In the summer of 2013, a 29-year-old NSA analyst leaked thousands of documents to journalists at The Guardian and The Washington Post, launching a series of investigative articles that would change the way the world sees American spies forever.

Six years later, the leaker, Edward Snowden, is living under the protection of Vladimir Putins government in Russia. That, Snowden said as he sat down with Motherboard for our latest episode of the CYBER podcast, was a bit unexpected.

Growing up in the intelligence community, Russia is just this terrifying placeits Mordor, Snowden said, explaining that while he wasnt surprised to end up overseas, he did not expect to end up where he is.

I expected life was going to be a lot harder, Snowden said, laughing a bit nervously. I expected to end up in Guantanamo.

And in some ways, he added, life has actually become quite normal.

Snowden said that hes frustrated that people talk about him as if hes in hiding, but hes just sitting in his apartment in Moscow. The former NSA analyst reflected that his original plan was to flee to Ecuador and seek asylum there. And if John Kerry, the then Secretary of State, had not cancelled his passport when he got to Russia, I would be in Guantanamo right now or dead, given that Ecuador gave Assange up.

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The leaker also reflected on his current role as a media figure, admitting that, at this point, what he does and says is not that relevant anymore.

I dont matter, Snowden said, arguing that at this point he has no control over what he leaked, and no real impact on what happens to those documents. What happens to me doesnt really matter.

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Edward Snowden: Without Russian Asylum, I Would Be in ...

When Edward Snowden was stranded in a Russian airport, before the government of Vladimir Putin granted him asylum, he turned to WikiLeaks and their lawyers for help. Since then, Snowden has inevitably been linked to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.

Naturally, when Snowden sat down with CYBER host Ben Makuch, we asked him what he thought about Assanges case. For Snowden, the story about Assanges arrest should focus more on Ecuadors motivations, and the fact that Assange is being held to a different standard than president Donald Trump. The former NSA analyst mentioned the fact that Ecuador got $4.2 billion in funds from the International Monetary Fund in early March as a sign the country was getting closer to the West, and in turn more inclined to give up Assange.

Journalists who have been covering the story havent really been looking at that, because Julian as an individual is such a tragically flawed figure, Snowden said.

Snowden also criticized people who changed their minds about Assange after the 2016 election.

A lot of Americans now hate Julian, he said. Even though the sort of people who are on the center to the left part of the spectrum had been singing his praises during the Bush administration, now theyre on the other side because of his unfortunate political choices in the 2016 elections.

Yet, Snowden defended Assanges journalism work in the lead up to the 2016 elections, arguing the leaked emails, which major media companies covered, showed that the Democratic Party tried to favor Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders. That, Snowden said, had profound public interest.

As Motherboard reported last week, the Department of Justice says that it isnt positive that Assange helped whistleblower Chelsea Manning crack a password hash in order to obtain cables related to the Iraq War, but that hes being charged with that crime anyway. Snowden juxtaposed his treatment with that of Trumps treatment in Robert Muellers report.

Mueller says it didnt actually result in obstruction because the people that Trump ordered to do this simply ignored him, Snowden said. The DOJs defense of not charging Trump is look he tried to commit a crime but he failed to actually do this. And at the same time theyre charging Julian Assange under precisely the opposite theory. Where they say Look, Julian may not have actually cracked a passwordwe dont have any evidence that he did, were not even going to try to prove that he did, were going to say that the agreement to try is enough.

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So this is a real question of a two-tiered system of justice. Where if youre the president and you try to commit a crime, you can skate, he added. Why is it that journalists are being held to a higher standard of behavior than the president of the United States?

Finally, Snowden attacked the Department of Justice for charging Assange with conspiracy to crack a password, a pretty low level infraction relative to the things Assange has been accused of in his life.

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Edward Snowden: Assanges Arrest and the Mueller Report Show ...

Edward Snowden, the worlds most wanted geek, has helped develop plans for a smartphone case that could stop people becoming victims of digital surveillance.

In an online paper called Against The Law: Countering Lawful Abuses of Digital Surveillance, Snowden and Andrew Bunnie Huang outline plans to create a smartphone case that is able to display a notification and spark an alarm when the phones cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other radio connections are sending and receiving data. It will also feature a kill switch that can forcibly disconnectpower to the phone if a signal is seen to be transmitting information without the users permission or knowledge. The case also obscures the rear camera lens to prevent the recording of videos.

The design is said to be able to work for any type of smartphone, although their paper was based around an iPhone 6. They have also made the plans for the device an open source so anyone can create it.

Snowden and Bunnie concluded the paper by saying if their prototypes are a success they will look to the Freedom of the Press Foundation to potentially fund production of them.

The inside of the modified iPhone that Edward Snowden and Andrew Huang toyed around. Image credit:Edward Snowden and Andrew Huang

It is primarily intended toprotect journalists, particularly those reporting from war zones or corresponding under regimes with strict censorship.For the many people working and living in these high-risk situations, this could be life-saving.In 2012, Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochli were killed after Syrian government forces were allegedly able to trace their position from their phones.

Speaking to WIRED, Snowden said that he has not carried a smartphone for three years, saying "wireless devices are kind of like kryptonite to me. In 2013, he exposed the extent of the NSAs global surveillance programs. The former-NSA employee is still in temporary asylum in Moscow following the United States filing a criminal complaint against him under the Espionage Act. Although still under threat from the US government, Snowden now leads the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit organization that hopes to raise public awareness about surveillance operations of governments and corporations, as well as offering support for journalists exposing governments.

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Edward Snowden Designs Phone Case That Shows When It Is Being ...

HONG KONG When the 42-year-old Filipino woman opened the door of her tiny Hong Kong apartment three years ago, two lawyers stood outside with a man she had never seen before. They explained that he needed a place to hide, and they introduced him as Edward Snowden.

The first time I see him, I dont know who he is, the woman, Vanessa Mae Bondalian Rodel, recalled in an interview. I dont have any idea.

Ms. Rodel is one of at least four residents of Hong Kong who took in Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, when he fled the United States in June 2013. Only now have they decided to speak about the experience, revealing a new chapter in the odyssey that riveted the world after Mr. Snowden disclosed that the N.S.A. had been monitoring the calls, emails and web activity of millions of Americans and others.

At the time, governments and news outlets were scrambling to find the source of the leaks, which were published in The Guardian and The Washington Post. In an interview recorded in a hotel room, Mr. Snowden identified himself and revealed that he was in Hong Kong. Then he went into hiding. About two weeks later he turned up in Moscow.

It was never clear where Mr. Snowden was holed up during those critical days after leaving his room at the five-star Mira Hotel, when the United States was demanding his return. As it turns out, he was staying with Ms. Rodel and others like her men and women seeking political asylum in Hong Kong who live in cramped, substandard apartment blocks in some of the citys poorest districts.

They were all clients of one of Mr. Snowdens Hong Kong lawyers, Robert Tibbo, who arranged for him to stay with them.

Ms. Rodel said Mr. Snowden slept in her bedroom while she and her 1-year-old daughter moved into their apartments only other room. Not knowing what he would eat, she bought him an Egg McMuffin and an iced tea from McDonalds.

My first impression of his face was that he was scared, very worried, she recalled.

Ms. Rodel said her unexpected guest was using his computer all day, all night. She said that she did not have internet service but that Mr. Tibbo provided him with mobile access.

On Mr. Snowdens second day there, he asked Ms. Rodel whether she could buy him a copy of The South China Morning Post, the citys main English-language newspaper, she said. When she picked up the paper, she saw his picture on the front page.

Oh my God, unbelievable, she recalled saying to herself. The most wanted man in the world is in my house.

Jonathan Man, another of Mr. Snowdens lawyers in Hong Kong, said that he had initially considered hiding him in a warehouse but that he and Mr. Tibbo quickly dismissed the idea. Instead, after taking him to the United Nations office that handles refugee claims in Hong Kong and filing an application, they brought him to the apartment of a client seeking asylum.

It was clear that if Mr. Snowden was placed with a refugee family, this was the last place the government and the majority of Hong Kong society would expect him to be, Mr. Tibbo said. Nobody would look for him there. Even if they caught a glimpse of him, it was highly unlikely that they would recognize him.

There are about 11,000 registered asylum seekers living in Hong Kong, mostly from South and Southeast Asia. They generally cannot work legally and receive monthly stipends that rarely cover living costs.

Mr. Tibbo said he turned to these clients for help in part because he expected them to understand Mr. Snowdens plight. These were people who went through the same process when they were fleeing other countries, he said. They had to rely on other people for refuge, safety, comfort and support.

He noted that Mr. Snowden was not wanted by the Hong Kong police at the time and that he had advised his clients to cooperate with the police if they showed up. He said his clients had decided to come forward in the hope that the publicity would put pressure on the Hong Kong authorities to expedite their applications for refugee status and resettlement.

Ms. Rodel, who declined to say why she could not return to the Philippines, has been waiting nearly six years for a final decision on her application.

After a few days with Ms. Rodel and her daughter, Mr. Snowden spent a night with Ajith Pushpakumara, 44, who said he fled to Hong Kong after being chained to a wall and tortured for deserting the army in his native Sri Lanka.

Mr. Pushpakumara said he had listened to online radio broadcasts about Mr. Snowden and was surprised to suddenly find him in the dingy apartment that he shared with several men. He realized Mr. Snowden was in the same situation he was, hiding in a small room. I was worried about him, he said.

Supun Thilina Kellapatha, his wife and their toddler also sheltered Mr. Snowden, putting him up for about three days in their 250-square-foot apartment.

Mr. Kellapatha, 32, who said he sought protection in Hong Kong after being tortured in Sri Lanka, described their guest as a tired man who was unfailingly polite.

He said, You are a good man, when he arrived at the apartment, Mr. Kellapatha recalled. But I feel he is better than me, because he respected me.

Mr. Kellapatha and his wife, Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis, said they were not worried about hosting Mr. Snowden. I dont think I take the risk, he said. He is the one who take the big risk.

When Mr. Snowden left, he left the couple $200 under a pillow, which they said they used to buy necessities for their daughter. Sometimes I tell Supun, maybe he forgot us, Ms. Nonis said. I want to tell him: Edward, how are you? We will never forget you.

After fleeing Hong Kong, Mr. Snowden was granted asylum in Russia. He has been unable to leave that country because he is wanted on espionage charges in the United States, but he routinely speaks to the press and at international conferences on government surveillance and civil liberties via video conference. A feature film about his life is set to open later this month.

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After Edward Snowden Fled U.S., Asylum Seekers in Hong Kong ...

20 May Edward Snowden, an employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton at the National Security Agency, arrives in Hong Kong from Hawaii. He carries four laptop computers that enable him to gain access to some of the US government's most highly-classified secrets.

1 June Guardian journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill and documentary maker Laura Poitras fly from New York to Hong Kong. They meet Snowden in a Kowloon hotel after he identifies himself with a Rubik's cube and begin a week of interviews with their source.

5 June The Guardian publishes its first exclusive based on Snowden's leak, revealing a secret court order showing that the US government had forced the telecoms giant Verizon to hand over the phone records of millions of Americans.

6 June A second story reveals the existence of the previously undisclosed programme Prism, which internal NSA documents claim gives the agency "direct access" to data held by Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants. The tech companies deny that they have set up "back door access" to their systems for the US government.

7 June Barack Obama defends the two programmes, saying they are overseen by the courts and Congress. Insisting that "the right balance" had been struck between security and privacy, he says: "You can't have 100% security, and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience."

The Guardian reports that GCHQ has been able to see user communications data from the American internet companies, because it had access to Prism.

8 June Another of Snowden's leaks reveals the existence of an internal NSA tool Boundless Informant that allows it to record and analyse where its data comes from, and raises questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communications.

9 June Snowden decides to go public. In a video interview he says: "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong."

10 June Snowden checks out of his Hong Kong hotel.

12 June Hong Kong's South China Morning Post publishes the first interview with Snowden since he revealed his identity. He says he intends to stay in the city until asked to leave and discloses that the NSA has been hacking into Hong Kong and Chinese computers since 2009.

14 June The Home Office instructs airlines not to allow Snowden to board any flights to the UK.

16 June The Guardian reports that GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians' communications at the 2009 G20 summit.

20 June Top secret documents published by the Guardian show how US judges have signed off on broad orders allowing the NSA to make use of information "inadvertently" collected from domestic US communications without a warrant.

21 June A Guardian exclusive reveals that GCHQ has gained access to the network of cables which carry the world's phone calls and internet traffic and is processing vast streams of sensitive personal information it shares with the NSA. The US files espionage charges against Snowden and requests that Hong Kong detain him for extradition.

23 June Snowden leaves Hong Kong on a flight to Moscow. In a statement, the Hong Kong government says documents submitted by the US did not "fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law" and it had no legal basis to prevent him leaving. Snowden arrives in Moscow. In a statement, WikiLeaks said it was assisting him, in part by providing adviser Sarah Harrison as an escort, and said he was heading to a democratic country, believed to be Ecuador, "via a safe route".

24 June Journalists board a flight from Moscow to Havana amid reports Snowden is about to board but he doesn't.

25 June Barack Obama vows to extradite Snowden while John Kerry, US Secretary of State, urges Russia to hand him over.

25 June Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claims Snowden never crossed the border into Russia. But Putin later says Snowden is at Sheremetyevo airport and is free to leave Russia.

26 June Putin says Snowden will not be extradited to America. He denies that his security services had contacted Snowden.

26 June Ecuador warns that it may take months to decide whether to offer Snowden asylum, pointing out that it took two months to decide whether to do so in the case of Julian Assange.

26 June Hong Kong claims, amid growing Sino-American tensions, that the US got Snowden's middle name wrong in documents submitted for his arrest.

27 June Obama declares he will not spend much geopolitical capital on apprehending Snowden. He also claims that he hasn't spoken to Russia nor China about extradition.

27 June Ecuador maintains its defiant stance, renouncing the Andean Trade Preference Act it has with America. The country also offered the US $23m (15m) for human rights training.

28 June President Rafael Correa of Ecuador revokes Snowden's safe conduct pass amid irritation that Assange was taking over the role of the Ecuadorean government.

29 June Correa reveals that US vice-president Joe Biden asked him to turn down Snowden's asylum request.

1 July A consular official in Russia reveals that Snowden has applied for asylum there. WikiLeaks later reveal that he has applied for asylum in a further 20 countries, amongst them France, Germany, Ireland, China and Cuba.

1 July Snowden releases a statement through the WikiLeaks website in which he claims that he left Hong Kong because "my freedom and safety were under threat". He says it is hypocritical of Obama to promise no "wheeling and dealing" but then instruct Biden to encourage other nations to deny him asylum.

2 July Snowden retracts his request for Russian asylum after Putin says he must stop "bringing harm" to US interests. Meanwhile Brazil, India, Norway and Poland refuse Snowden asylum, while Ecuador, Austria, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Switzerland say he has to apply from their countries.

2 July Lon Snowden, Edward Snowden's father, and his father's attorney, Bruce Fein, pen an open letter to Edward Snowden praising him, comparing him to Paul Revere and noting the US supreme court decision that "statelessness is not to be imposed as a punishment for crime".

2 July Bolivia throws its hat into the ring with president Evo Morales declaring on Russian television that he would "shield the denounced".

3 July Morales's plane, en route from Moscow to Bolivia, is forced to land in Vienna after other European countries refused it airspace, suspecting that Snowden was on board. Bolivian vice-president Alvaro Garcia says Morales was "kidnapped by imperialism".

3 July Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay and Bolivia denounce the treatment of Morales, who was held in Vienna airport for 12 hours while his plane was searched for Snowden. Bolivia files a complaint at the UN.

3 July UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon says that Snowden misused his rights to digital access and created problems greater than the public benefit of disclosure.

4 July Morales calls the rerouting of his flight an "open provocation" of "north American imperialism" and urges some European countries to "free themselves" from America.

4 July Ecuador distances itself from Snowden saying that he is under Russia's authority and would have to reach Ecuador before being granted asylum. Correa said the Ecuadorean consul acted without authority when it issued Snowden a temporary travel pass.

5 July The Washington Post, despite having published stories based on Snowden's leaks, now writes that he should be prevented "from leaking information that harms efforts to fight terrorism and conduct legitimate intelligence operations".

6 July Nicols Maduro, the president of Venezuela, says he has decided "to offer humanitarian asylum" to Snowden. Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega says he could accept Snowden's asylum request "if circumstances permit".

7 July Alexei Pushkov, chair of the Duma's foreign affairs committee, tweets that Venezuela's asylum offer may be Snowden's "last chance" to avoid extradition to the US.

8 July The Guardian releases the second part of its original video interview with Snowden. In this extract Snowden says he believes the US government "are going to say I have committed grave crimes, I have violated the Espionage Act. They are going to say I have aided our enemies".

10 July Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian columnist who has written many of the stories based on Snowden's information, says that Snowden maintains he didn't give classified information to China or Russia, following erroneous claims from the New York Times on 24 June that China had been "draining the contents of his laptop".

July 20 Destruction of Guardian computer equipment after threat of legal action by the UK government.

12 July Snowden sends a letter to human rights groups asking them to meet him at Sheremetyevo airport and claiming there is "an unlawful campaign by officials in the US government to deny my right to seek and enjoy... asylum". At the meeting he says he will be applying for temporary asylum in Russia while he applies for permanent asylum in a Latin American country.

24 July Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer advising Snowden, states that the NSA leaker's asylum status has not been resolved and he will stay at Moscow airport for now. Kucherena claims that Snowden "intends to stay in Russia, study Russian culture", implying perhaps that Snowden may live in Russia for good.

August 1 Guardian publishes the story of secret American funding of GCHQ.

August 18 David Miranda, the partner of Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, held at Heathrow airport.

August 21 Guardian reveals how and why its computer equipment was destroyed.

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Edward Snowden and the NSA files timeline | US news ...

Transcript for Snowden Predicts US Reaction to Leaks

We're going to get the latest on edward snowden, under pressure from the u.S. He may finally be ready to move out of the no-man's land in the moscow airport. But it's not stopped him from speaking out. A new interview with "the guardian" has been released. Brian ross is tracking his every move. Reporter: This could be the week that 30-year-old snowden makes his move out of the moscow airport. Diplomats in venezuela and russia, saying they've received his request for asylum. And it's up to him to choose a flight plan. This morning, snowden remains holed up somewhere near or in Out of sight. But a high-profile problem for the u.S. Now, "the guardian" newspaper has made public, another part of the interview with the one-time nsa employee, who accurately predicted how the revelations of the surveillance programs would be received by the united states. They're going to say i committed grave crimes. Violated the espionage act. They're going to say I've aided our enemies in making them aware of these systems. Reporter: And that is exactly the case the u.S. Has been making, with the latest salvo coming from the white house monday. Again warning other countries there will be serious repercussions for any nation that helps snowden. He's been charged with a felony or felonies. As such, he should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than travel that would result in him returning to the united states. Reporter: The u.S. Says snowden has seriously hurt efforts to fight terrorism, by revealing the methods used to listen in on and track terrorists. Snowden says he did not start out opposing the programs when he went to work in the u.S. Intelligence community. I don't want to live in a world where everything this i say, everything I do, everyone i talk to, every expression of love or friendship is recorded. Reporter: Snowden most likely passed out of russia to venezuela, via the five-time-a-week flight to cuba. That flight left about an hour ago. And he was not on it, according to the personnel staking him out. Even if he gets on one, it will go over u.S. Air space. It does. And president obama says he will not scramble jets to go after the hacker. But there are things the u.S. Could do. Thanks verymuch. To amy robach in for josh, with the rest of the morning's top stories. Good morning, everyone.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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Edward Snowden Alleged NSA Leaker: Snowden Predicts US ...

Edward Snowdenduring an interview in Hong Kong in 2013. (Photo by The Guardian via Getty Images)

One of the people Snowden left behind when he moved to Hong Kong to leak secret NSA files was his girlfriend Lindsay Mills. The pair had been living together in Hawaii, and she reportedly had no idea that he was about to disclose classified information to the public.

Mills graduated from Laurel High School in Maryland in 2003 and the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2007. She began her career as a pole-dancing performance artist while living in Hawaii with Snowden.

In January 2015, Mills joined the Citizenfour documentary team onstage for their Oscars acceptance speech.

As of September 2017, Edward Snowden was still living in Moscow, Russia. However in February 2016 he said that hed return to the U.S. in exchange for a fair trial. In February 2017, NBC News reported that the Russian government was considering handing him over to the U.S. to curry favor with President Donald Trump, although Snowden remains in Russia.

In 2014, Snowden was featured in Laura Poitras' highly acclaimed documentary Citizenfour. The director had recorded her meetings with Snowden and Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald. The film went on to win an Academy Award in 2015. "When the decisions that rule us are taken in secret, we lose the power to control and govern ourselves," said Poitras during her acceptance speech.

In September 2016, director Oliver Stone released a biopic, Snowden, with Edward Snowden's cooperation. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role and Shailene Woodley playing girlfriend Lindsay Mills.

Edward Snowden was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on June 21, 1983. His mother works for the federal court in Baltimore (the family moved to Maryland during Snowden's youth) as chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology. Snowden's father, a former Coast Guard officer, later relocated to Pennsylvania and remarried.

Edward Snowden dropped out of high school and studied computers at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland (from 1999 to 2001, and again from 2004 to 2005).

Between his stints at community college, Snowden spent four months from May to September 2004 in special-forces training in the Army Reserves, but he did not complete his training. Snowden told The Guardian that he was discharged from the Army after he broke both his legs in a training accident. However, an unclassified report published on September 15, 2016 by the House Intelligence Committee refuted his claim, stating: He claimed to have left Army basic training because of broken legs when in fact he washed out because of shin splints.

Snowden eventually landed a job as a security guard at the University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Study of Language. The institution had ties to the National Security Agency, and, by 2006, Snowden had taken an information-technology job at the Central Intelligence Agency.

In 2009, after being suspected of trying to break into classified files, he left to work for private contractors, among them Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton, a tech consulting firm. While at Dell, he worked as a subcontractor in an NSA office in Japan before being transferred to an office in Hawaii. After a short time, he moved from Dell to Booz Allen, another NSA subcontractor, and remained with the company for only three months.

During his years of IT work, Snowden had noticed the far reach of the NSA's everyday surveillance. While working for Booz Allen, Snowden began copying top-secret NSA documents, building a dossier on practices that he found invasive and disturbing. The documents contained vast information on the NSA's domestic surveillance practices.

After he had compiled a large store of documents, Snowden told his NSA supervisor that he needed a leave of absence for medical reasons, stating he had been diagnosed with epilepsy. On May 20, 2013, Snowden took a flight to Hong Kong, China, where he remained as he orchestrated a clandestine meeting with journalists from the U.K. publication The Guardian as well as filmmaker Laura Poitras.

On June 5, The Guardian released secret documents obtained from Snowden. In these documents, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court implemented an order that required Verizon to release information to the NSA on an "ongoing, daily basis" culled from its American customers' phone activities.

The following day, The Guardian and The Washington Post released Snowden's leaked information on PRISM, an NSA program that allows real-time information collection electronically. A flood of information followed, and both domestic and international debate ensued.

"I'm willing to sacrifice [my former life] because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," Snowden said in interviews given from his Hong Kong hotel room.

The fallout from his disclosures continued to unfold over the next months, including a legal battle over the collection of phone data by the NSA. President Obama sought to calm fears over government spying in January 2014, ordering U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review the country's surveillance programs.

The U.S. government soon responded to Snowden's disclosures legally. On June 14, 2013, federal prosecutors charged Snowden with "theft of government Property," "unauthorized communication of national defense information" and "willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person."

The last two charges fall under the Espionage Act. Before President Barack Obama took office, the act had only been used for prosecutorial purposes three times since 1917. Since President Obama took office, the act had been invoked seven times as of June 2013.

While some decried Snowden as a traitor, others supported his cause. More than 100,000 people signed an online petition asking President Obama to pardon Snowden by late June 2013.

Snowden remained in hiding for slightly more than a month. He initially planned to relocate to Ecuador for asylum, but, upon making a stopover, he became stranded in a Russian airport for a month when his passport was annulled by the American government. The Russian government denied U.S. requests to extradite Snowden.

In July 2013, Snowden made headlines again when it was announced that he had been offered asylum in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Snowden soon made up his mind, expressing an interest in staying in Russia. One of his lawyers, Anatoly Kucherena, stated that Snowden would seek temporary asylum in Russia and possibly apply for citizenship later. Snowden thanked Russia for giving him asylum and said that "in the end the law is winning."

That October, Snowden stated that he no longer possessed any of the NSA files that he leaked to the press. He gave the materials to the journalists he met with in Hong Kong, but he didn't keep copies for himself. Snowden explained that "it wouldn't serve the public interest" for him to have brought the files to Russia, according to The New York Times. Around this time, Snowden's father, Lon, visited his son in Moscow and continued to publicly express support.

In November 2013, Snowden's request to the U.S. government for clemency was rejected.

In exile, Snowden remained a polarizing figure who has remained outspoken about government surveillance. He made an appearance at the popular South by Southwest festival via teleconference in March 2014. Around this time, the U.S. military revealed that the information Snowden leaked may have caused billions of dollars in damage to its security structures.

In May 2014, Snowden gave a revealing interview with NBC News. He told Brian Williams that he was a trained spy who worked undercover as an operative for the CIA and NSA, an assertion denied by National Security Adviser Susan Rice in a CNN interview. Snowden explained that he viewed himself as a patriot, believing his actions had beneficial results. He stated that his leaking of information led to "a robust public debate" and "new protections in the United States and abroad for our rights to make sure they're no longer violated." He also expressed an interest in returning home to America.

Snowden appeared with Poitras and Greenwald via video-conference in February 2015. Earlier that month, Snowden spoke with students at Upper Canada College via video-conference. He told them that "the problem with mass surveillance is when you collect everything, you understand nothing." He also stated that government spying "fundamentally changes the balance of power between the citizen and the state."

On September 29, 2015, Snowden joined the social media platform Twitter, tweeting "Can you hear me now?" He had almost two million followers in a little over 24 hours.

Just a few days later, Snowden spoke to the New Hampshire Liberty Forum via Skype and stated he would be willing to return to the U.S. if the government could guarantee a fair trial.

On September 13, 2016, Snowden said in an interview with The Guardian that he would seek a pardon from President Obama. Yes, there are laws on the books that say one thing, but that is perhaps why the pardon power exists for the exceptions, for the things that may seem unlawful in letters on a page but when we look at them morally, when we look at them ethically, when we look at the results, it seems these were necessary things, these were vital things, he said in the interview.

The next day various human rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International launched a campaign requesting that Obama pardon Snowden.

Appearing via a telepresence robot, Snowden expressed gratitude for the support. "I love my country. I love my family," he said. "I don't know where we're going from here. I don't know what tomorrow looks like. But I'm glad for the decisions I've made. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined, three years ago, such an outpouring of solidarity."

He also emphasized that his case resonates beyond him. "This really isnt about me," he said. "Its about us. Its about our right to dissent. Its about the kind of country we want to have."

A day later, on September 15th, the House Intelligence Committee released a three-page unclassified summary of a report about its two-year investigation into Snowdens case. In the summary, Snowden was characterized as a disgruntled employee who had frequent conflicts with his managers, a serial exaggerator and fabricator and not a whistle-blower.

Snowden caused tremendous damage to national security, and the vast majority of the documents he stole have nothing to do with programs impacting individual privacy interests they instead pertain to military, defense and intelligence programs of great interest to Americas adversaries, the summary of the report stated.

Members of the committee also unanimously signed a letter to President Obama asking him not to pardon Snowden. We urge you not to pardon Edward Snowden, who perpetrated the largest and most damaging public disclosure of classified information in our nations history, the letter stated. If Mr. Snowden returns from Russia, where he fled in 2013, the U.S. government must hold him accountable for his actions.

Snowden responded on Twitter saying: "Their report is so artlessly distorted that it would be amusing if it weren't such a serious act of bad faith." He followed with a series of tweets refuting the committee's claims and said: "I could go on. Bottom line: after 'two years of investigation,' the American people deserve better. This report diminishes the committee."

Snowden also tweeted that the release of the committee's summary was an effort to discourage people from watching the biopic Snowden, which was released in the United States on September 16, 2016.

In April 2014, well before becoming president, Donald Trump tweeted that Edward Snowden should be executed for the damage his leaks had caused to the U.S.

Following President Trumps election, in November 2016, Snowden told viewers of a teleconference in Sweden that he wasnt worried about the government increasing efforts to arrest him.

I dont care. The reality here is that yes, Donald Trump has appointed a new director of the Central Intelligence Agency who uses me as a specific example to say that, look, dissidents should be put to death. But if I get hit by a bus, or a drone, or dropped off an airplane tomorrow, you know what? It doesnt actually matter that much to me, because I believe in the decisions that Ive already made, Snowden said.

In an open letter from May 2017, Snowden joined 600 activists urging President Trump to drop an investigation and any potential charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for his role in classified intelligence leaks.

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Edward Snowden - biography.com

Edward Snowden

Snowden in Moscow, October 9, 2013

Edward Snowden in popular culture is part of the reactions to global surveillance disclosures made by Edward Snowden. His impact as a public figure has been felt in cinema, advertising, video games, literature, music, statuary, and social media.

Snowden's passage through Hong Kong inspired a local production team to produce a low-budget five-minute film titled Verax. The film, depicting the time Snowden spent hiding in the Mira Hotel while being unsuccessfully tracked by the CIA and China's Ministry of State Security, was uploaded to YouTube in June 2013.[1][2]

A dramatic thriller, Classified: The Edward Snowden Story, was released on September 19, 2014. This feature-length film, which was crowdfunded and offered as a free download, was directed by Jason Bourque and produced by Travis Doering. Actor Kevin Zegers played Edward Snowden, Michael Shanks played Glenn Greenwald and Carmen Aguirre played Laura Poitras.[3]

In 2014, film director Oliver Stone bought the rights to Time of the Octopus, a forthcoming novel based on Snowden's life and written by his Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena. Stone said he would use both Kucherena's book and Luke Harding's nonfiction The Snowden Files for the screenplay of his movie, which began production later in 2014.[4] Stone's biopic Snowden, which was released in September 2016, had Snowden portrayed by American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with a short appearance by Snowden himself in the last few minutes of the film. Shortly before release, Stone said that Snowden should be pardoned, calling him a "patriot above all" and suggesting that he should run the NSA himself.[5]

Snowden appears briefly as a character in the 2018 comedy-thriller The Spy Who Dumped Me, in which he is played by British actor Tom Stourton.

On October 10, 2014, Citizenfour, a documentary about Snowden, received its world premiere at the New York Film Festival.[6] Earlier that year, director Laura Poitras told Associated Press she was editing the film in Berlin because she feared her source material would be seized by the government inside the U.S.[7] The two-hour film was shot in various countries, tracing Snowden's time in Hong Kong and Moscow.[8] The film was released in the U.S. and Europe to wide acclaim from critics,[9] and won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[10] Snowden declared in a February 2015 Reddit AMA ("Ask Me Anything") that he had no commercial interest in the film.[11]

In October 2014, Killswitch, a film that features Snowden as well as Aaron Swartz, Lawrence Lessig and Tim Wu, received its world premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Editing. It has since played alongside Citizenfour at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and has continued an international film festival run. The film probes the efforts of big business to control the Internet, the efforts of government to regulate it, the efforts of hacktivists to free up information worldwide and the consequences.[12][13][14]

A second Snowden documentary, titled Snowden's Great Escape, coproduced by Germany's Norddeutscher Rundfunk and Denmark's DR TV, was released in 2015. Filmed in Moscow, it incorporated two new interviews with Snowden and was awarded first prize in the documentaries category by Deutsche Fernsehakademie.[15]

In June 2018 as part of the anniversary of the revelations from Snowden, the documentary "Edward Snowden: Whistleblower or Spy", produced by Signpost Film Productions [16] and GTV, [17] was released on Norwegian, Danish and Dutch Television and is continuing its further international release. The documentary presents interviews with participants and witnesses, some of whom have never before spoken on camera, and aims to incorporate the wide variety of views on the revelations. The documentary had a Festival release on the 4th of October 2018 at the Fraud Film Festival [18] and was shown at the Cyber Security week also on the 4th of October 2018, both in The Netherlands [19].

In the District of Columbia, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), a free speech advocacy group, crowdfunded an ad saying "Thank You Edward Snowden" that was featured on the sides of a D.C. city bus for four weeks in late 2013.[20][21] The PCJF said they received enough support from around the world to sponsor partial ads on five more buses in 2014.[22]

Snowden has been featured in video games[23][24] and has an action figure made in his image. Although not endorsed by Snowden, proceeds from the $99 doll are donated to Freedom of the Press Foundation, where he serves on the board of directors.[25][26]

In May 2014, Beyond: Edward Snowden, a graphic novel by Marvel Comics writer Valerie D'Orazio, illustrated by Dan Lauer, appeared in both print and digital editions as part a new series from Bluewater Productions, which the publisher said would reveal secret and suppressed stories.[27][28]

On February 9, 2015, electronic pop producer Big Data released a song called "Snowed In" that featured vocals from Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo from his debut album, 2.0. The song's lyrics, inspired by Snowden, are told from the perspective of the NSA, alternating between inner dialogue and statements made to the press.[29]

In 2016, Snowden provided the vocals for a track titled "Exit" by digital composer Jean-Michel Jarre. The track interspersed a beat and a few notes with a recorded monologue by Snowden expressing views about digital privacy. Business news publication Quartz described it as "not exactly music" and part of a "gimmicky new wave of political audio".[30]

In 2016, the rock band Thrice released a song titled "Whistleblower" off of the album To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere. The song is written from the perspective of Snowden.[31]

In 2017, Australian Metalcore band Northlane released the song 'Citizen' off of the album "Mesmer". The song's lyrics discuss whisteblowers exposing governments' surveillance of the general population, and ends with the lyric "Thank you Mr. Snow", directly referring to Snowden.

On the April 5, 2015, episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, John Oliver interviewed Snowden in Moscow.[32][33][34] The next day, activists briefly attached a bust of Snowden to the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, New York City, before being taken down by city officials.[35][36] Hours after the statue was removed, it was replaced by an ephemeral hologram image of Snowden.[37][38][39] Authorities later returned the statue to its artists.[40]

On May Day 2015, an art installation by Italian Davide Dormino titled Anything to Say? was placed in Berlin's Alexanderplatz. It featured bronze sculptures of Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning standing on chairs beside a fourth, empty chair meant as a platform for public speaking.[41][42]

Snowden opened a Twitter account on September 29, 2015, amassing over a million followers in the first 24 hours; he followed only the NSA. His first tweet received 121,728 retweets and 117,750 favorites.

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Edward Snowden in popular culture - Wikipedia

Edward Snowden, the fugitive former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified information from the agency in 2013, condemned Thursday's arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assangeas a "dark day for press freedom."

After being arrested in London, Assange was charged by the U.S. with one count of conspiracy to hack a computer in relation to WikiLeak's 2010 release of thousands of classifieddocuments and videos about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, confidential diplomatic cables and files from Guantanamo Bay about prison camp detainees, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday. The secret government records and communications were stolen by a former U.S. Army Intelligence analyst, now known asChelsea Manning.

The single charge, conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, comes from what prosecutors said wasAssange's agreement to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.The indictmentwas filed in court last year on March 6 and includes no evidence that the password-cracking effort succeeded.

"Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the UK's secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of like it or not award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books," Snowden, who was charged with espionage in 2013 and now lives in Russia under political asylum, wrote on Twitter. "Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom."

Assange has been living in Ecuadorian Embassy in Londonsince 2012, but the country's president, Lenin Moreno, said Thursday that his government had made a "sovereign decision" to rescind Assange's political asylum due to "repeated violations to international conventions and daily life." The founder of the whistleblower website took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy nearly seven years ago toavoidextradition to Sweden, where he faced questions about allegations thathe had sexually molested one woman and rapedanotherin August 2010. Assange hasmaintained his innocence in connection to the sex abuse allegations, which he has cast it as a ploy for his eventual extradition to the U.S.

Snowden on Thursday also shared a message to journalists covering Assange's arrest, asking them to remember that the U.N. had formally ruled Assange's "detention to be arbitrary, a violation of human rights."

"They have repeatedly issued statements calling for him to walk free including very recently," Snowden tweeted.

The NSA whistleblower shared a December 2018 statement from the U.N.'s Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, which noted that U.N. human rights experts had repeated demands that the U.K. abide by its international obligations to allow Assange to "walk free from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London."

Snowden was far from alone in criticizing Assange's arrest.

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said he was "deeply shocked" by news of Assange's arrest, writing on Twitter that "human rights, and especially freedom of expression, are under attack once again in Europe," along with the hashtag #FreeJulianAssange.

"Any prosecution by the United States of Mr. Assange for Wikileaks' publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations," the ACLU said in a statement. "Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest."

Journalist Dan Froomkin said Assange's arrest was "chilling" for his field, while defense and intelligence correspondent Ewen Macaskill noted it sets a "terrible precedent."

Meanwhile, CNN national security and legal analyst Susan Hennessey saidthe charges against Assange are "all good, old-fashioned Computer Fraud and Abuse Act charges. Not much in here that should give journalists anxiety."

And national security lawyer Bradley Moss wrote, "Journalists do not assist sources in cracking passwords. Journalists are actually given legal training tell them NOT to do stuff like that. Assange and his allies can scream about press freedom now all they want, but it's going nowhere. Prosecute away."

"This charge [against Assange] has nothing to do with press freedom,"CNN legal analyst Renato Mariotti tweeted. "It is a crime for anyone to conspire to hack a server."

Tom Winter, a cybersecurity reporter at NBC News, called Thursday's arrest an "important day for journalism students."

"Asking a potential source for what classified information they posses is generally legal," he said. "Offering to help that same source to defeat security systems or break passwords is going to get you on the government's radar."

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Edward Snowden and activists claim Julian Assange's arrest ...

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden on Thursday lamented Julian Assange's arrest by authorities outside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, calling the event "a dark moment" for freedom.

Snowden, 35, who lives in Moscow, Russia under political asylum after he leaked classified information to reporters, made a brief statement via Twitter about the Assange arrest. He linked to a video showing officials entering the embassy and removing a startled-looking Assange.

[ WATCH: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dragged out of Ecuadorian Embassy in London by police]

"Images of Ecuador's ambassador inviting the UK's secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of--like it or not--award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books. Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom," Snowden said.

Snowden has been charged by the Department of Justice on two counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and one charge of stealing property of the U.S. federal government. The Russian government has continuously extended his asylum status for one-year periods since 2013.

Following the Assange arrest, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Putin wants the authorities to respect Assange's basic rights as they move forward with a prosecution.

We of course hope that all of his rights will be observed," Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

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Edward Snowden: Assange's arrest 'a dark moment' for freedom