WaPo | Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former undercover CIA employee,
unmasked himself Sunday as the principal source of recent Washington
Post and Guardian disclosures about top-secret National Security Agency programs.
Snowden, who has contracted for the NSA and works for the
consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, denounced what he described as
systematic surveillance of
innocent citizens and said in an interview that “it’s important to send
a message to government that people will not be intimidated.”
Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said Saturday
that the NSA had initiated a Justice Department investigation into who
leaked the information — an investigation supported by intelligence
officials in Congress.
Snowden, whose full name is Edward Joseph
Snowden, said he understands the risks of disclosing the information but
felt it was important to reveal.
“I intend to ask for asylum from
any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization
of global privacy,” Snowden told The Post from Hong Kong, where he has
been staying. The Guardian was the first to publicly identify Snowden.
Both media organizations made his name public with his consent.
“I’m
not going to hide,” Snowden said Sunday afternoon. “Allowing the U.S.
government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for
revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest.”
Asked
whether he believed his disclosures would change anything, he said: “I
think they already have. Everyone everywhere now understands how bad
things have gotten — and they’re talking about it. They have the power
to decide for themselves whether they are willing to sacrifice their
privacy to the surveillance state.”
Snowden said nobody was aware
of his actions, including those closest to him. He said there wasn’t a
single event that spurred his decision to leak the information.
“It
was more of a slow realization that presidents could openly lie to
secure the office and then break public promises without consequence,”
he said.
Snowden said President Obama hasn’t lived up to his
pledges of transparency. He blamed a lack of accountability in the Bush
administration for continued abuses. The White House could not
immediately be reached for comment Sunday afternoon.
“It set an
example that when powerful figures are suspected of wrongdoing,
releasing them from the accountability of law is ‘for our own good,’ ”
Snowden said. “That’s corrosive to the basic fairness of society.”
