Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden appears by remote-controlled robot at a TED conference in Vancouver on March 18, 2014.

Photo by GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP/Getty Images

It wasn't the newsiest moment in Edward Snowden's address to TED, which he delivered via video that was streamed through a robot. (Check out the picture.) The news, as ever, was probably Snowden's claim that "some of the most important reporting" on his revelations "is yet to come." This is probably true. The archives of documents stolen by Snowden have been enough to support breaking news at the Washington Post, the Guardian, andPro Publica, to name a few outlets that got some access; an entirely new media company, First Look, was launched on the strength of what Glenn Greenwald, et al. could find in the archives.

So, no, not newsy, but the part of Snowden's Q&A that stuck out to me was his gleeful swipe at Dick Cheney.

This is not the first time Snowden has made fun of Cheney, whose appeal to the D.C. chat circuit has not dimmed even after he helped his daughter make a spectacular hash of a U.S. Senate primary. Last year, Cheney came up on a Guardian chat and Snowden called it an "honor" to be insulted by the guy.

So Snowden, who recently turned 30, is adept at the art of insult trading with political figures. Why does it matter? Well, some of the (embryonic) discussion of whether Snowden should leave Russia and give himself up to American justice comes out of the theory that Snowden should become an advocate for his cause. He has controlled his image like ... well, like a guy who doesn't give out his contact info and lives in a country that American journalists need a visa to visit. In the last few months, he's given interviews to Bart Gellman, SXSW, and TED, all of which 1) broke the news he wanted, 2) avoided the news he didn't (no one has asked him, in a public forum, anything about Russian politics or the Crimean incursion), and 3) allowed him to describe his whistleblowing in heroic terms. In the SXSW interview, he even appeared before a screen blow-up of the Constitution.

Snowden is winning, as shown by the polls and the fumbling responses of American politicians. He's even come up with a reason for his skeptics to distrust the NSA. "If we hack Chinese business and steal its secrets, or those in Berlin, thats of less value to the American people than making sure that the Chinese cant get access to our secrets," he said at TED. "In reducing the security of our own communications, theyre putting us at risk in a fundamental way."

Snowden has outlived the D.B. Cooper mystery that defined his public debut, and is now situated for a long game in which he becomes more popular and harder to call a traitor. His revelations already won Greenwald/Poitras the Polk Award. What happens after someone wins the Pulitzer? Check the next white-hat tech conference on the schedule; we'll probably hear it there.

The rest is here:
Edward Snowden, Cyborg Thought Leader

March. 19 (UPI) -- Edward Snowden is making the rounds on the conference circuit.

A week after participating in a South by Southwest panel, the NSA whistleblower made a surprise visit to the TED event in Toronto Tuesday.

Appearing via robot, controlled from an "undisclosed location," Snowden spoke with TED organizer Chris Anderson, and later, inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee.

I believe a magna carta for the internet is exactly what we need, Snowden said, echoing Berners-Lee's call for an "Internet bill of rights." We need to encode our values not just in writing but in the structure of the internet.

I think the internet that weve enjoyed in the past has been exactly what we, not just as a nation but as a people around the world, need, he said, calling for tech companies to make SSL inscription the standard for web browsing.

Anderson asked Berners-Lee if Snowden is a hero or a traitor, and Berners-Lee responded, "Hero, if you have to make the choice between the two."

Watch their whole conversation:

Read more from the original source:
Edward Snowden makes surprise TED visit

Edward Snowden, the leaker of National Security Administration secrets and perhaps the most wanted man in the world, made a surprise visit to the TED conference in Vancouver Tuesday.

That he did so from a robotic mobile camera he controlled from his secret location in Russia didn't take away from the moment.

Snowden, a one-time NSA contractor, whose decision to abscond with more than seven million secret documents has revealed the depth of illegal spying activities by the NSA, said his work is far from over.

""There are absolutely more revelations to come. Some of the most important revelations are still to come," he told TED curator Chris Anderson, who conducted a 39-minute interview with him.

Snowden, appearing in front of a black screen to obscure clues to his location, talked at length as to why he chose to break his confidentiality agreement and reveal the breadth of the U.S. government's spying activities.

He criticized web companies like Amazon for allowing the NSA access to data, and in an impromptu meeting on the stage with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, endorsed his call for a Magna Carta bill of rights for the Internet.

"We need to encode our values not just in writing, but in the structure of the Internet," Snowden said.

"People should be able to buy a book online . . . without wondering about how these events are going to look to an agent of the government."

To view Snowden's talk, click here

Some recent stories based on Snowden's leaks have pointed out that the U.S. government has repeatedly broken its own laws.

Originally posted here:
TED2014: Edward Snowden makes surprise visit at Vancouver conference

Former NSA contractor lauded as a 'hero' by Sir Tim Berners-Lee Sir Tim spoke of a Magna Carta for the internet to enshrine web freedom Snowden claimed that he did not want to harm governments Boasted of taking on world's powerful intelligence agencies and winning

By Paul Donnelley

PUBLISHED: 11:07 EST, 19 March 2014 | UPDATED: 14:57 EST, 19 March 2014

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has made a surprise appearance as a speaker at the Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in Vancouver, Canada, claiming that certain governments wanted him dead.

Snowden appeared on-stage via a screen alongside Sir Tim Berners-Lee, created with the invention of the World Wide Web, who was putting forward his vision of a Magna Carta for the internet that would enshrine the right to web freedom.

"It is no mystery that there are governments out there that want to see me dead," Snowden told the conference. "I don't want to harm any governments but they cannot ignore due process."

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World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee welcomes whistleblower Edward Snowden via videolink

"A Magna Carta is exactly what we need. We need to encode our values in the structure of the Internet. By engaging the people who rely on it every day we will get a better internet and build a better future than we can imagine."

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Edward Snowden makes bizarre appearance at TED talk as a robot on a TV screen as he claims governments want him dead