Interview with the world’s most famous whistleblower, Edward Snowden,
The man whose state
surveillance revelations rocked the world speaks exclusively to the Guardian
about his new life and concerns for the future
The world’s most
famous whistleblower, Edward Snowden,
says he has detected a softening in public hostility towards him in the US over
his disclosure of top-secret documents that revealed the extent of the global
surveillance programmes run by American and British spy agencies. In an exclusive
two-hour interview in Moscow to mark the publication of his memoirs, Permanent
Record, Snowden said dire warnings that his disclosures would cause harm had
not come to pass, and even former critics now conceded “we live in a better,
freer and safer world” because of his revelations.
In the book, Snowden
describes in detail for the first time his background, and what led him to leak
details of the secret programmes being run by the US National Security Agency
(NSA) and the UK’s secret communication headquarters, GCHQ. He describes the 18
years since the September 11 attacks as “a litany of American destruction by
way of American self-destruction, with the promulgation of secret policies,
secret laws, secret courts and secret wars”. Snowden also said:
“The greatest danger still lies ahead, with the refinement of artificial
intelligence capabilities, such as facial and pattern recognition... read more