Edward Joseph Snowden (born June
21, 1983) is an American computer specialist, a former Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) employee, and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who
disclosed top secret NSA documents to several media outlets, initiating the NSA
leaks, which reveal operational details of a global surveillance apparatus run
by the NSA and other members of the Five Eyes alliance, along with numerous
commercial and international partners.
(source: http://www.businessinsider.com/)
And here's an extended timeline of
Snowden's travels and actions:
From 2007 to 2009, Snowden worked as a CIA technician in Geneva. He
subsequently went to work for Dell as an NSA contractor.
In December 2012 the Freedom of the Press Foundation, which
includes documentarian Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald on its
board of directors, launched to crowd-source funding for WikiLeaks.
Around January 2013, Snowden reached out to Poitras. In March he
began working for Booz Allen in Hawaii. Poitras said she told Glenn Greenwald
about Snowden in April. (According to Greenwald, they began working with
Snowden in February.)
On May 20, Snowden flew from Hawaii to Hong Kong, where he
subsequently met Poitras, Greenwald, and Guardian reporter Ewan MacAskill.
On June 9, Snowden's identity was revealed in a video filmed by
Poitras, and he subsequently went underground.
On June 11, MacAskill reported that Snowden arrived in Hong Kong
"carrying four computers that enabled him to gain access to some of the US
government's most highly-classified secrets."
On June 12, Snowden leaked specific IP addresses in China and Hong
Kong that the NSA was hacking to the South China Morning Post. Snowden also
told SCMP that he intended to leak more documents later.
Also on June 12, Snowden reportedly reached out to WikiLeaks
spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson about asylum in Iceland.
- Assange told reporters that
WikiLeaks paid for Snowden's lodgings in Hong Kong.
On June 23, after he reportedly spent several days in the Russian
consulate in Hong Kong, Snowden flew to Moscow with WikiLeaks adviser Sarah
Harrison (who had been advising him in Hong Kong).
○ The U.S. had
revoked Snowden's passport on June 22, but Snowden traveled with an Ecuadorian
travel document acquired by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
○ Upon landing
in Moscow, Snowden was reportedly surrounded by Russian security agents. The
Ecuadorian president subsequently said that the travel document was invalid.
On July 12, Snowden retained the services of Anatoly Kucherena, a
Russian lawyer employed by the post-KGB Russian Security Services (FSB).
On July 14, Greenwald told The Associated Press that Snowden
"is in possession of literally thousands of documents ... that would allow
somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which
would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it."
On Aug. 1, Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum and moved him to
a "secure" location.
On Oct. 31, Snowden met with German Green Party MP Hans-Christian
Ströbele. Russian intelligence
experts subsequently told the Berlin daily Die
Welt that the FSB "organized and monitored Ströbele’s visit to Moscow and
effectively used it for its purposes," as former NSA spy John Schindler
put it.
On Nov. 1, it was reported that NSA chief Keith Alexander recently
said Snowden took as many as 200,000 classified documents with him when he left
Hawaii.
On Nov. 8, Kucherena said that Snowden has started his new job at
an undisclosed Russian website. He also said that Snowden won't go to Germany
to testify on NSA spying because he "has no right to cross Russian
borders."
All that being said, there's still
a lot we don't know about the Snowden saga.
Primary questions include: How many
NSA documents did he take from Hawaii? How many did he give to the journalists
he met in Hong Kong? What happened to Snowden between the time he went
underground (June 10) and when he left for Moscow (June 23)?
What was Russia's
involvement in Hong Kong given that Snowden reportedly spent his 30th birthday
in the Kremlin's Hong Kong consulate? When did Snowden give up access to the
documents he took to China? What, if anything, has China and/or Russia been
able to glean from Snowden? Why would Snowden take 30,000 documents that do not
deal with NSA surveillance "but primarily with standard intelligence about
other countries’ military capabilities, including weapons systems"?
Two things are almost certain:
There are more surveillance stories coming, and Snowden's life is now
supervised by Russian intelligence.
Question of “right”
Snowden job as a "infrastructure
analyst", which meant that his job was to look for new ways to break into
Internet and telephone traffic around the world.
• June 14, 2013, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Snowden
with espionage and theft of government property
• Issues of National Security,
and global concerns over terrorism
• Snowden claims action was an effort "to inform the
public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against
them.”
• "I have no intention of hiding who I am because
I know I have done nothing wrong."
If we look at the ethics theory, especially Teleological theory, how can we describe a snowdern approach.
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