[governance] Spiegel - NSA Whistleblower: 'I Do Not Expect To See Home Again'

Mon Jun 10 12:38:46 EDT 2013

[An American brother, who is a global citizen... who will lose job, 
home, family and know the pain of exile. O like me and others on this 
list, an anti-American. Since Obama can authorise the killing of 
Americans under signature drone strikes perhaps this may be a solution 
to this intractable problem...]

    NSA Whistleblower: 'I Do Not Expect To See Home Again'

By Marc Pitzke <http://www.spiegel.de/extra/0,1518,632139,00.html>

Photo Gallery: Whistleblower on the Run 
<http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-whistleblower-on-the-run-fotostrecke-97768.html>Photos 
<http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-whistleblower-on-the-run-fotostrecke-97768.html> 

REUTERS/ Ewen MacAskill/ The Guardian

*He was once a cog in the US intelligence apparatus, but 29-year-old 
ex-CIA employee Edward Snowden has admitted to making one of the biggest 
intelligence leaks in history. He now faces severe consequences -- but 
President Obama also has a lot to answer for.*

Edward Snowden sits in a hotel room in Hong Kong. He is pale and 
unshaven, his voice quiet but firm. For fear of spies, he has sealed off 
the door with cushions. He says he's only gone outside three times in 
the past three weeks. When the fire alarm went off, he suspected that 
someone was trying to lure him out of hiding.

          ANZEIGE

Snowden is on the run. The scene, as depicted by London newspaper the 
Guardian 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance> 
/, /is the latest and most dramatic chapter of a spy thriller that in 
recent weeks has kept the United States and much of the world in 
suspense. Snowden is the highly sought-after man who notified the press 
about the infamous US surveillance program Prism -- probably one of the 
biggest leak scandals in the history of espionage.

Snowden didn't have to reveal the fact that he is the whistleblower 
behind the story. But he decided to out himself voluntarily in a 
12-minute video interview that the/Guardian/ posted on its website on 
Sunday night.

Snowden puts a moral spin on his protest against state data 
surveillance: "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of 
things," says the 29-year-old former CIA technical assistant who was 
last employed by the defense 
<http://www.spiegel.de/international/topic/defense/> contractor Booz 
Allen Hamilton. "I don't want to live in a world where there's no 
privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and 
creativity," he continues.

But for that, it may already be too late. The debate that Snowden hoped 
to initiate has revealed that the US's virtual surveillance network is 
nearly all-encompassing -- and that citizens are powerless against it. 
"Welcome to the future," writes Ross Douthat in the /New York Times/. 
"Just make sure you don't have anything to hide."

*A Historical Coup in * *Hawaii*

Snowden, too, fears this future. The US government, he says, "are intent 
on making every conversation and every form of behavior in the world 
known to them."

Snowden himself was once a cog in the gears of the intelligence 
apparatus. After a short stint in the US Army, he began his career in 
the clandestine National Security Agency (NSA), then moved to the CIA. 
That's where he first began to have doubts. "I realized that I was part 
of something that was doing far more harm than good," he says.

In 2009, Snowden entered the private sector and ended up at Booz Allen 
Hamilton, a billion-dollar company with close ties to American espionage 
circles. His most recent job, as the company confirmed with noticeable 
consternation, was as an IT contract worker at an NSA facility in Hawaii.

And that's where he made his historical coup. Snowden copied documents 
exposing two gigantic secret NSA programs -- comprising massive 
surveillance of telephone and internet communications -- and leaked them 
to the /Guardian /and/Washington Post/.

He then asked his employers for a few weeks off and flew to Hong Kong. 
He didn't even say anything definite about what was going on to his 
girlfriend.

*Obama's PR Problem*

Snowden has had "a very comfortable life," with an annual salary of 
$200,000 and a house in Hawaii. "I'm willing to sacrifice all of that," 
he says, "because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to 
destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around 
the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."

What is he facing now? Extradition, abduction, litigation: "All my 
options are bad," he says. Snowden told the /Washington Post/ on Sunday 
that he is seeking "asylum from any countries that believe in free 
speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy."

"I do not expect to see home again," he told the /Guardian/.

Several times, he mentioned WikiLeaks informant Bradley Manning, who is 
now facing a military tribunal in one of several cases in which the 
administration of President Barack Obama 
<http://www.spiegel.de/international/topic/barack_obama/> has taken a 
hard line against whistleblowers.

Already Mike Rogers, a Republican congressman who serves as chairman of 
the House Intelligence Committee, has called for a criminal 
investigation. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein seconded the call and 
suggested congressional hearings as well.

The response from the US intelligence community itself was kept to a dry 
statement: "The matter has been referred to the Department of Justice," 
a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said 
on Sunday.

Obama now faces a huge public relations problem. Wasn't it he who said 
that he welcomed the debate on government spying? And yet now he has 
decided to pursue the very man who triggered this debate.

One thing is certain: Snowden is sought after -- by the secret services, 
by the courts, by journalists. Whether hero or villain, writes Garance 
Franke-Ruta in the /Atlantic/, there is one thing the privacy-rights 
activist seems not to have fully considered: "He is about to become one 
of the most highly-scrutinized public figures in the world."

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