Clapper comments pushed me to become leaker, says Snowden
15 Aug 2014 5:01 AM IST
In an interview with Wired magazine over several days in Moscow, Snowden said he had been long been troubled by the activities of the National Security Agency, which employed him as a contractor. But it was only when Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told lawmakers that the agency does ‘not wittingly’ collect data on millions of American citizens that he was angry enough to act.
The magazine released the article online on Wednesday, along with several new photographs of the once elusive Snowden, including a cover shot of the young technician lovingly cradling an American flag. Snowden says he made his decision to leave his office in Hawaii and head to Hong Kong with secret documents on thumb drives after reading in March 2013 about Clapper briefing a Senate committee.
‘I think I was reading it in the paper the next day, talking to coworkers, saying, can you believe this...?’ Snowden says.
Following Snowden’s sensational leaks about the scale of US global surveillance and how the NSA sucks up data on US users’ phone calls, Clapper apologised to the Senate for his ‘erroneous’ remarks.
Snowden told Wired that he had already thought about ‘whistle-blowing’ several times over the previous few years. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who was later given the thousands of secret NSA files, has said Snowden contacted him anonymously in December 2012, three months before Clapper’s briefing.
The magazine released the article online on Wednesday, along with several new photographs of the once elusive Snowden, including a cover shot of the young technician lovingly cradling an American flag. Snowden says he made his decision to leave his office in Hawaii and head to Hong Kong with secret documents on thumb drives after reading in March 2013 about Clapper briefing a Senate committee.
‘I think I was reading it in the paper the next day, talking to coworkers, saying, can you believe this...?’ Snowden says.
Following Snowden’s sensational leaks about the scale of US global surveillance and how the NSA sucks up data on US users’ phone calls, Clapper apologised to the Senate for his ‘erroneous’ remarks.
Snowden told Wired that he had already thought about ‘whistle-blowing’ several times over the previous few years. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who was later given the thousands of secret NSA files, has said Snowden contacted him anonymously in December 2012, three months before Clapper’s briefing.
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