29-year-old Edward Snowden, the former CIA computer technician, and self-proclaimed whistleblower, reportedly gave classified documents to reporters, making public two sweeping U.S. surveillance programs and touching off a national firestorm over the weekend, NBC News reported.
A tech specialist who contracted for the NSA and works for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton revealed himself as a source after a bevy of stories in The Washington Post and the Guardian had detailed previously unknown U.S. surveillance programs. Snowden said he disclosed secret documents in response to what he described as the systematic surveillance of innocent citizens, news reports said.
"I'm not going to hide," Snowden said from Hong Kong, where he has been staying. "Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest."
As to why he exposed himself? "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," he said in a note that accompanied the first document he leaked to The Washington Post.In a brief statement, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the intelligence community is "reviewing the damage" the leaks have done.
"Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law," said the spokesman, Shawn Turner.Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said the revelation of Snowden's role in the leaks will lead to a sweeping reexamination of security measures at the CIA and the NSA, and they described his decision to come forward as a conclusion to a week of disclosures, which publicly frazzled the intelligence community.
"This is significant on a number of fronts: the scope, the range. It's major, it's major," said John Rizzo, a former general counsel of the CIA who worked at the agency for decades. "And then to have him out himself . . . I can't think of any previous leak case involving a CIA officer where the officer raised his hand and said, 'I'm the guy.'
