NSA leaker

Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former undercover CIA employee, unmasked himself Sunday as the principal source of recent Washington Post and Guardian disclosures about top-secret National Security Agency programs.

Snowden, who has contracted for the NSA and works for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, denounced what he described as systematic surveillance of innocent citizens and said in an interview that "it's important to send a message to government that people will not be intimidated."

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said Saturday that the NSA had initiated a Justice Department investigation into who leaked the information — an investigation supported by intelligence officials in Congress.

Snowden, whose full name is Edward Joseph Snowden, said he understands the risks of disclosing the information but felt it was important to do.

"I'm not going to hide," Snowden told The Post from Hong Kong, where he has been staying. The Guardian was the first to publicly identify Snowden, at his request. "Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest."

Asked whether he believed his disclosures would change anything, he said: "I think they already have. Everyone everywhere now understands how bad things have gotten — and they're talking about it. They have the power to decide for themselves whether they are willing to sacrifice their privacy to the surveillance state."

Snowden said nobody was aware of his actions, including those closest to him. He said there wasn't a single event that spurred his decision to leak the information.

"It was more of a slow realization that presidents could openly lie to secure the office and then break public promises without consequence," he said.

Snowden said President Obama hasn't lived up to his pledges of transparency. He blamed a lack of accountability in the Bush administration for continued abuses. "It set an example that when powerful figures are suspected of wrongdoing, releasing them from the accountability of law is 'for our own good,' " Snowden said. "That's corrosive to the basic fairness of society."

The White House did not respond to multiple e-mails seeking comment and spokesman Josh Earnest, who was traveling with the president, said the White House would have no comment Sunday.

A brief statement from a spokesperson for Clapper's office referred media to the Justice Department for comment and said the intelligence community was "reviewing the damage" that had been done by the leaks. "Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law," the statement said.

Snowden also expressed hope that the NSA surveillance programs would now be open to legal challenge for the first time. Earlier this year, in Amnesty International v. Clapper, the Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against the mass collection of phone records because the plaintiffs could not prove exactly what the program did or that they were personally subject to surveillance.

Article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/intelligence-leaders-push-back-on-leakers-media/2013/06/09/fff80160-d122-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html

我的名字叫爱德华·斯诺登，今年29岁。

我在博思艾伦咨询公司工作，在夏威夷的一处国家安全局设施内担任基建分析师。

你之前在情报界担任过什么职位？

我曾经做过系统工程师、系统管理员、

中央情报局的高级顾问、

售前技术顾问和电信系统管理员。

在人们试图了解你这个人和你的想法的过程中，

他们最感兴趣的事情会是

从你越过底线，产生揭秘的想法，

到你决定成为揭秘者的过程。

为人们讲讲你做决定的过程。

当你因职务之便有特许存取权的时候，比如在情报机构里做系统管理员，

你就会比普通员工接触到更多更广的信息，

也正是因为这一点，你会看到一些让人不安的事情。

但是对于一个普通人来说，他在职业生涯中可能只会看到一两件这样的事情。

这样的事当你见得多了，见得频了，

你会发现这其中有些事实际上是滥用职权。

当你在一个对这些事司空见惯的环境中跟别人议论这些事的时候，

他们已经对这些事习以为常，并不会很在意。那么你就住嘴吧，别跟他们说了。

但是时间久了，这种做错事的感觉越来越明显，让人不吐不快。

而这种事你谈的越多，别人就越不拿你当回事，并且他们会一次又一次的告诉你这种事没有问题。

最后你意识到，这种事情的对与错要有公众来评判，

而不是某个政府雇员说的算的。

讲讲美国国土监控系统是怎样工作的。美国人的行为是它的监控目标吗？

美国国家安全局，乃至于整个情报界，将精力集中在利用各种可能的手段在能触及之处搜集情报。

它自以为是的宣扬自己以国家利益为重。

起初，我们觉得美国国家安全局的精力仅集中在搜集国外情报上。

现在，我们越来越多的看到，情报的搜集也发生在国内。

而且，为了搜集情报，美国国家安全局以每个人的通信记录为目标。

先将这些记录统统记下，

收录到美国国家安全局的系统中，然后对这些信息进行筛选、分析和权衡，并在一定时期内在系统中保存这些信息。