Drake from the NSA, Jesselyn Rudduck from the US Department of Justice and Ray McGovern from the CIA. Upon returning to the United States, veterans of US intelligence agencies will inform American federal authorities about shortcomings in the work of government agencies.

On October 10, his father Lonnie Snowden flew to Russia to meet with Edward. According to Interfax, the meeting between father and son was very emotional. On October 16, Snowden Sr. left for the United States.

On October 17, The New York Times reported that Snowden gave an interview this month in which he said he did not bring any classified documents to Russia “because it would not serve the public interest.” According to the interview, he handed over all the documents to journalists back in Hong Kong and saw no point in taking other copies with him. Therefore, there is “zero percent probability that Russia or China received any documents.” The interview also emphasizes that “the secret continuation of these surveillance programs poses a much greater threat than their disclosure,” and provides a number of details regarding his past work for the CIA.

On October 31, Kucheren’s lawyer announced that Snowden had gotten a job and would support one of the non-state Internet portals.

On October 31, Snowden met in Moscow with Bundestag member Hans-Christian Ströbele and editor-in-chief of Der Spiegel magazine Georg Mascolo and discussed with them for three hours the wiretapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phones by American intelligence services.

November

On November 1, Snowden announced that he was ready to testify to the German Prosecutor General's Office in the case of the wiretapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's telephone conversations by American intelligence services in exchange for the provision of indefinite political asylum in Germany.

On November 1, Snowden appealed to the US authorities with a request for a pardon, since, in his opinion, the US intelligence services systematically violated the law, so the disclosure of information had a positive effect. Snowden gave the corresponding letter to the German MP Hans-Christian Ströbele, with whom he met in Moscow, and he passed it on to the American ambassador. The American administration rejected Snowden's request.

December

On December 16, the Euronews TV channel, based on a survey of viewers, recognized Snowden as the person of the year.

On December 17, it became known that Snowden asked for political asylum in Brazil, but not by sending an official request to the authorities of this country, but by publishing an “open letter to the people of Brazil” in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. A number of Brazilian senators spoke out in support of him, but Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff declined to comment.

On December 19, V. Putin, at a large press conference at the World Trade Center, said that in operational terms, the Russian special services do not work with Snowden, he himself did not meet Snowden, and described him as an interesting person, thanks to whom a lot has turned in the heads of politicians.

On December 23, Snowden gave an interview via the Internet to the TV show “Fantastico” of the Brazilian TV channel “Globo”, in which he stated that he was grateful to Russia for the opportunity to live in freedom and participate in important global debates, and also that he did not regret the disclosure he made. secret information about the work of American intelligence services.

On December 24, he met in Moscow with The Washington Post reporter Barton Gelman, in an interview with whom he stated that he considered his mission accomplished: “I have already won. All I wanted was to show the public how it was managed." According to Snowden, he is working for the recovery, and not for the collapse of the NSA.

Alternative Christmas message

At the end of 2013, Edward Snowden was chosen by the British television channel Channel 4 as the author of the Alternative Christmas Message. This annual message is a kind of informal alternative to Queen Elizabeth II's Royal Christmas Message. Usually various interesting people who are not political figures speak with him

This was Edward Snowden's first televised appearance since his arrival in Russia. The main theme of Snowden's Christmas address was the importance of protecting privacy and ending mass, unwarranted government surveillance. In a one and a half minute video, he said that he had uncovered the very system of “global mass surveillance” that George Orwell warned about in the dystopia “1984”, where the omnipresent Big Brother continuously monitors all members of society. Moreover, modern surveillance capabilities far exceed what Orwell could have foreseen. “In our pockets,” Snowden noted, “we carry sensors that track our location wherever we go... Children born today will never know what it means to have a private moment when you can express a thought that will not be recorded or analyzed by anyone. The issue of privacy is a really serious issue because only privacy allows us to freely decide who we are and who we want to be.”

Regarding the debate that erupted as a result of his disclosure of classified information, Snowden noted:

The conversation today is about how much we can trust the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates its use. Together we can find a better balance, end mass surveillance and remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, it's always cheaper to ask than to spy.

This video clip was filmed, edited and produced by Laura Poitras.

year 2014

On March 10, 2014, Snowden spoke remotely at the South by Southwest (SXSW) interactive technology conference in Austin, Texas. He participated in a teleconference through numerous routers running the Google Hangouts platform. The public moderators were Christopher Soghoian and Snowden lawyer Wizner, both members of the American Civil Liberties Union. At the time, Snowden said the NSA was "aiming for the future of the Internet" and that SXSW attendees were "firemen." Participants in the call could ask Snowden questions using Twitter; to one of them, Edward replied that information collection by corporations is much less dangerous than information collection by government agencies because "governments have the power to deprive you of your rights." Mike Pompeo, a member of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the US House of Representatives, unsuccessfully tried to persuade SXSW leaders to cancel Snowden's speech; Instead, SXSW director Hugh Forrest said the NSA was being invited to the 2015 conference to answer Edward Snowden's questions.

In the same March 2014, but a little later, Snowden remotely participated in the TED conference held in Vancouver (Canada, British Columbia). Presented on stage by a robot with a video screen, microphones and speakers, Snowden spoke with TED curator Chris Anderson and told the conference that Internet businesses need to quickly encrypt their websites. He described how the NSA's PRISM program uses businesses to collect data for the US government and how the NSA "deliberately misleads corporate partners" by, for example, using backdoors to access their sensitive information (the "Bullrun" program). . Edward Snowden also said that he would be glad to return to the United States if he received immunity from prosecution; however, he is more concerned about how to alert the public to government abuses. Anderson then invited one of the founders of the Internet, Tim Bernes-Lee, onto the stage. Edward Snowden said he supports Tim Bernes-Lee's "Internet Magna Map" to "encode our values ​​into the structure of the Internet."

On April 8, 2014, Edward Snowden took part in a meeting of the PACE Legal Committee via video link. In his speech, he disclosed information about the “Fingerprints” program, which made it possible not only to track, but also to analyze the actions of users on the Internet. Fingerprints collected information about users who visited certain websites and categorized users based on certain parameters, such as their sexual orientation. Surveillance was carried out on all users, even if they accidentally followed a link to the site or downloaded files from it. The program also monitored users from the European Union.

"Massive surveillance of trillions of innocent people's communications is a gross violation of human rights," Snowden said. He believes the international community needs to take action to limit mass surveillance programs by intelligence agencies. “If a political solution cannot be reached, technical measures must be applied.”

On April 23, Edward Snowden took up his post as student rector of the University of Glasgow. He is also a student representative on the governing body and an official advocate for student rights. Snowden performs his duties as rector remotely, without leaving Russia.

On May 21, in a Moscow hotel, Snowden met with NBC TV presenter Brian Williams. The conversation lasted about four hours. The interview aired on NBC on May 29 at 6:00 Moscow time (2:00 UTC).

On May 23, Russian President V.V. Putin said that Russia does not extradite freedom fighters and therefore will not extradite Snowden; he also once again confirmed that Snowden is not a Russian agent and did not give away any secrets.

On June 23, the International Commission of Jurists in Norway nominated Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize.

July According to the documentary film Citizenfour, Snowden's girlfriend, dancer Lindsay Mills, whose relationship with Snowden has been going on since 2009, moved to Russia. In January 2014, the press reported that Snowden and Mills had separated, but this claim was refuted in the film.

On August 1, Snowden received a residence permit in Russia for a period of three years. He has a job and also receives help from private individuals; in five years he will be able to apply for Russian citizenship in the general manner.

On October 9, speaking as Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, Snowden endorsed the students' initiative and announced his support for the civil campaign to boycott fossil fuel investment.

On October 10, the New York Film Festival premiered a two-hour documentary about Edward Snowden, Citizenfour. The Snowden Truth" by Laura Poitras. On the same day, a 2.7-meter-tall plaster statue of Edward Snowden appeared in Union Square in New York, but it did not stand there for long because it was installed without permission.

On October 11, Snowden gave an interview to The New Yorker magazine via videoconference, in which he stated that he could not return to the United States because he had not received guarantees from the American authorities of an open trial with a jury. He also criticized the idea that only those who have something to hide from the government are opposed to mass surveillance; “In fact, the government has to justify the violation of your rights,” Snowden noted.

Also in October 2014, Edward Joseph Snowden was awarded the Alexander Zinoviev Medal as "the freest citizen of the world."

2015

On September 5, he spoke out against the Russian government’s policy of restricting the Internet and its attitude towards gays. “The desire that we see in the Russian government to control more and more the Internet, to control more and more what people see, even parts of their private lives, to decide what is appropriate or inappropriate for how people express their love to each other. to a friend is fundamentally wrong,” Edward Snowden said via video link at the presentation of the Bjornson Prize from the Norwegian Academy of Letters and Freedom of Expression for his “contribution to the right to privacy.”

In an interview with the BBC Panorama program, he said that the British GCHQ, using technology developed by the US NSA, can use an exploit in smartphone software that allows not only to eavesdrop on conversations and access transmitted and stored data, but also without the user’s knowledge remotely control a smartphone: turn it on and off, record sound (not only during a conversation), take photos and videos, determine the location of the phone.

2016

On June 4, at a video conference with the campus of a Tokyo university, he said that due to the acquiescence of the authorities and poorly developed control of civil society in Japan, US intelligence services are spying on all residents of this country and can legally intercept all information that people receive on mobile phones phones and computers.

Mass surveillance doesn't work. This law will take away money and freedom from every Russian without improving security. You shouldn't sign it

Reaction to Snowden's actions

Edward Snowden's actions have received conflicting assessments. According to some people, he is a hero, whistleblower, dissident or even a patriot; according to others, he is a traitor. Some US intelligence officials condemn his actions as causing "severe damage" to US intelligence capabilities, but there are also those who do not take Snowden's revelations seriously and denounce him as simply a clown or a liar. US President Barack Obama said that "it is not yet known exactly what Snowden did" and he preferred to refrain from making any preliminary assessment of Snowden's actions until he appeared in court.

Some members of the media prefer not to call him a whistleblower: for example, Associated Press editor Tom Kent instructed news agency staff to call Snowden not a “whistleblower”, but a “source” (leaker). At the same time, lawyer David K. Colapinto of the National Whistleblower Center said in June 2013 that Snowden's statements that the NSA lied to the US Congress characterize his behavior as a "classic revelation".

Snowden himself motivates the disclosure of secrets entrusted to him by the fact that he is trying to “tell people about what is being done on their behalf and against them.”

UN response

On July 12, 2013, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated that “the Snowden case highlights the need to protect individuals who disclose information on issues with human rights implications and on issues of importance to respect for the right to privacy.” " And on August 26, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the UN intends to contact US authorities regarding the National Security Agency's wiretapping of the UN headquarters in New York, which is a violation of the diplomatic immunity of international organizations.

Reaction of US authorities

Criminal charges

The United States has charged Snowden in absentia with theft of government property, disclosure of national defense data and intentional transfer of classified information to unauthorized persons. Collectively, these charges face up to 30 years in prison and possibly the death penalty.

Other measures

The NSA announced that it would eliminate 90% of system administrators and replace them with machines; the remaining system administrators will be allowed to work with classified data only in the presence of a colleague, and not alone - in order to avoid a repeat of the situation with Snowden.

US President Barack Obama instructed the head of US National Intelligence to form a group of experts on the use of telecommunications and other technologies in collecting intelligence information, and also spoke in favor of changes to the Patriot Act and the laws on the activities of the Foreign Intelligence Court. On January 17, 2014, he issued a directive according to which the collection of information constituting trade secrets of foreign companies is legal in the United States - but only if it is necessary to ensure the national security of the United States and its allies, and not to achieve the competitive advantages of American firms

UK authorities' reaction

According to the editor of the Guardian newspaper Alan Rusbridger, two employees of the Government Communications Center (GCHQ) visited the editorial office and monitored the destruction of hard drives containing information transmitted by Snowden. In addition, David Miranda, the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, was detained at the airport for nine hours. The detention was carried out in accordance with the Terrorism Act.

On June 14, 2015, it became known that the British intelligence service MI6 had withdrawn its agents from several countries after Russia and China hacked a secret cache of files stolen by former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden. This was reported by the Sunday Times, citing sources in the British government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the intelligence services.

Reaction of the authorities of other states

On August 2, 2013, as a result of the revelations published by Snowden, Germany terminated agreements with the United States and Great Britain, concluded in 1968 and 1969, which allowed the intelligence services of these states to engage in electronic intelligence on German territory, but soon began preparing a new agreement with the United States prohibiting mutual espionage. Spain has demanded clarification from the United States regarding the interception of telephone and Internet communications on its territory. Brazil made the same demand.

On August 30, 2013, Deutsche Welle (“Deutsche Welle”) announced that Edward Snowden had been awarded the Whistleblower-Preis, established in 1999.

Petitions in defense of Snowden

At least two petitions have appeared on the Internet in defense of Snowden. One of them was created on June 9, 2013 on the White House website, and was repeatedly discussed in the press. The petition calls Snowden a “national hero” and demands his full amnesty. As of June 27, she collected over 120 thousand votes, that is, she crossed the threshold (100 thousand before July 9), after which the White House will be obliged to give an official response. The petition received a comment from Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco, in which she pointed out that Edward's actions were suboptimal and condemned the "theft and disclosure of classified information."

Another petition was created on June 12, 2013 on the Avaaz website and calls for Snowden to be “treated as a whistleblower rather than a dangerous criminal,” to be “treated humanely during the process,” and to end the PRISM program. As of January 20, 2014, it collected more than 1.4 million votes from users from different countries.

On November 10, 2014, an appeal in defense of Snowden was published on its website by The Courage Foundation, which raises funds for the legal defense of Snowden and other whistleblowers. Among those who signed the appeal are Susan Sarandon, Oliver Stone, Noam Chomsky and other famous figures of science and art.

Other opinions

The head of EU military intelligence, Finnish Admiral Georgi Alafuzoff, said that Snowden's actions were treasonous against his employer, American intelligence, and that he was a true idealist who wanted to fight injustice.

Democratic Congressman John Lewis spoke out in support of Snowden, comparing him to Mahatma Gandhi.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden considered Snowden not a traitor, but a defector, and compared his revelations to Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, after which security systems are improved.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, in a conversation with Yevgeny Dodolev, called Snowden a “traitor” and called for “punishing him severely” (2013).

Snowden Prize

In the spring of 2014, the Russian Association of Electronic Communications, the Notamedia company and the radio station Ekho Moskvy jointly established the first award in the field of Internet media: Internet Media Awards (IMA). According to them, Snowden personally agreed to name the new award in his name.

On November 14 of the same year, the first laureates of this award were announced in the “projects” and “persons” categories.

In culture

In one of the episodes of the American animated series “South Park” - “Go, the government will watch over you” - there is a hint of Edward Snowden when Cartman says that he has become an informer and he will have to hide in Russia.

On May 15, 2014, it became known that Sony Pictures Entertainment had acquired the rights to the film adaptation of British journalist Glenn Greenwald’s book about Edward Snowden, “Nowhere to Hide,” and intends to make a film about the ex-CIA officer. The film will be produced by Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who previously worked on James Bond films.

On September 29, 2014, the Russian Channel One premiered the multi-part feature film “Where the Motherland Begins” directed by Rauf Kubaev, the first frames of which show an episode about a secret flight to Russia in order to avoid the arrest of ex-CIA officer James Snow, whose prototype was Edward Snowden. The role of James Snow in the film was played by the aspiring Lithuanian actor Arnas Fedaravičius.

On October 10, 2014, the two-hour documentary film Citizenfour premiered in New York. Snowden's Truth" by Laura Poitras, dedicated to Edward Snowden. Parts of this film are available for viewing on the website of The New Yorker magazine. The film won several prestigious film awards, including BAFTA, Sputnik and Oscar. In Russia, in cinemas, the film became the highest-grossing non-fiction film of 2015

A species of decapod crayfish, Cherax snowden, described by German zoologists in 2015, was named in honor of Edward Snowden for his contribution to the defense of freedom of speech.

On October 5, 2015, Peter Taylor's film Edward Snowden: Spies and the Law premiered on the BBC's Panorama program.

On September 15, 2016 in Russia and September 16 in the USA, the film “Snowden” was released. The film's premiere was postponed twice; filming took place in Munich in February-May 2015. To write the script, American film director Oliver Stone acquired the rights to film the books by lawyer Anatoly Kucherena “The Time of the Octopus” and Guardian newspaper journalist Luke Harding’s “The Snowden File: The Story of the Most Wanted Man in the World.” The role of ex-CIA employee Snowden in this film was played by American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Edward Snowden took part in the filming of the film; he spent one shooting day in Moscow.

Who Is Edward Snowden?

Edward Snowden is a 31 year old US citizen, former Intelligence Community officer and whistleblower. The documents he revealed provided a vital public window into the NSA and its international intelligence partners’ secret mass surveillance programs and capabilities. These revelations generated unprecedented attention around the world on privacy intrusions and digital security, leading to a global debate on the issue.

Snowden worked in various roles within the US Intelligence Community, including serving undercover for the CIA overseas. He most recently worked as an infrastructure analyst at the NSA, through a Booz Allen Hamilton contract, when he left his home and family in Hawaii to blow the whistle in May 2013. After traveling to Hong Kong, Snowden revealed documents to the American public on the NSA's mass surveillance programs, which were shown to be operating without any public oversight and outside the limits of the US Constitution. The US government has charged Snowden with theft of government property, and two further charges under the 1917 Espionage Act. Each charge carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

With the US pursuing his extradition, Snowden is now in Russia, where he was formally granted three years' residency from 1 August 2014, after a year of temporary asylum in Russia ended on 31st July 2014. Journalists continue to publish documents from Snowden that reveal the secret and unaccountable systems of modern global surveillance.

Quick facts

For quick access to information on all aspects concerning Edward Snowden and his case, please read our page.

Edward Snowden: Sam Adams Award

Snowden talks at the Sam Adams Award ceremony in October 2013 about the secret surveillance he revealed and its dangers to democracy.

Snowden later got a job at the US National Security Agency. His task was to guard a certain secret facility located on the territory of the University of Maryland. Supposedly it was CASL (Center for Advanced Study of Language). During his work, Snowden received Top Secret level clearance, thanks to which he could have access to many classified materials.
Since March 2007, Snowden worked at the CIA, in the information security department (he is a system administrator by profession). Until 2009, he worked at the UN under the guise of the US mission and was involved in ensuring the security of computer networks.

However, at one point Edward became disillusioned with the work of the American intelligence services. He told how in 2007 he witnessed an extremely unpleasant story: CIA officers got a Swiss bank employee drunk, put him behind the wheel and persuaded him to go home. When he was arrested for drunk driving, agents offered him a deal - help in exchange for access to secret bank information. Snowden said that during his time in Geneva, he saw that his government's activities were doing far more harm to the world than good. Edward hoped that with Barack Obama coming to power the situation would change for the better, but things only got worse.

Edward retired from the CIA and most recently rented a house in Hawaii with his girlfriend and worked at Booz Allen Hamilton.

Disclosure of confidential information

In January 2012, Snowden wrote several encrypted emails to Laura Praigner of the Free Press Foundation, Guardian journalist Glen Greenwald and Washington Post writer Barton Gellman. He offered to supply them with some secret information, which he eventually did.

On June 6, 2013, the public became aware of the existence of PRISM, a top secret US government program. The program is aimed at obtaining secret and not-so-secret information on the Internet; companies such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and others willingly cooperated with it. Complete chaos and hysteria reigned within the ranks of the National Security Agency employees; they quickly turned to the FBI for help in the investigation.

Essentially, thanks to Snowden, Americans learned that they could be subject to mass surveillance through email, telephone, video chats and personal correspondence on social networks.

Snowden also disclosed information about the existence of the British surveillance program Tempora and that British intelligence services penetrated computers and monitored calls of foreign politicians at the G20 summit (London, 2009).

This and many other declassified information caused enormous damage to the secret services of the United States and Great Britain.

Snowden said that he does not transfer all secret data, but only those that will not harm specific people, but will help make the world a better place at least for a second - people should know that their private lives can be penetrated at any moment .

What's next?

On June 22, the US State Department appealed to the Hong Kong authorities with a demand to extradite him to the United States, but the authorities refused to do this - they were not satisfied with some of the wording in the request.

On June 23, Snowden's adventures related to Russia began. Information has been received that Edward Snowden, together with Wikileaks representative Sarah Harrison, arrived at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. Snowen, who did not have a Russian visa, had no right to cross the border with Russia, so he remained in the Sheremetyevo transit zone. According to press reports, Snowden and Harrison did not even reach the airport building, but immediately got into a car with license plates of the Venezuelan Embassy and disappeared in an unknown direction. On the evening of June 23, Snowden asked for political asylum from the Ecuadorian authorities.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 25 that Russia has nothing to do with the actions of Edward Snowden, has never conducted and is not conducting any business with him, he has not committed crimes on Russian territory, therefore there are no grounds for his arrest and transfer to US authorities .

On June 30, Sarah Harrison handed over documents and Snowden's request to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to grant him political asylum in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would provide the fugitive saboteur with asylum, but on the condition that he stop causing harm to the US government.

Upon his return to the United States, Snowden faces a prison sentence of up to 30 years, while his supporters are collecting millions of signatures in his defense, and in Hong Kong they are holding petitions outside the US Embassy.

The future special agent was born in 1983 in Elizabeth City. The head of the family served in the North Carolina Coast Guard, and the mother devoted herself to law. Soon the couple divorced, Edward and sister Jessica remained to live with their mother. The boy spent his childhood in his homeland and graduated from high school there.

In 1999, the family moved to Maryland. The young man became a college student, studied computer science, and prepared to enter the university in preparatory courses. But poor health prevented him from completing his education in a timely manner; the young man was absent from classes for several months. Studying continued remotely via the Internet until 2011, after which Edward received a master's degree from the University of Liverpool.

In 2004, Snowden served in the US Armed Forces. He dreamed of going to Iraq and “helping people free themselves from oppression.” During the training, the recruit broke both legs and was demobilized.

Working in the intelligence services

A new stage in Snowden’s biography was work in the national security agencies of the state. The young man's career began guarding a facility at the University of Maryland. He received the highest level of clearance not only for classified information, but also for intelligence information. He was then transferred to an NSA base in Hawaii as a systems administrator.

Edward's further place of service was the CIA, where he dealt with information security issues. For two years in Geneva, he provided computer security under diplomatic cover. During this period, Snowden experienced great disappointment in the activities of domestic intelligence services; he was especially struck by the ways in which employees carried out recruitment and obtained the necessary information. Since 2009, Snowden began collaborating with consulting companies that worked in conjunction with the NSA, including military contractors.

Disclosure of Information

What he saw in Switzerland freed Snowden from illusions and made him think about the benefits of such government actions. Subsequent activities only confirmed his determination and the need to take active action. He hoped that the arrival of President Barack Obama in the White House would improve the situation, but it only got worse.

Snowden began to act decisively in 2013, when he sent an anonymous message by e-mail to director and film producer Laura Poitras. The letter contained information that the author had important information. The next decisive step was an encrypted communication with the Englishman Glenn Greenwald from the Guardian publishing house and the author of articles for the Washington Post, Barton Gellman. According to available information, Snowden handed over almost two hundred thousand files classified as “secret” to them. Since the end of spring, these two publicists began to receive materials from Edward under the PRISM program created by American intelligence. The essence of the state program was the secret collection of information about citizens around the world. Every year, the system intercepted one and a half billion telephone conversations and electronic messages, and also recorded the movements of billions of people who owned mobile phones. According to the head of information intelligence, the system worked on completely legal grounds, which allowed monitoring the network traffic of users of certain Internet resources. Potentially, any US citizen could be “under the hood”; foreigners were of particular interest. The system made it possible to view mail, photos, listen to video chats and voice messages, and also obtain details of personal life from social networks.

Exposure

The National Security Service has launched an investigation into the leak of information to the press about the operation of the PRISM system. After the disclosure, many companies, in particular Googl, began checking information encryption systems to prevent further leakage of information about their users. Previously, this Internet company, like many others, encrypted data only in transit, and it was stored unprotected on servers. The American organization of human rights activists has filed several lawsuits in the courts to declare such data collection illegal. The European Union soon responded that they were also planning measures to protect information.

A technician revealed information about the surveillance of a billion people in dozens of countries. His list included large Internet and cellular communications companies that collaborated with intelligence agencies on a daily basis. Edward justified his actions by arguing for openness and respect for the legitimate interests of society.

The NSA director accused Snowden of obtaining information not only concerning US intelligence, but also that of Great Britain. And the Pentagon said that it has information about many military secret operations. A version arose that Snowden was technically unable to carry out such an operation alone, and there were words about probable support from Russian intelligence. However, there was no evidence of this, and Edward denied assistance from other states. The accused himself understood perfectly well that he would have to “suffer for his actions.” He sacrificed a quiet life in Hawaii to speak out against the violation of people's freedoms through total surveillance. He did not consider the act heroic and did not put money at the forefront of everything: “I don’t want to live in a world where there is no privacy.”

Escape abroad

Almost immediately, Snowden left the country and flew to Hong Kong, where he continued communicating with journalists. Two weeks later, police showed up at his home in Hawaii. The Washington Post and The Guardian immediately published the materials they received, exposing the PRISM system. In Hong Kong, he recorded a video interview with journalists and openly declared himself. Next, Edward planned to leave for Iceland, believing that the country best supports freedom of speech; staying in Hong Kong remained dangerous. Russian diplomats invited him to move to Russia. The country's leadership agreed to provide a three-year residence permit on condition that he ceased his subversive work.

Personal life

Due to the security measures taken, the personal life of the whistleblower remains secret to the general public. Before his name became known to the whole world, Edward lived on one of the Hawaiian islands with Lindsay Mills. There is a version that the couple’s civil marriage continues and they live together in a rented apartment in Moscow.

Snowden is passionate about Asian culture, particularly Japanese. He became interested in anime and martial arts while working at one of the US military bases in Japan. Then the computer specialist began to study the language of the Land of the Rising Sun.

How does he live today?

In his homeland, Snowden was put on the international wanted list and accused in absentia of espionage and theft of state property. Today his exact location is unknown. Russia extended the disgraced agent’s right to stay on its territory until 2020. The CIA director is confident that Snowden is obliged to answer to the American court, but he does not make contact with American diplomacy. The security specialist is ready to return to America if he were sure that the proceedings would be open to the general public.

The famous whistleblower does not lead a closed life. His face can often be seen at various conferences on human rights and computer technology. Many countries invite him to give lectures or attend music and cultural festivals. For such video communications, Snowden receives good fees; today their amounts are close to his earnings in America. But Edward himself never tires of repeating that life in Russia is expensive, and since he did not take anything with him when leaving his homeland, he has to earn money himself. Even without knowing the language, over the years Snowden has visited many parts of Russia, but he still spends most of his time on the global network.

The controversial figure of a technical specialist aroused the interest of game developers, of which he became the hero. British journalist Greenwald dedicated the book “Nowhere to Hide” to him, and in 2016, American director Oliver Stone presented a film about the life of the agent.

Edward Joseph Snowden is a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency. In June 2013 Edward Snowden passed on classified NSA information to the media. Thanks to this, the whole world learned that American intelligence services were spying on information communications between citizens of states around the world, using existing information and communication networks.

US authorities have charged Edward Snowden in absentia with theft of government property, disclosure of national defense data and intentional transfer of classified information to unauthorized persons.

Biography of Snowden

Studied computer science in college in Maryland. Since 2003, he served in the US armed forces, leaving them after severely injuring his legs during a training exercise.

After military service, he began working for the NSA, guarding a secret facility on the territory of the University of Maryland. In this job, Edward Snowden received security clearance at the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level.

After the NSA, Edward Snowden joined the CIA's information security department. From March 2007 to February 2009 he worked under diplomatic cover of the US permanent mission in (Geneva).

In 2009, Edward left government service and began working for consulting companies working with the NSA: Dell and military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (he worked at his last job for less than 3 months).

Edward Snowden says that during his service he gradually became disillusioned with it: “I realized that I was part of something that was doing a lot more harm than good” (from an interview with The Guardian).

At some point, he came to the conclusion that the process of creating the NSA surveillance network would soon become irreversible. “You can't wait for someone else to take action. I was looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about being the first to act.” “I don’t consider myself a hero because I act in my own self-interest: I don’t want to live in a world where there is no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.”

Snowden's cooperation with the press

In January 2013, Edward Snowden wrote an anonymous email to Laura Poitras, a former film producer and co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Snowden told Poitras that he had important classified information. He soon contacted Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald and publicist Barton Gellman, who wrote for the Washington Post.

Snowden corresponded with journalists via encrypted e-mail messages. In the second half of May 2013, Snowden began transmitting key information about the PRISM program to Greenwald and Gellman, but asked not to disclose it immediately.

Secrets from Snowden

Big brother is watching...

Some of the most impressive data released thanks to Snowden was data about the PRISM program. It involves mass surveillance by American intelligence agencies of communications between Americans and foreign citizens via telephone and the Internet.

PRISM allows the US NSA to view email, listen to voice and video chats, view photos and videos, track files, and get updates on social networks. The PRISM program involves corporations whose software products or gadgets are used by hundreds of millions of people around the world: Microsoft (Hotmail), (Google Mail), Yahoo!, AOL, Apple and Paltalk.

Diplomats under cover

Also thanks to Snowden, it became known that British intelligence services monitored computers and intercepted telephone calls of foreign politicians and officials participating in the G20 summit in London in 2009. The secret work was carried out by the UK Government Communications Center and the US NSA. In addition, British intelligence services intercepted telephone conversations of the Russian President during the summit.

Fleeing the USA

• On May 20, 2013, Snowden took a leave of absence from work and flew to Hong Kong. There, from the hotel, he continued his email correspondence with journalists. On June 6, 2013, Snowden told journalist Gellman: "The police visited my home in Hawaii this morning." On the same day, with his permission, the Washington Post and The Guardian published revelations about the PRISM program.
• On June 9, Snowden invited journalists to Hong Kong for an interview. This video interview and his real name were published by The Guardian at his own request.
• On June 22, 2013, it became known that the US State Department appealed to the Hong Kong authorities with a demand to detain Snowden and extradite him to the United States. The Hong Kong authorities refused to do this, citing an incorrectly completed request.

Snowden in Russia

• On June 23, 2013, as reported in the media, Snowden, accompanied by Sarah Harrison, a representative of WikiLeaks, arrived at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, on the evening of June 23, Snowden asked for asylum from this state (remember that another whistleblower of American secrets, Julian Assange, is already hiding in the embassy of this state in London). However, Snowden never flew to either Ecuador or Venezuela, whose president announced his readiness to grant him political asylum.
• On June 30, Snowden asked for political asylum in Russia. Sarah Harrison, who was accompanying him, filed the appropriate documents. A week later it became known that Edward Snowden had sent applications for political asylum to almost 20 countries. Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua gave a positive response.
• On July 12, Snowden held a meeting in the Sheremetyevo transit zone, where he had been living all this time, with representatives of international human rights organizations, some State Duma deputies and lawyers Anatoly Kucherena, Genrikh Padva and Henry Reznik. At the meeting, Snowden announced that he was asking for temporary asylum in Russia, and in the future he planned to settle in Latin America.
• On July 16, Snowden officially applied for temporary asylum in Russia.
• On July 24, 2013, lawyer Anatoly Kucherena reported that Snowden wants to stay in Russia forever, find work here and has already begun to learn Russian.