The admission that some NSA employees "carried nude photos of citizens they came into possession of from office to office" during the infamous mass surveillance of the American Intelligence Agency revealed byEdward Snowdenhas stolen most of the comments from the new interview he gave to the Guardian.
"It was part of their daily routine," notes the man responsible for the leaks about "surveillance scandal" that exploded like a megaton bomb last year, speaking to the English media's journalists,Alan Rusbridger and Ewen MacAskill, from Moscow where he has been for the past year. The interview was given in a hotel, which, as the Guardian notes, is located"walking distance" from Red Square in the "heart" of the Russian capital. Snowden spoke to reporters for seven hours about many issues related to the NSA scandal, as well as himself and his life during this time.
Regarding the issue of “nude photos” and the way NSA employees dealt with leaks, Edward Snowden said characteristically: “You have recruited young people aged 18 to 22 and, suddenly, you push them into a position of extreme responsibility, having access to all the personal files of citizens… When they come across something unrelated to their work but extremely attractive - like a nude photo -, they are willing to share it with others… What do they do? They turn around and show it to their colleagues. This activates a chain, in which the most… “raw” cases of private content become a topic of discussion at the NSA”. As Snowden noted, this was “more or less frequent, depending on the maturity of the employees”.
During the interview, Snowden also talked a lot about himself. He said that he is financially independent and lives off his savings, as well as the money he earns from awards and lectures he gives online around the world. He also noted that he works on the Internet until late at night, which is not much different from what he did in the previous period of his life, before the revelations about the NSA scandal.
He clarified that he does not wish to return to the US anytime soon, as he takes it for granted that the Obama administration could never offer him a fair trial. It seems, however, that he is ready to accept even the “worst case scenario” that may arise. “Even if I end up chained in Guantanamo, I can live with it,” he noted characteristically in one of the “exaggerations” in his expressions, which is not the first time we have encountered him.
Snowden also addressed the rumors that he is a "spy" for the Russian government, describing them as "nonsense", while, regarding whether he believes that we are now in a universe exactly as described by George Orwell in his novel "1984", he noted: "Contrary to popular belief, I do not believe that we are in a universe like that of 1984. We should not limit ourselves to the limits of the author's imagination. Time has shown that the world is much more unpredictable and dangerous than that."
Finally, he had a message for professionals - such as journalists, doctors, accountants, etc. -who are charged with protecting their sources, but also ensuring the confidentiality of their clients, stating that they must strengthen the security sector, using encryption. "The revelations of last year have proven that without encryption of communications on the Internet, no one is safe anymore," said Snowden, who, it seems, continues to work towards this part, also strengthening his technical knowledge on this specific subject.
The entire interview with Edward Snowden will be published, this Friday, on the Guardian website.
Source: digitallife.gr
