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 Ed Snowdon (艾德‧史諾登)，今年29歲

我曾在 Booz Allen Hamilton (布茲艾倫)公司工作，為國家安全局在夏威夷擔任系統分析員的職務

你之前在情報單位做過些什麼？

我當過系統工程師，系統管理者

中情局資深顧問，諮商師

和通訊系統人員

人們最感興趣的事是想了解

你是何許人物 以及 你在想什麼

會想當一個爆料者，乃至於真的付諸行動

決定站出來揭發內幕

這個心路歷程可以告訴我們嗎？

當你在情報單位擔任一個像系統管理師這樣的工作

會比一般職員接觸到更廣的資訊

你看到一些感到困擾的事

一般人在職涯中多少會有一兩件這樣的事

但當你可以看到所有的事，這個被困擾的頻率就高了許多

你認知到有些權力被濫用了

然後去詢問別人 眼下的事是否正常，

在情報蒐集單位裡，人們通常不會對此太認真，就跳過不談

但是像這樣不應該的事知道得越來越多，就更覺得應該說出來

可是不館怎麼說，都一直被忽略，一再被告知這根本不是個問題

到最後你理解到這應該由大眾決定，

而不是一個為政府工作的人說了算

跟我們談談國家監控做些什麼？監控重點只放在美國人嗎？

國家安全局或其他情報組織都用盡各種方法來獲得情報

他們自認為所作所為均是為了國家的利益考量

一開始是專注於外國情資的攫取

但漸漸地，開始也用於國內的情報收集

為此美國國家安全局將目標訂於一般通訊

暗自從系統中攫取、過濾訊息、分析、衡量，並且將它儲存一段時間

因為這樣最簡單、能最有效率達到目的

所以當他們認為某人與外國政府有關聯

或懷疑某人可能是恐怖份子

任何分析員在任何時間都可以鎖定任何人，任何標的物，任何地方

這些被挑選出來的通訊內容取決於不同的系統

然後分析員被授權。但並非所有分析員都能夠鎖定任何人

然而無庸置疑的，我的確握有監聽所有人的權限

從你或你的帳號，甚至是聯邦法官

就算是總統我都能辦到，只要取得個人的郵件帳號

一件很有趣的事是，通常爆料着都是匿名的

並且會盡其所能希望永遠保持他們的匿名身分

而你卻與他們相反，主動的暴露自己爆料者的身分

為什麼你選擇這麼做?

在民主社會的架構之下, 這些背後的人對社會大眾欠缺交代和動機.

當你擁有政府給予的支配力量時, 基本上對於民主社會是非常危險的.

如果你持續祕密地進行工作, 政府在這項秘密行動中得到他們想要的好處的時候,

這些官員就會要求說 "去跟媒體說這個, 說那個, 讓公眾站在我們這一邊",