Edward Snowdon 2014
Wikipedia



Edward Snowden


Born
Edward Joseph Snowden
June 21, 1983 (age 30)
Elizabeth City, North Carolina, United States

Residence
Russia (temporary asylum)
Nationality
American

Occupation
System administrator
Employer
Booz Allen Hamilton
Kunia, Hawaii, US
(until June 10, 2013)

Known for
Revealing details of classified United States government surveillance programs

Criminal charge
Theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified intelligence to an unauthorized person (June 2013).

Awards
Sam Adams Award[1]




Further information: Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)


Edward Joseph "Ed" Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an Americancomputer professional. A former systems administrator for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, he later went to work for the private intelligence contractorDell, inside a National Security Agency (NSA) outpost in Japan. In early 2013, he joined the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton inside the NSA center inHawaii. He came to international attention in June 2013 after disclosing to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor[2] for Dell[3] and Booz Allen Hamilton.[4][5]Snowden's release of classified material has been described as the most significant leak in U.S. history since the release of the Pentagon Papers byDaniel Ellsberg.
In May 2013, Snowden flew from Hawaii to Hong Kong, where he met with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and released numerous NSA documents to them. On June 9 Snowden revealed his identity to the international media in a video[2] filmed by Poitras and released by The Guardian. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Snowden with espionage on June 14,[6] and the U.S. Department of State revoked his passport on June 22. On June 23, Snowden flew to Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, where he intended to change planes en route to Ecuador.[7] According to ABC News, he "could not enter Russia because he did not have a Russian visa and he could not travel to safe haven opportunities in Latin America because the United States had canceled his passport".[8] Snowden remained stranded in the airport transit zone for 39 days, during which time he applied for asylum in 21 countries. On August 1, Russian authorities granted him a one-year temporary renewable asylum.
Snowden's leaked documents uncovered the existence of numerous global surveillance programs, many of them run by the NSA and the Five Eyes with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments. In 2013, the existence of the Boundless Informant was revealed, along with thePRISM electronic data mining program, the XKeyscore analytical tool, theTempora interception project, the MUSCULAR access point and the massiveFASCIA database, which contains trillions of device-location records. In 2014, Britain's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group was revealed, along with theDishfire database, Squeaky Dolphin's real-time monitoring of social media networks, and the bulk collection of private webcam images via the Optic Nerveprogram. In May 2014, The Intercept reported that the NSA was working in partnership with the U.S. DEA, and was recording the content of all cell phone calls made in the Bahamas.[9][10] Leaked slides revealed in Greenwald's bookNo Place to Hide, released in May 2014, showed that the NSA's stated objective was to "Collect it All," "Process it All," "Exploit it All," "Partner it All," "Sniff it All" and "Know it All."[11] In February 2014, for reporting based on Snowden's leaks, journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Ewen MacAskilland Barton Gellman were honored as co-recipients of the 2013 George Polk Award, which they dedicated to Snowden.[12] The NSA reporting by these journalists earned The Guardian and The Washington Post the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, seen by Snowden as "a vindication".[13]
A subject of controversy, Snowden has been variously called a hero,[14][15][16]a whistleblower,[17][18][19][20] a dissident,[21] a traitor,[22][23][24] and apatriot.[25][26][27] Snowden's "sole motive" for leaking the documents was, in his words, "to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."[28] The disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security andinformation privacy. Two court rulings since the initial leaks have split on the constitutionality of the NSA's bulk collection of telephone metadata. Snowden is considered a defendant by American authorities.[29] In early 2014, some media outlets and politicians called for leniency in the form of clemency, amnesty or pardon, while others called for him to be imprisoned, ex-CIA director James Woolsey said that Snowden should be hanged if convicted of treason,[30] and anonymous "spies" want him murdered.[31][32]
He lives in an undisclosed location in Russia, and is seeking asylum in the European Union.[33] Snowden currently holds a three-year post as Rector of the University of Glasgow and serves on the Freedom of the Press Foundation board of directors.[34][35][36][35] In March 2014, he participated by teleconference as a featured speaker before two prominent technology conferences: South by Southwest Interactive and TED. Snowden's first television interview[37] aired January 26, 2014 on Germany's NDR. NBC's Brian Williams is scheduled to broadcast the first interview for American television on May 28.[38] 
Background[edit]
Childhood, family, and education[edit]
Edward Joseph Snowden was born on June 21, 1983,[39] in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.[40] His father, Lonnie Snowden, a resident of Pennsylvania, was an officer in the United States Coast Guard,[41] and his mother, a resident of Ellicott City, Maryland, is a clerk at the United States District Court in Maryland.[42][43] His parents are divorced, and his father has remarried.[44] Friends and neighbors described Snowden as shy, quiet and nice. One longtime friend said that he was always articulate, even as a child.[43] Speaking in an interview, Snowden's father described his son as "a sensitive, caring young man," and "a deep thinker."[45] In 2013 Der Spiegel printed that he is a practicing Buddhist, and is reportedly a vegetarian.[46]
By 1999, Snowden had moved with his family to Ellicott City, Maryland.[42] He studied at Anne Arundel Community College[42] to gain the credits necessary to obtain a high-school diploma but he did not complete the coursework.[47][48]Snowden's father explained that his son had missed several months of school owing to illness and, rather than return, passed the tests for his GED at a local community college.[28][45][49]
Snowden worked online toward a Master's Degree at the University of Liverpool in 2011.[50] Having worked at a U.S. military base in Japan, Snowden was reportedly interested in Japanese popular culture, had studied the Japanese language,[51] and also worked for an anime company domiciled in the U.S.[52][53] He also said he had a basic understanding of Mandarin Chinese and was deeply interested in martial arts and, at age 19 or 20, listed Buddhism as his religion on a military recruitment form, noting that the choice of agnostic was "strangely absent."[54] Snowden told The Washington Post that he was an ascetic, rarely left the house and had few needs.[55]
Before leaving for Hong Kong, Snowden resided in Waipahu, Hawaii, with his girlfriend.[56] According to local real estate agents, they moved out of their home on May 1, 2013.[48]
Political views[edit]
Snowden has said that in the 2008 presidential election, he voted for a third-party candidate. He has stated he had been planning to make disclosures about NSA surveillance programs at the time, but he decided to wait because he "believed in Obama's promises." He was later disappointed that Obama "continued with the policies of his predecessor."[57] For the 2012 election, political donation records indicate that he contributed to the primary campaign of Republican candidate Ron Paul.[58][59]
A week after publication of his leaks began, technology news provider Ars Technica confirmed that Snowden, under the pseudonym "TheTrueHOOHA," had been an active participant in the site's chat rooms from 2001 through May 2012, discussing among other things a variety of political topics.[60][61][62] In a January 2009 entry, TheTrueHOOHA exhibited strong support for the United States' security state apparatus and said he believed leakers of classified information "should be shot in the balls."[63] However, in February 2010 TheTrueHOOHA wrote, "Did we get to where we are today via a slippery slope that was entirely within our control to stop, or was it an relatively instantaneous sea change that sneaked in undetected because of pervasive government secrecy?"[64]
In accounts published in June 2013, interviewers noted that Snowden's laptop displayed stickers supporting internet freedomorganizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Tor Project.[28] Snowden considers himself "neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."[65]

Publication[edit]
On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong,[122][123] where he was staying when the initial articles based on the leaked documents were published,[122][124] beginning on June 5.[125][126] Within months, documents had been obtained and published by media outlets worldwide, most notably The Guardian (Britain), Der Spiegel (Germany), The Washington Postand The New York Times (U.S.), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France), and similar outlets in Sweden, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and Australia.[127] In 2014, NBC broke its first story based on the leaked documents.[128]
Four journalists won the Polk Award in February 2014 "for national security reporting for stories based on secret documents leaked by Snowden." Recipients included Glenn Greenwald, Barton Gellman, Laura Poitras and The Guardian's Ewen MacAskill.[129]

The NSA reporting was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in April 2014. The Washington Post and The Guardian won the "public service award" for exposing the "widespread surveillance" and for helping to spark a "huge public debate about the extent of the government's spying". The Guardian's chief editor, Alan Rusbridger, gave the credit to Snowden, saying "The public service in this award is significant because Snowden performed a public service."[130] In response to the Pulitzer, Snowden wrote: "Today's decision is a vindication for everyone who believes that the public has a role in government. We owe it to the efforts of the brave reporters and their colleagues who kept working in the face of extraordinary intimidation, including the forced destruction of journalistic materials, the inappropriate use of terrorism laws, and so many other means of pressure to get them to stop what the world now recognizes was work of vital public importance. This decision reminds us that what no individual conscience can change, a free press can. My efforts would have been meaningless without the dedication, passion, and skill of these newspapers, and they have my gratitude and respect for their extraordinary service to our society. Their work has given us a better future and a more accountable democracy."[131]


Sam Adams Award
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sam Adams Award is given annually to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. The Award is given by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence[1] , a group of retired CIA officers. It is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".[2]
Ray McGovern established the Sam Adams Associates "to reward intelligence officials who demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity, no matter the consequences."[3]
The 2012, 2013 and 2014 Awards were presented at the Oxford Union.[3][4]

The Sam Adams Award is given annually to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. The Award is given by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence[1] , a group of retired CIA officers. It is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".[2]

Ray McGovern established the Sam Adams Associates "to reward intelligence officials who demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity, no matter the consequences."[3]

The 2012, 2013 and 2014 Awards were presented at the Oxford Union.[3][4]

File:Edward Snowden receives Sam Adams award in Moscow.webm

Edward Snowden receiving the Sam Adams Award in October 2013
Recipients[edit]
2002: Coleen Rowley[5][6]
2003: Katharine Gun, former British intelligence (GCHQ) translator; leaked top-secret information showing illegal US activities during the push for war in Iraq[7]
2004: Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator; fired after accusing FBI officials of ignoring intelligence pointing to al-Qaeda attacks against the US[8]
2005: Craig Murray[5]
2006: Samuel Provance, former US Army military intelligence sergeant; spoke out about abuses at the Abu Ghraib Prison[9]
2007: Andrew Wilkie, retired Australian intelligence official; claimed intelligence was being exaggerated to justify Australian support for the US invasion of Iraq[8]
2008: Frank Grevil, Danish whistleblower; leaked classified information showing no clear evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq[10]
2009: Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraq War critic.[5]
2010: Julian Assange, editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks[11][12]
2011: Thomas Andrews Drake, former senior executive of the US NSA; Jesselyn Radack, former ethics adviser to the US Department of Justice[13]
2012: Thomas Fingar, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council[2]
2013: Edward Snowden, leaked NSA material showing mass surveillance by the agency, sparking heated debate[14][15][16]
2014: Chelsea Manning[17][18]