Edward Snowden is an American technical assistant, known throughout the world for publishing a number of sensational revelations by US intelligence agencies regarding mass surveillance of citizens. Since 2013, his name has appeared on the front pages of the media, as information about violations by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the rights and freedoms of millions of Americans and Europeans amazed the world community.
Recently, Snowden has been living in Russia, where he was granted political asylum, since the United States put him on the international wanted list, charging him in absentia with theft and disclosure of state secrets, which is regarded as a threat to the country's security.
Childhood and youth
Edward Snowden was born on June 21, 1983 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His parents, coast guard Lonnie and lawyer Elizabeth Snowden, are divorced. Edward is the youngest child in the family; he has an older sister, Jessica, who works as a lawyer at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington.
Snowden spent his childhood and youth in his hometown, where the future CIA and NSA employee received his secondary education. In 1999, Snowden's family moved to Maryland. There Edward entered Anne Arundel College, where he took preparatory courses for entering the university.
However, due to health reasons, he never completed the course of study - he had to continue his studies remotely, which did not prevent Snowden from receiving a master's degree from the University of Liverpool in 2011.
In 2004, Edward Snowden joined the US Armed Forces as a reservist, from where he was discharged a few months after receiving serious injuries to both legs. From that moment on, Snowden’s biography was directly related to computer science, programming and IT technologies, in which the guy showed professionalism and special talent, despite the lack of formal confirmation of the specialist’s qualifications.
Service in the CIA
Edward Snowden's rise up the career ladder was confident and rapid. The specialist received his first professional skills at the NSA, working in the security structure of a secret facility at the University of Maryland. A few years later, Snowden was hired by the CIA and, under diplomatic cover, was sent to Geneva as the US permanent representative to the UN. There, his responsibilities included ensuring the security of computer networks. According to Edward, working in Switzerland opened his eyes to the fact that he is a special link in the US intelligence services, bringing people more harm than good.
In 2009, the programmer left the CIA and began working for the NSA consulting companies Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton, performing the duties of an external contractor.
Snowden did not approve of the activities of the US National Security Agency, in the future ridding the American public of illusions about the lawful actions of the government in relation to the whole world. In this regard, in 2013, an NSA special agent decided to act at the behest of his heart and reveal to people secret information exposing American intelligence agencies in mass surveillance of people.
Snowden has repeatedly noted that he wanted to declassify the unlawful actions of the NSA and CIA back in 2008, but hoped that when he came to power the situation in the US secret services would change. It soon became obvious to the programmer that the new US President was continuing the policies of his predecessors and did not intend to interfere with the activities of the “spies.”
Revelations and criminal prosecutions
Snowden's work to declassify crimes of American intelligence agencies began in 2013. Then the former CIA and NSA agent contacted film producer Laura Poitras, American journalist Glenn Greenwald and publicist Barton Gellman, who told them that he was ready to provide classified information.
Snowden’s communication took place through encrypted e-mail messages, through which the IT specialist leaked 200 thousand secret documents to journalists. Their secrecy status exceeded previously published materials on WikiLeaks regarding the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. After this, a scandal broke out, and the announced incriminating evidence received the effect of a thermonuclear bomb in the press. In the future, the founder of WikiLeaks will state that, thanks to an international non-profit organization, Snowden remains free.
Edward Snowden's revelations contained facts about surveillance by US intelligence agencies of the population in 60 countries and 35 government departments across Europe. The programmer declassified information about the PRISM program, with the help of which special agents conducted mass surveillance of negotiations between Americans and foreign citizens via the Internet and mobile communications.
According to Edward, the PRISM program allowed the NSA to listen to voice and video chats, view email and photos, track transferred files and have all the information of social network users. A large number of popular services participated in this program: Microsoft (Hotmail), Facebook, Google (Gmail), Skype, Yahoo!, AOL, YouTube, Apple and Paltalk.
Another sensational revelation by Snowden was the secret ruling of the FISC court, according to which the largest cellular operator Verizon is obliged to daily transfer to the NSA the metadata of all calls made within the United States. Against the backdrop of this ruling, journalists suggested that other American cellular operators could also be involved in such obligations.
In addition, thanks to Snowden, it became known about the existence of the Tempora tracking program, which intercepts Internet traffic and telephone conversations, and about integrated iPhone software that allows you to monitor user actions.
One of Snowden's most high-profile revelations was the disclosure of the fact that US intelligence officers intercepted telephone conversations of foreign politicians and officials participating in the G20 summit held in London in 2009. Victims of the US NSA's misconduct include many well-known politicians from around the world.
According to the Pentagon, Snowden is in possession of 1.7 million classified documents, most of which relate to vital information about the operations of the US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. This information, according to journalists, will be gradually disclosed with the aim of harming the national interests of the United States and the NSA.
After deciding to reveal his identity, Edward Snowden, realizing that he would have to pay dearly for this act, went on the run.
At first, the programmer hid in Hong Kong, where he planned to obtain political asylum. After the announcement of official charges by the American authorities of theft and disclosure of secret state secrets, which happened on the day of Edward’s 30th birthday, the spy, for unknown reasons, appeared in Moscow at Sheremetyevo airport, but, not having a Russian visa, was forced to remain in the transit zone of the airport .
According to media reports, in Russia the programmer was met by a car with Venezuelan diplomatic license plates, which took Snowden away in an unknown direction. Presumably, Edward intended to go to South America through Moscow.
On June 30, 2013, he asked to be granted political asylum in Russia, and the very next day the President of the Russian Federation allowed the programmer to remain in the country on the condition that he stop the subversive work of the American intelligence services.
At the same time, Edward Snowden submitted a petition to the American authorities for a pardon, citing the fact that he did not observe anything bad or illegal in his actions. American authorities have a conflicting attitude towards Snowden's revelations, believing that the programmer is obliged to stand trial because he betrayed US state secrets. American intelligence officers consider the act of the former CIA and NSA employee to be harsh and illegal, causing irreparable damage to the US intelligence service.
In turn, the European Union is categorical about the issue of the prosecution of Snowden. The European Parliament has repeatedly called on the EU to refuse to impose a sentence on the American and to provide him with protection, which would make it impossible for him to be extradited to the United States or returned by a third party.
In July 2016, US CIA Director John Brennan said that Snowden should return to the US and face trial. Then the head of American foreign intelligence did not support the position of former US Attorney General Eric Holder, who called Snowden’s activities a “service to the public.” The head of the CIA does not believe that thanks to Edward, a discussion of socially significant issues has begun in the country.
In 2016, a former employee of the National Security Agency spoke in an interview with the Financial Times about his life in the Russian capital. Snowden admitted that his knowledge of the Russian language is only enough to place an order at a restaurant. Snowden added that he lives on Eastern Time and spends most of his time on the Internet, but "this has always been his life."
Snowden has repeatedly expressed his opinion regarding Russian anti-terrorism laws. A former American intelligence officer criticized in his microblog on the social network "Twitter" a package of laws (“package”) that introduce life imprisonment for international terrorism and oblige telecom operators, instant messengers and social networks to store information about the facts of conversations and correspondence of users and their content.
“Mass surveillance doesn’t work. This law takes away money and freedom from every Russian without improving security. You shouldn’t sign it,” Snowden notes.
In 2017, the authorities of many countries around the world continue to invite the former employee of the American intelligence services to speak out on a number of issues, as well as to give lectures.
Movies
“The most wanted man in the world,” Edward Snowden, after the publication and disclosure of classified information from American intelligence agencies, became one of the main characters for writers and filmmakers who thought of making him part of their creations. He was the main subject of the documentary "Citizenfour", directed by Laura Poitras based on interviews with a former CIA and NSA employee.
The film about Edward Snowden won the prestigious Oscar as the best documentary film with a bold plot, which from the first to the last seconds carries sensational and revealing information.
In 2016, the world saw a new project by the famous director called “Snowden”, dedicated to the story of a former IT specialist of the US intelligence services hiding from the evil American government. The main roles in the film were played by actors, and.
Personal life
The personal life of Edward Snowden, after his high-profile revelations, due to the precautions taken, became a secret to society. He once mentioned his family life in passing - in 2013 he announced that he had a wife and children. It is known that since 2009, his girlfriend was dancer Lindsay Mills, with whom he lived in a civil marriage on the Hawaiian island of Waipahu.
There were rumors that the couple broke up in 2013. But director Oliver Stone, the author of the film about Snowden, denied this information. The American spy still lives with his beloved in Russia. Evidence of this fact is provided by their joint photos that appear on Lindsay’s personal Instagram account.
In 2013, a former employee of the Russian intelligence services proposed that Edward Snowden marry her. She wrote about this on Twitter, but users called this step a PR move on her part.
According to journalists who interviewed Edward in Hong Kong, Snowden remains a good-natured and intelligent person, in whose character there are notes of romance and idealism. The programmer leads a quiet and healthy lifestyle, practices Buddhism, spends a lot of time at the computer and enjoys reading books on Russian history. At the same time, the NSA and CIA “whistleblower” adheres to a vegetarian diet, does not drink coffee or drink alcohol.
Edward Snowden now
The programmer has repeatedly stated that he is ready to move to the United States, subject to an open trial with a jury present at the trial. But no head of state has yet given Snowden such guarantees. In 2017, journalists suggested that Moscow would no longer hide Edward on Russian territory, but would hand him over to the new US President, but the programmer again managed to renew his residence permit.
In 2018, the American stopped communicating with the public for six months. In the fall, with his participation, a video conference took place with the University of Management of the Austrian city of Innsbruck. Edward said that he now manages the American Foundation for the Defense of Freedom of Journalists.
As part of his activities, Snowden is developing a program to protect information sources from external threats. According to the former CIA officer, he is primarily concerned with the problems of American society, which he continues to struggle with. At the same time, Edward does not stop criticizing the Russian government and reforms.
In November, Snowden gave a lecture to Mossad senior officials, presenting evidence of NSA infiltration into Israeli intelligence operations via videoconference. Snowden has not yet provided information about new performances in 2019, but it is assumed that the programmer will continue to expose American intelligence services.
Quotes
Snowden himself says this about his revelations:
“I have carefully reviewed each document to ensure that its release would serve the legitimate interests of the public. There are documents of all types that would have great consequences if released, but I do not release them because my goal is openness, not hurting people."
Secret materials about global surveillance of the US and British intelligence services on the Internet, three years ago he received temporary asylum in Russia. A year later, on August 1, 2014, he was granted a three-year residence permit.
Snowden fled from the United States to Hong Kong and on June 23, 2013, arrived in Moscow, where he spent some time in the Sheremetyevo transit zone, from where he filed applications for temporary asylum in 21 countries.
US authorities have charged Snowden with three charges, each of which faces up to ten years in prison: illegal transfer of information relevant to national security; intentional sharing of intelligence information and theft of government property.
Snowden himself stated his repeated attempts to express concerns about the NSA's surveillance of US citizens within the agency, but the intelligence agency took no action.
Snowden published a secret report on US cyber attacks on foreign partiesThe US government has authorized hacking attacks on foreign political parties and organizations, former US National Security Agency official Edward Snowden said on Monday, releasing a classified document from 2010.The head of German counterintelligence, Hans-Georg Maasen, suggested that Edward Snowden was an agent of the Russian intelligence services. Snowden himself has previously stated more than once that he does not work for the FSB. President Vladimir Putin also noted that “our special services have never worked with Mr. Snowden and do not work.”
However, Maasen made it clear that he has reason to consider Snowden’s activities “part of the hybrid war waged by Russia against the West,” the website of the German Bundestag reported this with reference to the speech of the head of counterintelligence. According to the official, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) may have recruited and directed the NSA agent, and the fact that the American remains an idealistic lone wolf in international public opinion is "the pinnacle of Russian success" in disinformation work.
According to Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, his client initially told the FSB that he would not cooperate with any intelligence agency in the world. “I can say that Edward never deviated from his principle - not to cooperate with any governments or any structures of any countries, including the Russian Federation,” the lawyer said.
A WikiLeaks spokeswoman also denied reports that the Russian FSB tried to recruit a former NSA employee.
Life in Moscow without an iPhone
Now Edward Snowden lives in an ordinary rented apartment and moves around Moscow by metro, visits stores like all other city residents, buys groceries and everything he needs, but his exact place of residence is not disclosed due to security reasons. His lawyer reported this to the media.
According to Kucherena, Snowden works in his specialty - IT technology, as a consultant in one of the companies.
“Everything is fine with me, I live a normal life, I even ride the Moscow metro. The only difference from my previous life is that I don’t use an iPhone,” Snowden said in an interview.
In addition, Snowden traveled to regions of Russia, and this trip made a good impression on him. “He traveled around the country. He was in St. Petersburg (not for the first time), in a number of other regions. His impressions are good. He is not indifferent to what is happening in our country,” Kucherena told RIA Novosti.
He also reported on Snowden's progress in learning the Russian language. “We can already calmly talk to him about some proposals, which is good,” the lawyer noted.
Snowden's girlfriend remains in the United States and periodically visits him. Kucherena also reported that the possibility of her moving to Russia was being considered. According to him, she comes quite often, so the lawyer is ready to help her if she decides to apply for a residence permit. The lawyer also did not rule out that Snowden’s parents, with whom he keeps in touch, will be able to come again. Two years ago his father already visited him.
The former NSA employee himself does not intend to leave Russia, although he has repeatedly stated that he would still like to return. According to Snowden, who spoke via Skype at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, he will agree to extradition to the United States if authorities provide him with a fair trial.
“I told the government that I would return if I was guaranteed a fair trial, where I could defend the interests of the public ... and the jury could make a decision,” the TV channel quoted Snowden as saying.
His lawyer noted that while Snowden is being persecuted politically and insults are pouring in from American politicians, there is no hope for a fair trial in the United States.
“For us and for him, this experience was not easy: a similar incident first occurred when a former US intelligence officer ended up in Russia. He feels more or less normal here, although the more I get to know him, the more I see that he is a true patriot The United States, which cares about everything that happens in America,” Kucherena said.
Prosecution and demand for extradition
The European Parliament has already called on EU states to "refuse to pursue any prosecution of Snowden, provide him with protection and therefore prevent his extradition or return by a third party - in recognition of his status as a whistleblower and international defender of human rights."
US CIA Director John Brennan said on July 14 that Snowden should return to the US and face trial. Brennan also said he disagreed with former US Attorney General Eric Holder, who assessed Snowden's activities as a "service to the public." The head of the CIA does not believe that thanks to Snowden, an active discussion of socially significant issues has begun in the country.
According to the deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, Dmitry Gorovtsov (A Just Russia), the United States so often changes its position regarding Snowden’s activities that he may soon become a national hero, perhaps after the election of a new American president.
Film hero and award winner
The fate of the former intelligence officer turned out to be so interesting to the whole world that over the past few years he has been awarded a number of awards and has become the hero of films.
The Berlin-based International League for Human Rights awarded the former intelligence officer a medal in 2014 named after Carl von Ossietzky, the German pacifist and journalist who won the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize.
Snowden received the 2014 International Living Dignity Award, often referred to by journalists as an alternative Nobel Prize and awarded for his work in the field of the environment and human rights, for “with great courage in disclosing classified electronic surveillance materials conducted by US intelligence agencies.” outside the bounds of democratic control and in violation of fundamental civil rights." The laureate himself was not present at the ceremony in Stockholm, but participated via a direct video link from Russia.
In March 2016, the Norwegian PEN Club, which brings together writers, poets and journalists, awarded him the Carl von Ossietzky Prize, which is awarded for work in the field of freedom of expression. Its presentation is scheduled for November 18. After the award was awarded, the club said that they would like to see the laureate in Oslo. Snowden's lawyers are seeking Norwegian authorities to allow him to attend the awards ceremony with legal guarantees against his extradition to the United States.
The founder of the Russian social network VKontakte, Pavel Durov, called Snowden his personal hero. “We are the same age, and in a sense I perceive this fight with the National Security Agency as the battle of our generation,” Durov said in an interview with the British newspaper Daily Mail.
Durov noted that he had never met him personally, but offered him a job in his new messaging application Telegram. Snowden declined the offer.
During this time, even a special award named after a former NSA employee managed to appear. The Internet Media Awards (IMA) was established in the spring of 2014 by the RAEC Internet Media Commission together with the Notamedia company and the Ekho Moskvy radio station. Organizers note that Snowden personally agreed to have his name named after the award.
In the United States, they believe that Snowden may reveal a number of secret materialsIn June 2013, Edward Snowden leaked to the media a number of classified materials about the surveillance programs of the US and British intelligence services on the Internet. The damage from the activities of the former US intelligence officer cannot yet be calculated.In addition, this year the film “Snowden” directed by Oliver Stone is expected, in which the main role was played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the girlfriend of the movie hero, Shainlyn Woodley. According to the director, the film will be in the “political thriller” genre and will tell the story of Snowden from the time when he was not yet an intelligence agent until the scandal with the leak of classified information. The Russian premiere of the film will take place simultaneously with the world premiere - on September 15.
Stone has already demonstrated the edited film to lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, based on whose book the film was based. “I was very impressed because I didn’t expect that such a great artist as Oliver Stone would pay attention to my book and make a good quality movie based on the book. Not just a movie, not just some blockbuster, but a movie that makes think,” Kucherena told RIA Novosti.
Current activities
Anatoly Kucherena told RIA Novosti that his ward receives a lot of different invitations every day “from almost all countries of the world,” “he is invited to give lectures, speak, and speak out on certain issues.”
It was also reported that Snowden will speak at a festival in Denmark via video link and talk with event participants about equality and human rights.
“He is a very sought-after person, but let’s also take into account that he works a lot, he really has a lot to do now, including paying a lot of attention to human rights issues and many other issues,” said his lawyer.
Snowden also expressed his views on Russian anti-terrorism laws. A former employee of the American intelligence services criticized in his microblog on the social network Twitter a package of laws that introduce life imprisonment for international terrorism and oblige telecom operators, instant messengers and social networks to store information about the facts of conversations and correspondence of users and their content.
"Mass surveillance doesn't work. This law will take away every Russian's money and freedom without improving security. Don't sign it," Snowden added.
"I think these documents will be a big surprise for the whole world. There are a large number of documents that have not been published before," Miranda said in an interview.
6 years of life in Russia
For obvious reasons, even in Russia, Edward Snowden is forced to lead a closed lifestyle, so journalists do not know exactly where he now lives in Moscow. However, in 2019, new information appeared about him, transmitted by his lawyer, as well as representatives of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, whom he advised on the issue of a possible shutdown of the Internet in Russia.
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Successful learning of the Russian language and Russian culture
All Russians saw Snowden several years ago during one of the press conferences of Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he asked him a question via video link in Russian.
And today, the former American agent continues to master the Russian language, having lived in Russia for 6 years. Kucherena said that his client leads the life of an ordinary Russian.
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He not only actively continues to learn Russian, but also gets acquainted with Russian culture by visiting:
Exhibitions.
The lawyer said that Edward Snowden independently visits Russian regions, but did not specify where he is now.
Most likely, in 2019, the American is protected by Russian special services. He has a residence permit, which allows him to move freely around Russia without attracting the attention of the press and strangers.
Having been professionally trained as an agent of one of the world's most powerful intelligence agencies, Edward has no difficulty in being invisible to the press in Russia.
Kucherena said that the main problem that Snowden faced in Russia has been resolved. He regularly sees his loved ones and his girlfriend, who freely came to Russia to visit an American accused in his homeland of theft of state property, espionage and treason.
What Snowden does in Russia is not known for obvious reasons. But it can be assumed that, unlike his compatriot, policeman John Mark Dugan, who fled to Russia in 2016, he continues to engage in his professional activities.
yandex_ad_2 If a former American policeman who served in the US Navy was afraid to work in his main specialty in Russia due to the fact that Russian police officers have too few rights for dangerous work, then an IT specialist from the American intelligence services seems to be completely satisfied with the position of an FSB consultant .
A recent report that the Federation Council is developing a law on creating a sustainable Internet space in Russia in case it is disconnected from foreign servers allows us to make an assumption about this. Chairman of the Federation Council committee Andrei Klishas said that Russian legislators responsible for information security in Russia were advised by Edward Snowden.
He pointed to the fact that it was a former NSA agent now living in Russia who spoke about the shutdown of Syria from the Internet on November 29, 2012. Even such a small country, which was at war at that time, was plunged into a monstrous economic and infrastructural collapse.
Klishas told reporters that information for drawing up a new law protecting the Russian Internet was provided to SovFer by Edward Snowden, without saying where he is now and what he is doing in 2019. It appears that the American may be involved in many of the new Russian laws relating to computer and financial security.
Snowden's story is known as a real-life detective story that took place in June 2013 in front of the whole world. An employee of the American National Security Agency (NSA) hid from his all-powerful employer and government, changing countries and planes, until he settled in Russia.
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Fugitive and Paranoid
Having stolen more than a million secret files from the NSA, proving surveillance of billions of users around the world, Snowden flew to Hong Kong to tell the truth to journalists from the British The Guardian and the American Washington Post and hide from the authorities of his country.
Footage of how the meeting took place at The Mira Hotel formed the basis of the documentary film Citizenfour (it was this name - “Citizen Four” - that Ed chose for himself to begin communicating with journalists through encrypted messages by e-mail). When did the real one take place? meeting, the ex-NSA agent amazed his interlocutors with the total and, as it seemed to them, absurd secrecy, on which he insisted. Working with a laptop under a dark raincoat and a video camera taped to it looked like an extreme form of paranoia. However, after Snowden’s information became public. a huge number of users in the world covered the eyes of their computers, and during editing in Berlin, the filmmakers turned off all electronic devices in the room and hid their mobile phones if they had to tell each other something even partially confidential. Ed himself has long preferred a smartphone. an ordinary push-button mobile phone.
The influence of the United States in the world, although exaggerated by Russian propaganda, is nevertheless undoubtedly large. In trying to arrest Snowden, the pressure was unprecedented and phenomenally brazen. To get a fugitive agent, the States use all their levers. Having learned that the fugitive is in Hong Kong, they demand that he be immediately detained and extradited to the United States. Snowden left the hotel and disappeared from view: as it later turned out, he took refuge with refugees from the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Local authorities are clearly playing for time: on the one hand, they refer to inaccuracies in the request from America, on the other, they make it clear that Snowden will not receive asylum in Hong Kong.
The ex-agent takes tickets to Havana via Moscow. Breathing a sigh of relief, Hong Kong authorities allow him to fly out on June 23. There is hysteria in the American intelligence services: it turns out that the United States, which raised the ears of the entire diplomatic corps to capture the daring bespectacled man, did not itself do such a simple procedure as revoking his passport.
The document is canceled when Edward is already in the air on his way to Moscow. swarming with journalists, but Snowden is nowhere to be found. On the connecting flight to Havana, the press buys up tickets to fly with him, but the plane leaves without the fugitive: seat 17A, for which he checked in, remains empty, and the disappointed wits can only create a Twitter account on behalf of the empty seat and conduct a “report.” It turns out that the US government put pressure on Cuba, and it telegraphed to Moscow that it would not allow Aeroflot to board if Snowden was on it.
And the 29-year-old guy, who, almost like the hero of “The Extraordinary Adventures of Italians in Russia,” finds himself between heaven and earth, spends five weeks in the Sheremetyevo transit zone.
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Russia is also not delighted with the sudden disturber of world peace that has suddenly fallen upon it, as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signals to his “partners.” During this time, the car of the Ambassador of Ecuador is noticed at the airport (this country at that time provided asylum to the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange, who actively worked for Snowden).
And in early July, Bolivian President Evo Morales arrives in Moscow for a gas forum. Answering questions from journalists, Morales expresses his readiness to provide Edward with asylum. On the night of July 3, he flies back to his homeland, but Portugal, France, Italy, and Spain close the airspace for the presidential plane, and it is forced to land in Vienna. There Morales' plane... is being searched.
The unprecedented humiliation and violation of all basic diplomatic rules, however, does not produce results: the sought-after “Citizen Four” is not on board. Snowden agrees to Putin’s condition “to stop his work aimed at causing damage to our American partners, no matter how strange it may sound from my lips,” and remains in Russia.
Human rights activist and philosopher
Snowden is, to put it mildly, an unusual person in the world of intelligence services. In this environment, it is customary to strictly obey discipline, not to give free rein to one’s own ideas about the right/wrongness and legality/illegality of what they are doing. Re-recruitment, outbidding of intelligence officers, double agents - the other side of the coin, but also a long-standing classic of the genre. But Snowden...
Having seen that the secret American PRISM system allows the US authorities, almost with the click of a single button, to gain access to the personal correspondence (e-mail, sms, calls, messages on social networks, search queries) of any person in the world, he thought about how this corresponds ethics and what global consequences in the relationship between citizen and government can lead to.
Formally, PRISM was created to combat terrorism. Snowden, from his experience working at the NSA, became convinced that access to databases is constantly used for completely different purposes: near-diplomatic blackmail, providing the United States with advantages at G7/8/20 meetings. With the help of PRISM, businessmen, diplomats, presidents, and unfaithful spouses are monitored. The system makes it too easy to find out about everyone’s weaknesses, and all global IT players (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, YouTube) turned out to be part of it and collect information about us. In recent years, Snowden has repeatedly accused Facebook of spying on users.
We carry sensors in our pockets that track our location wherever we go... Only privacy allows us to freely decide who we are and who we want to be, Snowden told the British channel Channel 4, which chose him as the hero of the Alternative Project Christmas message" in December 2013.
This type of discrimination is a violation of fundamental rights. But more and more countries, not just the United States, are doing this. “I wanted to give society a chance to decide for itself where it will draw its boundaries,” he confirmed his beliefs in 2017 in an interview with Spiegel.
In total, we were talking about 35 states in which such systems operate. It would be naive to believe that the Russian special services are not trying to do something similar. Attempts by Roskomnadzor to place RuNet under strict control and store information only on Russian servers are evidence of this. The reason is the same - the mantra about the need to fight terrorism. It is no coincidence that the founder of VKontakte and Telegram, forced out of Russia, Pavel Durov, is trying to answer the question posed by Snowden today, creating communications systems independent of governments.
Snowden is smart and well-read. He is interested in philosophy and Buddhism. Agnostic. A man with a core: he put a salary of 200 thousand dollars a year, peace of mind, freedom and even life on the line just so that humanity would understand that Orwell’s 1984 is finally on the threshold. But this core of it is still not clear to everyone.
“Snowden is not a traitor. He did not betray the interests of his country, he did not transmit information to another country that would harm its people. But if you asked me whether it [what he did] was right or not, my answer is no,” Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Oliver Stone, who made a feature film based on this whole epic. As the president of a country at odds with the United States, Putin must have taken some satisfaction from the NSA's failure. But as a scout he can neither accept nor understand such an act. The most unpleasant thing for him would be the appearance of Russian Snowden.
Ed also feels the break in the pattern. On the one hand, Russia saved and sheltered him. On the other hand, this is clearly not the country whose image correlates with his beliefs. He is eager to continue his social activities, but all attempts to change his location, for example, to Switzerland, have so far led to nothing.
Edward is now 36. His residence permit in Russia has been extended until 2020. He secretly lives somewhere among us; his parents and girlfriend Lindsay Mills regularly visit him. He already speaks Russian quite well, and if you believe the lawyer, he goes to museums, theaters, and travels. Things turned out less rosy for Assange: seven years of isolation in a room at the embassy in London, but in the end he was still arrested. Colleague Ed called the day of Julian’s arrest “a dark day for press freedom.”
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According to American law, Edward Snowden is a criminal. But for freedom-loving people of the new generation, he is undoubtedly a hero of our time. Six months ago, 500 seats in a Sorbonne lecture hall were sold out by Parisian students within three minutes after it became known that the rebel had agreed to speak via video link from Moscow. And another 7,000 applicants were left behind.
Will Snowden ever be revered in America, like Martin Luther King, who broke the old unjust system, or will he remain a traitor who washed his dirty laundry in public? Time will show.
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. An American organization of human rights activists has filed several lawsuits in court 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.
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