Edward Snowden

Who is Edward Snowden?

Edward Joseph "Ed" Snowden is an American computer specialist and former CIA employee and NSA contractor who disclosed classified details of several top secret United States, Israeli, and British government mass surveillance programs to the press. He is living in Russia under temporary political asylum and is considered a fugitive from justice by American authorities, who have charged him with espionage and theft of government property.

Snowden's release of NSA material was called the most significant leak in US history by Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg. Based on disclosures leaked to The Guardian in May 2013, while employed by NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, a series of exposés was published revealing programs such as the interception of US and European telephone metadata and the PRISM, XKeyscore, and Tempora Internet surveillance programs.

Snowden has been a subject of controversy: he has been variously called a hero, a whistleblower, a dissident, a traitor, and a patriot. Response from US officials has been similarly varied; Director of National Intelligence James Clapper condemned Snowden's actions as having done "huge, grave damage" to US intelligence capabilities, while United States Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that the NSA had gone "too far" in some of its surveillance activities and promised that it would be stopped.