A former CIA employee working as a contractor at the US National Security Agency said he was the source who leaked details of a top-secret US surveillance programme, acting out of conscience to protect “basic liberties for people around the world”.
Holed up in a Hong Kong hotel room, Edward Snowden, 29, said he thought long and hard before revealing details of an NSA project codenamed “Prism”, saying he did so as he felt the United States was building an unaccountable and secret espionage machine.
In a video interview to London’s Guardian, he said he had got disenchanted with President Barack Obama for continuing the policies of George W. Bush. “I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things... I don’t want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded.”
Three weeks ago he copied secret documents at the NSA’s Hawaii office and told his supervisor he needed “a couple of weeks” off, and flew to Hong Kong. He ultimately hopes to get asylum in Iceland.