Once the story broke that the U.S. government has been mining data about the phone and Internet usage of Americans, the big question became: “Who leaked the information?”
His name is Edward Snowden.
He revealed himself on Sunday, with a video interview on The Guardian, the publication that broke the story about the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program on Thursday.
Until he became the man who blew the lid off NSA spy activities, the 29-year-old was an information structure analyst for the NSA and the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.
The Associated Press reported he had only worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for about three months.
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When he left for Hong Kong on May 20, he told his boss at Booz Allen Hamilton he required treatment for epilepsy. He reportedly checked out of a hotel in Hong Kong on Monday and his current location is unknown.
Snowden went from being a high school dropout with a GED, to being dismissed from the military – he broke both of his legs during a training exercise – to working his way up the ladder in the intelligence community.
Before he fled the country, he was living in Hawaii with his girlfriend and making about $200,000 a year.
Snowden said he wasn’t anyone of importance, within Booz Allen Hamilton or the National Security Agency.
“I’m no different from anyone else. I don’t have any special skills. I’m just another guy who sits there day-to-day, in the office who watches what’s happening and goes, ‘This is not something that’s our place.’”
But for someone who wasn’t a high-ranking official, he had a lot of private information at his fingertips.
“I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wire tap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if I had a personal email,” Snowden said in an on-camera interview with The Guardian.
He said he kept his plans to reveal government secrets from his family and his girlfriend, for fear that they may be targeted.
“If you realize that’s the world you helped create… You realize that you might be willing to accept any risk and it doesn’t matter what the outcome is,” Snowden said.
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Some critics have said he has an anti-government agenda. He’s admittedly not a supporter of U.S. President Barack Obama.
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He is, reportedly, a supporter of Texas Republican Ron Paul, who campaigned for the presidential nomination in 2012.
Paul is adamant about his opposition to the USA Patriot Act and “warrantless wiretaps.”
“It throws the Fourth Amendment right out the window,” Paul said in a statement after the story broke last week.
The Washington Post reported Monday Snowden is listed as contributing $250 to Paul’s campaign on two different occasions.
Snowden said in the Guardian interview he supported neither the Democrats nor the Republicans in the 2008 election, saying he voted for a “third party.”
Snowden said he chose Hong Kong for its “strong tradition of free speech,” but he’s hoping he may find asylum in Iceland because it’s a country that stands up for Internet freedom.
According to Talking Points Memo, it’s not likely he’ll get refuge in Iceland. But Forbes magazine reports Icelandic Member of Parliament Birgitta Jonsdottir, who helped Wikileaks disseminate leaked footage of a U.S. helicopter attack on Iraqi citizens, said she would support his asylum bid.
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