Manning 2.0? Former NSA consultant behind massive US surveillance leak

The source behind the leak of the top-secret NSA surveillance program – one of the most significant leaks in US history – has been revealed. A 29-year-old former CIA contractor Edward Snowden has fled to Hong Kong to avoid the fate of Bradley Manning.

The former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee
of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, had asked the
Guardian to reveal his identity and had never planned on hiding.

“I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have
done nothing wrong,” he said in an interview.

Snowden predicts that the government will launch an investigation
against him, however it was “a matter of principle” for
him because he believes that the people should know how the
government intrudes into their privacy. According to Snowden he
acted out of a desire to protect “basic liberties” and to
“send a message to government that people will not be
intimidated.”

“I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy
privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around
the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly
building,” said the whistleblower.

Snowden leaked top-secret documents to The Guardian that included
the existence of a US National Security Agency’s extensive spying
program called PRISM. The program was designed to collect
information about digital communications allowing real-time
online surveillance of US citizens.

According to the leaked information it gives “direct
access” to files from the servers of major internet companies
including Google and Facebook. The spying program was allegedly
targeted to identify “folks who might engage in
terrorism,” according to US president Barack Obama, who noted
that American citizens  should be prepared to trade some of
their freedoms for more safety.

Snowden said he is willingly sacrificing his very comfortable
life with a family he loves and a stable career with a salary of
around $200,000. “My sole motive is to inform the public as to
that which is done in their name and that which is done against
them.”

A former MI5 agent Annie Machon believes that Snowden will be the
first of a series of modern whistleblowers who learnt from the
terrible tragedy of the Bradley Manning case.

“The way he has run the whole exposure and disclosure of the
crimes of the NSA and what they are doing against the American
people and the rest of the world people has been very
sophisticated. And I take heart from that. The fact that he has
fled the USA, he is now in Hong Kong. The fact that he has been
working with journalists of Glenn Greenwald’s caliber,”
Machon told RT. “I think it’s been very, very well done. I
would call this Whistleblowing 2.0.”

The revelation of the whistleblowers identity comes after NSA
filed a leak investigation report on Sunday to the Justice
Department for it to launch a criminal case into the breach of
security. The leaks also come amid US Army Private Bradley
Manning’s trial on charges of transmitting classified materials
connected with US military operations abroad to the WikiLeaks
website. The Obama administration has aggressively pursued
whistleblowers and Snowden expects the government to pursue him,
however he states that he “is not afraid , because this is the
choice I’ve made.”

This article originally appeared on: RT