Edward Snowden (1983 - )
Tue Jun 21, 1983
Image: Edward Snowden speaks about the NSA leaks in an interview with reporter Glenn Greenwald at the hotel The Mira Hong Kong. [Wikipedia]
Edward Snowden, born on this day in 1983, is an American whistleblower who leaked highly classified information from the NSA in 2013 when he was working as a CIA employee, exposing multiple governments' widespread surveillance programs.
Snowden's disclosures revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many run by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments, prompting a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy.
In 2013, the United States Department of Justice unsealed charges against Snowden of two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property, revoking his passport. Two days later, he flew into a Moscow Airport, where Russian authorities noted that his U.S. passport had been canceled, and he could not leave the airport terminal for over one month.
Russia later granted Snowden the right of asylum with an initial visa for residence for one year, and he continues to reside there on extension today.
"Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give to an American."
- Edward Snowden
- Date: 1983-06-21
- Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theguardian.com.
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- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org
I appreciate what he did. I hate that he is in Russia.
To be fair to him, he's been in Russia since like 2013 which was before all the Ukraine stuff really started to blow up. And from a practical point of view, he's probably much safer there than he would be in any US friendly country.
It's unfortunate that his actions in the interests of raising awareness of mass surveillance to the US public were also in the interests of the Russian state, which will be all to happy to see the US government undermined in some way.
Nonetheless, I think he done the right thing.
After Georgia "stuff" blew up though. And everything before that. And let's be real, you could see who would be their head today even back in 2013.
He deserved better.
I suspect he is in the equivalent of house arrest now, whether officially or otherwise. A pet.