Any regrets, Edward Snowden? "I'd have come forward sooner"

Summary:The former NSA contractor turned whistleblower said during a Reddit question-and-answer session that the leaks have also improved security and encryption in Silicon Valley.

Edward Snowden answers questions on Reddit (Image: Imgur/Reddit)

Edward Snowden has just one regret.

It's not that he threw Obama's second term in office under the bus by disclosing the vast surveillance by the National Security Agency. Nor did he regret that he condemned himself to the bowels of Russia. (He rightfully pointed out the weather in Moscow has been "warmer than the east coast" this past week, where temperatures have been close to zero.)

It was that he didn't "come forward sooner" with what he knew.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras, and former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden answered questions from the Reddit community on Monday in an hour-long "ask me anything."

The question-and-answer session comes hours before the Poitras documentary, "Citizenfour," broadcasts on HBO. The film, which documents the first few days the whistleblower goes on the run in Hong Kong and the immediate aftermath of the leaks, won an Oscar on Sunday for best documentary feature.

Here are select highlights from the event, edited for clarity:

Snowden, months after he was granted political asylum in Russia, asked the country's president Vladimir Putin if his government spies on its citizens. What proof do we have that Putin is being honest?

Snowden: "There's not, and that's part of the problem world-wide. We can't just reform the laws in one country, wipe our hands, and call it a day. We have to ensure that our rights aren't just being protected by letters on a sheet of paper somewhere, or those protections will evaporate the minute our communications get routed across a border. The only way to ensure the human rights of citizens around the world are being respected in the digital realm is to enforce them through systems and standards rather than policies and procedures."

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Any regrets, Edward Snowden? "I'd have come forward sooner"