Edward Snowden,in full Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983,Elizabeth City, North Carolina, U.S.),American intelligence contractor who in 2013 revealed the existence of secret wide-ranging information-gathering programs conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).

Snowden was born in North Carolina, and his family moved to central Maryland, a short distance from NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, when he was a child. He dropped out of high school and studied intermittently between 1999 and 2005 at a community college; he completed a GED but did not receive a college degree. He enlisted in the army reserve as a special forces candidate in May 2004, but he was discharged four months later. In 2005 he worked as a security guard at the Center for Advanced Study of Language, a University of Maryland research facility affiliated with the NSA. Despite a relative lack of formal education and training, Snowden demonstrated an aptitude with computers, and he was hired by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2006. He was given a top secret clearance and in 2007 was posted to Geneva, where he worked as a network security technician under a diplomatic cover.

Snowden left the CIA for the NSA in 2009. There he worked as a private contractor for the companies Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton. During this time, he began gathering information on a number of NSA activitiesmost notably, secret surveillance programs that he believed were overly broad in size and scope. In May 2013 Snowden requested a medical leave of absence and flew to Hong Kong, where during the following month he conducted a series of interviews with journalists from the newspaper The Guardian. Footage filmed during that period was featured in the documentary Citizenfour (2014). Among the NSA secrets leaked by Snowden was a court order that compelled telecommunications company Verizon to turn over metadata (such as numbers dialed and duration of calls) for millions of its subscribers. Snowden also disclosed the existence of PRISM, a data-mining program that reportedly gave the NSA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Government Communications HeadquartersBritains NSA equivalentdirect access to the servers of such Internet giants as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple.

On June 9, 2013, days after stories were initially published in The Guardian and The Washington Post without revealing the identity of their source, Snowden came forward, stating that he felt no need to hide because he had done nothing wrong. In a subsequent interview with the South China Morning Post, he claimed that the NSA had been hacking into Chinese computers since 2009 and that he had taken a job with Booz Allen Hamilton expressly to obtain information about secret NSA activities. The U.S. charged Snowden with espionage on June 14, and Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Eric Holder, began negotiating with authorities in Hong Kong in an attempt to initiate extradition procedures. The Hong Kong government declined to act, and Snowden, with the assistance of the media organization WikiLeaks, flew to Moscow, where his exact whereabouts became the source of intense speculation. Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin confirmed that Snowden, whose passport had been revoked by the U.S., remained within the confines of the international transit zone of Moscows Sheremetyevo airport.

Putin resolutely stated that Russia would take no part in his extradition to the United States, and Snowden applied for asylum in some 20 countries, including Russia. Putin also made clear that he did not wish for Snowdens presence to damage relations with the United States, and he said that if Snowden wished to remain in Russia, he must stop his work aimed at bringing harm to our American partners. After having spent more than a month in the Sheremetyevo transit zone, Snowden was granted temporary refugee status by Russia, and he left the airport in the company of a WikiLeaks staffer.

Although U.S. Pres. Barack Obama was critical of Snowdens methods, in August 2013 he announced the creation of an independent panel to examine the U.S. governments surveillance practices. That panels findings, published in December 2013, recommended that the mass collection of telephone records be suspended and advised greater oversight of sensitive programs, such as those targeting friendly foreign leaders. Obama acted on a number of these suggestions and recommended congressional review of others, but the role of the NSA and its data-collection efforts remained a bone of contention between the intelligence community and privacy advocates. In April 2014 The Guardian U.S. and The Washington Post were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service for their roles in reporting on the NSA leaks. Snowden characterized the award as a vindication of his efforts to bring the secret surveillance programs to light.

In August 2014, as Snowdens grant of temporary asylum expired, the Russian government awarded him a three-year residence permit (effective August 1), which would allow him to leave the country for up to three months. He was also granted the opportunity to request an extension of that permit and, after five years of residence, to apply for Russian citizenship should he choose to do so.

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Edward Snowden - Britannica.com

Weve fact-checked statements in the media about Edward Snowden and the NSA before, but by far the biggest falsehood being spread by government advocates is the alleged fact that he took 1.7 million documents from the NSA.

All the parties involvedSnowden, the journalists, and even the governmenteither deny it or have said they have no reason to believe it is true, yet it has become the go-to number when discussing Snowden's case. It's time news organizations start issuing corrections.

Glenn Greenwald wrote about this last week, showing that news outlets have taken the statement by an NSA official on 60 Minutes that Snowdenat one point or another in his careeraccessed or touched millions of documents and warped it into a claim that hed stolen that many:

Ever since then, that Snowden stole 1.7 or 1.8 million documents from the NSA has been repeated over and over again by US media outlets as verified fact. The Washington Posts Walter Pincus, citing an anonymous official source, purported to tell readers that among the roughly 1.7 million documents he walked away with the vast majority of which have not been made public are highly sensitive, specific intelligence reports. Reuters frequently includes in its reports the unchallenged assertion that Snowden was believed to have taken 1.7 million computerized documents. Just this week, the global news agency told its readers that Snowden was believed to have taken 1.7 million computerized documents.

As Greenwald pointed out, in an interview given to the Australian Financial Review, former NSA chief Keith Alexander was asked point blank if the NSA can really say how many documents Snowden took. Here's what he said:

Well, I dont think anybody really knows what he actually took with him, because the way he did it, we dont have an accurate way of counting. What we do have an accurate way of counting is what he touched, what he may have downloaded, and that was more than a million documents.

Read that again. They do not know how many documents he took. But this actually isnt anything new, weve known this for months. After the New York Times reported Snowden accessed 1.7 million files in February, they also wrote, albeit a dozen paragraphs later, that DIA head General Michael Flynn admitted in Congressional testimony they still had a great deal of uncertainty about what Mr. Snowden possessed. Everything that he touched, we assume that he took, said General Flynn. In other words, they have no idea.

Despite these known facts, even this week, the Wall Street Journal has published an incredibly irresponsible piece by Edward Jay Epstein, who based an entire op-ed around the false 1.7 million statement as a way to claim that Snowden is working for a foreign goverment. And look what happens when you Google the phrase Snowden 1.7 million: He either took, has, or stole nearly 2 million documents is all over the entire front page.

So to sum up, Edward Snowden has said the number is made up, the journalists involved deny they have 1.7 million documents, and the government has stated multiple times they do not know how many documents he took. Literally no party in the NSA story believes the 1.7 million number is true, yet most media organizations claim its a fact.

We look forward to Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and others who have been peddling this fictitious number issuing corrections.

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edward snowden - Boing Boing

I've been following the Edward Snowden saga since it started, and following NSA, the IC, and the national security state since the early 1990s. I had to read this book, as Glenn Greenwald had a critical role in bringing Snowden's materials to the public, and I wanted to see if he had anything new to say.

In one way, the book is very good. If you aren't terribly familiar with the situation, he provides a decent overview, and some new slides which illustrate what NSA has been doing (particularly since 9/11) and why it's bad. A particularly strong area is explaining why the "terrorism" justification is only a pretext, and the true purpose of domestic surveillance is controlling political and cultural rivals.

However, if you're completely familiar with everything published to date, there really isn't much new in this book. The only new material, aside from yet more slides about classified programs, is a bit more detail into how the pre-publication review process worked (or didn't work), and some inside baseball about the media itself. This is interesting, but ultimately not compelling. It's a pretty short book, too.

If you are deeply interested in the media and its handling of the national security state, or just want to read everything possible on the topic, sure, this is a good enough book.

If you are a general interest person who just wants an overview of the Snowden situation and its import, I would recommend the PBS Frontline "United States of Secrets", which is an excellent overview with much stronger interviews with Thomas Drake, William Binney, etc. than I'd seen in the media before.

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No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S ...

Senior Project Manager WSIB September 2008 February 2012 (3 years 6 months)Toronto, Canada Area

Effective July 30, 2011, project management for the Outlook Migration Project that include migrating the corporate enterprise from Lotus Notes email/calendaring to MS Outlook 2010. This was an off and on project with lack of management commitment. Inherited a project with no structure or standard documentation. Created structure and implemented based upon a new project charter, communications plan, risk management plan as well as a issues management and change management plans. Converted half of the end-users in three months.

Project Management for the External Webmail Pilot.

Was the technical project manager for the Mandatory Coverage project that includes the development, quality assurance, application testing and implementation of the following eService applications - eClearance, eRegistration and C&RP Conversion to ePremium application. Upgraded Web Access and Portal Integration (SSO) application. As part of this project, led the building of the Shared Infrastructure (IT environment - unix servers and mainframe application,oracle portal) for all application testing environments and the development and implementation of each of these web-based applications.

ICAM Release I program involved getting a program back on track that was a considerable number of business days behind schedule. Within two days had program back on track and build the necessary testing and production infrastructure. Shared implementation role with IBM project manager.

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Edward Snowden | LinkedIn

The Norway national broadcaster NRK released letters the FBI sent northern European countries requesting extradition of Edward Snowden if he claimed asylum after 2013 leak. Photograph: AP

The FBI demanded that Scandinavian countries arrest and extradite Edward Snowden if he flew to any of those countries and claimed asylum, newly released official documents reveal.

In the summer of 2013 the whistleblower had left his hotel in Hong Kong and was holed up in Moscow airport applying to various countries, including Norway, for asylum after leaking to the Guardian a massive cache of documents disclosing the shocking extent of US and British surveillance of digital communications.

Suspecting that Snowden might seek asylum in Scandinavia, the FBI wrote from the US embassy in Copenhagen to the police forces of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland to inform them that the US Department of Justice had charged Snowden with theft and espionage, and issued a provisional warrant for his arrest, according to documents released by Norways national broadcaster NRK.

The US Department of Justice is prepared to immediately draft the necessary paperwork to request the extradition of Snowden to the US from whichever country he travels to from Moscow, the letter, dated 27 June, states. The FBI expresses its gratitude for any assistance that can be provided on this important matter.

In a separate letter to the Norwegian foreign ministry on the same day, the US embassy in Oslo spelled out its request that the government of Norway should effectuate the return of Mr Snowden to the United States by way of denial of entry, deportation, expulsion or other legal means.

In a subsequent letter dated 4 July the embassy repeated its request that Snowden be arrested and extradited to the US under the 1977 extradition treaty between the two countries.

Snowdens lawyer Ben Wizner told NRK he suspects that the US sent similar documents to most of Europe and other countries at the time.

Snowden has been invited to Norway next week to receive the Bjrnson Prize from the Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Expression, but he decided not to travel because he could not receive guarantees from the Norwegian government that he would not be extradited, the academy told NRK.

The Norwegian government said it had not replied to the requests from the FBI and the US embassy in Oslo to extradite Snowden because he had not come to Norway.

Julian Assange, the whistleblowing journalist wanted by the US for leaking thousands of diplomatic and military communications, sought asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London three years ago because of his fears of extradition to the US should he comply with Swedish demands to travel to Stockholm for interrogation over sexual assault allegations. Sweden has declined to issue a guarantee of his safety, arguing that Assange would be adequately protected by human rights legislation.

Informed by the Guardian about the NRK revelations, Thomas Olsson, one of Julian Assanges legal team in Stockholm, said: This shows the Americans are very determined to get their hands on people that they think have damaged their security or a threat to security policy, and that includes of course Julian Assange.

A spokesperson for the Swedish police said the FBIs request was a matter for the Prosecution Authority, which stated: Normally the Swedish Prosecution Authority gets involved after a person is apprehended and the police need to contact a prosecutor in order to get the suspected under detention. The decision regarding extradition is taken by the Swedish government.

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FBI demanded Scandinavian countries arrest Edward Snowden ...