Meet Edward Snowden

Brut India

Edward Snowden's memoir, Permanent Record, has hit the stands, but jury's still out on whether he's a hero or a villain. He's behind one of the biggest leaks in US history. This is his story.

Transcript

00:00The framework for mass surveillance today would look a lot like the Aadhaar system.

00:30In the

00:57midst of the lead up to the Iraq war, when so many other Americans were protesting, I

01:03actually drank the Kool-Aid and I said, I'm going to sign up for the U.S. Army.

01:07Didn't go for the Air Force, didn't go for the Navy, I said, I want to try out for Special

01:41I knew the risks when I came forward.

01:45And if I was only comfortable, if I was only concerned with my own safety, my own future,

01:51I never would have left Hawaii.

01:52I would still be working at the NSA today.

02:07You can't come forward against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and be

02:13completely free from risk because they're such powerful adversaries that no one can

02:18meaningfully oppose them.

02:20If they want to get you, they'll get you in time.

02:24But at the same time, you have to make a determination about what it is that's important to you.

03:07People's lives are at risk here because of data that Mr. Snowden purlined.

03:18So the damage and the full extent of it is yet to be measured.

03:33The main thing to remember here is that I did not pick a particular destination.

03:39I was trying to go to Latin America to seek asylum under human rights law that's well

03:45established.

03:46Unfortunately, I was frozen in place in transit by the State Department once they heard that

03:51I had departed Hong Kong.

03:54There was a rumor that my passport was sort of canceled before I departed.

03:58That's not true.

04:29I would like to return to the United States.

04:35That is the ultimate goal.

04:37But if I'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison, the one bottom line demand that

04:42we all have to agree to is that at least I get a fair trial.

04:45And that is the one thing the government has refused to guarantee because they won't provide

04:51access to what's called a public interest defense.

05:19There is no public evidence that any individual has come to harm as a result, and we know

05:24that there's no classified evidence that an individual has come to harm as a result, or

05:28we would have seen it years ago.

05:29It would have been on the front page of every newspaper around the world.

05:33I'm comfortable with the decisions I made, but I don't think it's up for me to decide

05:40the direction of the future of our society.

Category

Transcript

Recommended