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Edward Snowden

American whistleblower who exposed NSA global surveillance programs in 2013.

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Edward Snowden

via Wikipedia: Edward Snowden · see source

After starting at the CIA in 2006, he moved to Dell in 2009, where he managed computer systems for the NSA, and in 2013 he worked for two months at Booz Allen Hamilton before disclosing classified documents about mass surveillance programs.[1][2]

Key facts and history

Snowden enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2004 as a Special Forces candidate but received an administrative discharge after a leg injury.[3] He worked as a security guard at an NSA-sponsored research center in 2005 before joining the CIA in 2006.[4][5] He began working for Dell in 2009, managing computer systems for government agencies, and later worked at an NSA facility in Hawaii.[6][7] In March 2013, Snowden quit his job at Dell and took a pay cut to work at Booz Allen Hamilton to gather data on NSA surveillance.[8]

On May 20, 2013, he flew to Hong Kong, where he stayed when the first articles based on his leaked documents were published on June 5.[9] The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed charges against him on June 21, 2013, for violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property.[10] He stayed in a Moscow airport for a month before being granted asylum, and became a naturalized Russian citizen in 2022.[10] In 2016, Snowden became president of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.[11]

What the research sources say

A Vanity Fair article by Burrough describes Snowden as a "seemingly aimless, geeky kid from the Maryland suburbs" who obtained America's most guarded secrets.[12] In a 2014 NBC News interview, Snowden said he raised concerns about the NSA's legal interpretations through emails to their Office of General Counsel.[13] A BBC News article from June 2015 reports that a senior government source said UK intelligence agents were moved because Russia and China had accessed classified information from Snowden's documents.[14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burrough, "The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light", April 23, 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bamford, "Edward Snowden: The untold story of the most wanted man in the world", August 13, 2014; Hosenball, "Snowden downloaded NSA secrets while working for Dell, sources say", Reuters, August 15, 2013; Burrough, "The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light", April 23, 2014 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Army Enlisted Job Descriptions and Qualification Factors: 18X – Special Forces Enlistment Option"; Ackerman, "Edward Snowden was not successful in joining the US Army's elite special forces unit", The Guardian, June 10, 2013; Snowden, "Permanent Record", 2019; Ackerman, "Edward Snowden did enlist for special forces, US army confirms", The Guardian, June 10, 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "University-Affiliated Research Center Laboratories (UARCs)", U.S. Department of Defense; Finn, "Investigators looking into how Snowden gained access at NSA", The Washington Post, June 10, 2013; Darcy, "Police detain reporters, stop them from photographing alleged NSA facility where Snowden worked", Campus Reform, June 13, 2013; Bamford, "Edward Snowden: The untold story of the most wanted man in the world", August 13, 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bamford, "Edward Snowden: The untold story of the most wanted man in the world", August 13, 2014; Jijo, "Edward Snowden Scandal: CIA Sent Him Home But NSA Hired Him Later", International Business Times, October 11, 2013; Bamford, "Edward Snowden: The untold story of the most wanted man in the world", August 13, 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hosenball, "Snowden downloaded NSA secrets while working for Dell, sources say", Reuters, August 15, 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bamford, "Edward Snowden: The untold story of the most wanted man in the world", August 13, 2014 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Transcript: ARD interview with Edward Snowden", The Courage Foundation, January 27, 2014; Epstein, "Revisiting Snowden's Hong Kong Getaway", The Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2014; Greenwald, "Edward Snowden Q&A: Dick Cheney traitor charge is 'the highest honor'", The Guardian, June 17, 2013; Greenwald, "Edward Snowden Q&A: Dick Cheney traitor charge is 'the highest honor'", The Guardian, June 17, 2013; Lam, "Snowden sought Booz Allen job to gather evidence on NSA surveillance", South China Morning Post, June 24, 2013 (original not read en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Poitras, "NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things'", The Guardian, June 9, 2013; Yang, "Edward Snowden faces strong extradition treaty if he remains in Hong Kong", The Washington Post, June 10, 2013; "Timeline of Edward Snowden's revelations | Al Jazeera America", Al Jazeera; "Greenwald: 'Explosive' NSA Spying Reports Are Imminent", Spiegel Online, July 19, 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Finn, "U.S. charges Snowden with espionage", The Washington Post, June 21, 2013; Brennan, "Kerry warns Russia on Snowden: 'Respect the relationship'", CBS News, June 21, 2013; Luhn, "Edward Snowden passed time in airport reading and surfing internet", The Guardian, 2013-08-01; "Putin grants Russian citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden", Reuters.com, September 26, 2022; "Edward Snowden swears allegiance to Russia and receives passport, lawyer says", The Washington Post (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Edward Snowden" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Greenberg, "Edward Snowden's New Job: Protecting Reporters From Spies", February 2017; Kelley, Michael B., "Snowden flouts court ruling with paid speeches, Substack: 'He's above the law'", Yahoo! Finance, September 30, 2021 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Burrough, "The Snowden Saga: A Shadowland of Secrets and Light", April 23, 2014. facts only, no text reused. vanityfair.com
  13. Cole, "Edward Snowden's Motive Revealed: He Can 'Sleep at Night'", NBC News, May 28, 2014. facts only, no text reused. nbcnews.com
  14. "British spies 'moved after Snowden files read'", BBC News, June 14, 2015. facts only, no text reused. bbc.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Edward Snowden (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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