Snowden: Clapper comments pushed me to become leaker

AFP Snowden: lies pushed me over the edge

Washington (AFP) - Edward Snowden says dishonest comments to Congress by the US intelligence chief were the final straw that prompted him to flee the country and reveal a trove of national security documents.

In an interview with Wired magazine in Moscow, where he sought asylum after the revelations, Snowden said he had long been troubled by the activities of the National Security Agency (NSA), which employed him as a contractor.

But it was only when Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told lawmakers that the agency does "not wittingly" collect data on millions of American citizens that he was angry enough to act.

The magazine released the article online Wednesday, along with several new photographs of the once-elusive Snowden, including a cover shot of the technician lovingly cradling an American flag.

Snowden says he made his decision to leave his office in Hawaii and head to Hong Kong with secret documents on thumb drives after reading in March 2013 about Clapper briefing a Senate committee.

"I think I was reading it in the paper the next day, talking to coworkers, saying, can you believe this...?" Snowden said.

Following his sensational leaks about the scale of US global surveillance and how the NSA sucks up data on US users' phone calls, Clapper apologized to the Senate for his "erroneous" remarks.

Snowden told Wired that he had already thought about "whistle-blowing" several times over the previous few years.

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Snowden: Clapper comments pushed me to become leaker