At a press conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, President Donald Trump told reporters he was considering a pardon for Edward Snowden, stating “Many people think he should somehow be treated differently, and other people think he did very bad things, and I’m going to take a …
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Edward Snowden published his memoir “Permanent Record” on September 17, 2019 (Constitution Day), through Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company. The book provided Snowden’s first-person account of his life, his work in the intelligence community, his decision to …
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Director Oliver Stone’s biographical thriller “Snowden” was released in U.S. theaters, bringing Edward Snowden’s story to mainstream audiences through a Hollywood dramatization starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the NSA whistleblower. The film chronicled Snowden’s journey …
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The NSA officially ended its bulk collection of Americans’ telephone metadata at 11:59 PM on November 29, 2015, as required by the USA Freedom Act passed by Congress in June 2015. The program, which had operated under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act since 2006, systematically collected …
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Germany’s chief federal prosecutor Harald Range opened a formal criminal investigation into allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone, marking the first time a major U.S. ally launched criminal proceedings against American intelligence …
President Obama delivered a major address at the Department of Justice outlining reforms to NSA surveillance programs in response to Edward Snowden’s revelations, but the proposed changes left core bulk collection authorities largely intact while adding modest procedural safeguards. The speech …
The Guardian, citing documents leaked by Edward Snowden, revealed that the National Security Agency was collecting almost 200 million text messages per day from around the world through a program codenamed DISHFIRE. According to the leaked documents from 2011, the program collected “pretty …
The Guardian newspaper reported, citing documents obtained from Edward Snowden, that the National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The leaked NSA memo, dated October 2006, revealed that senior U.S. government officials …
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff canceled a scheduled state visit to Washington in response to revelations that the NSA had intercepted her personal phone calls, text messages, and emails, as well as conducting extensive surveillance of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras. The …
Lavabit, an encrypted email service used by Edward Snowden, abruptly shut down rather than comply with federal government demands for the company’s SSL encryption keys, which would have compromised the privacy of all 400,000 users. Founder Ladar Levison announced the closure with a cryptic …
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After spending 39 days confined to the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, Edward Snowden was granted temporary asylum in Russia for one year on August 1, 2013. Russian authorities had restricted Snowden to the airport terminal after observing that U.S. authorities had …
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Edward Snowden boarded an Aeroflot commercial flight from Hong Kong to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on June 23, 2013, accompanied by Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks, just days after the U.S. filed espionage charges and requested his extradition. The Hong Kong government allowed Snowden to leave …
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The Obama administration prosecuted eight individuals under the Espionage Act for leaking to media, more than all previous administrations combined which had only three cases total since 1917. Those prosecuted included Thomas Drake (NSA) whose 10 felony charges were reduced to a misdemeanor after …
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a sealed criminal complaint against Edward Snowden on June 14, 2013, charging him with three felonies: unauthorized communication of national defense information, willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized …
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Edward Snowden publicly revealed himself as the source behind the explosive NSA surveillance leaks in a 12-minute video interview filmed at the Mira Hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and published by The Guardian. The 29-year-old former NSA contractor and CIA technical assistant had flown to Hong Kong on …
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The Washington Post and The Guardian simultaneously published explosive revelations about PRISM, a classified program allowing the National Security Agency and FBI to tap directly into the central servers of nine major U.S. internet companies to extract audio, video, photographs, emails, documents, …
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Edward Snowden revealed the NSA’s PRISM program gave the government direct access to servers of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Apple, and other tech giants, collecting emails, photos, videos, and communications of millions of Americans. Companies initially resisted but capitulated under …
Edward Snowden leaked classified NSA documents to The Guardian and Washington Post, exposing the massive PRISM surveillance program that collected electronic communications from major internet companies without warrants. The revelations showed the NSA was systematically collecting phone and internet …
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Glenn Greenwald published the first article in The Guardian based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden, revealing a top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) order requiring Verizon to hand over all telephone metadata to the National Security Agency on an “ongoing, daily …
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Snowden revelations in 2013 exposed that 70% of the $52.6 billion “black budget” went to private contractors. One in four intelligence workers was a contractor, with firms like Booz Allen Hamilton among 1,900 companies supplying tens of thousands of analysts. Post-9/11, intelligence …
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By 2008, the Bush administration had privatized 70% of the intelligence budget to private contractors, creating a ‘shadow intelligence community’ with unprecedented corporate access to classified information. Associate DNI Ronald Sanders confirmed that 37,000 ‘core’ …
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