The name of Edward Snowden every day more and more often flashes in the news feeds of the Russian Internet and is increasingly heard on radio and television. In general, Edward Snowden created a sensation related to the disclosure of classified information, no less than Julian Assange in his time.
Biography
Edward Snowden was born in the state of North Carolina, in a town with the romantic name of Elizabeth City, and spent his childhood and adolescence in Maryland. There he graduated from high school and entered college, where he studied computer science. Interestingly, Edward did not manage to get his diploma the first time.
In 2003, Snowden joined the ranks of the US Army, but during an unsuccessful exercise, he suffered fractures of both legs and was forced to leave the service.
Snowden later got a job with the US National Security Agency. His task was to protect a certain secret facility located on the territory of the University of Maryland. Presumably it was CASL (Center for Advanced Study of the Language). During his work, Snowden received a Top Secret level clearance, thanks to which he could have access to many classified materials.
Since March 2007, Snowden has worked in the CIA, in the information security department (by specialty he is a system administrator). Until 2009, he worked at the UN under the guise of the US mission and was involved in ensuring the security of computer networks.
However, at one point, Edward became disillusioned with the work of the American special services. He told how, in 2007, he witnessed an extremely hard-hitting story: the CIA officers gave a Swiss bank employee a drink, put him behind the wheel and persuaded him to go home. When he was arrested for drunk driving, the agents offered him a deal - help in exchange for access to the bank's classified information. Snowden said that during his time in Geneva, he saw that the activities of his government are doing the world more harm than good. Edward hoped that with the coming to power of Barack Obama, the situation would change for the better, but things only got worse.
Edard retired from the CIA and recently, together with his girlfriend, rented a house in Hawaii and worked for Booz Allen Hamilton.
Disclosure of classified information
In January 2012, Snowden wrote several encrypted emails to Laura Praiglava of the Free Press Foundation, Guardian journalist Glen Greenwald, and Washington Post author Barton Gellman. He offered to supply them with some secret information, which, opened, and did.
On June 6, 2013, the public became aware of the existence of PRISM, a state top secret US program. The program is aimed at extracting secret and not very information on the Internet, such companies as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo !, Facebook and others willingly agreed to cooperate with it. In the ranks of the employees of the National Security Agency, complete chaos and hysteria reigned, they quickly turned to the FBI for help in the investigation.
In fact, thanks to Snowden, the Americans learned that they could be massively spied on via email, telephone, video chats and personal correspondence on social networks.
Atkje Snowden disclosed information about the existence of the British tracking program Tempora and that the UK intelligence services infiltrated computers and tracked calls from foreign politicians at the G20 summit (London, 2009).
This and many other declassified information caused enormous damage to the secret services of the United States and Great Britain.
Snowden said that he transmits far from all secret data, but only those that will not harm specific people, but will help make the world a better place at least for a second - people should know that their privacy can be penetrated at any time. …
What's next?
After the disclosure of classified information, on May 20, 2013, Snowden took a vacation from the NSA, said goodbye to his girlfriend and flew to Hong Kong. On June 6, he informed Gellman that his home in Hawaii had been ransacked - on the same day, classified information was published in the Washington Post and the Guardian.
On June 22, the US State Department asked the Hong Kong authorities to extradite him to the United States, but the authorities refused to do so - they were not satisfied with some of the wording in the request.
On June 23, Snowden's adventures with Russia began. It was reported that Edward Snowden, together with Wikileaks spokeswoman Sarah Harrison, arrived at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Snowen, who did not have a Russian visa, had no right to cross the border with Russia, so he remained in the Sheremetyevo transit zone. According to press reports, Snowden and Harrison did not even get to the airport building, but immediately got into a car with the numbers of the Venezuelan embassy and fled in an unknown direction. On the evening of June 23, Snowden asked for political asylum from the Ecuadorian authorities.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced on June 25 that Russia has nothing to do with the actions of Edward Snowden, never did and does not do any business with him, he did not commit crimes on the territory of Russia, therefore there are no grounds for his arrest and transfer to the US authorities …
On June 30, Sarah Harrison handed over to the Russian Foreign Ministry documents and Snowden's request to grant him political asylum in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would provide the fugitive saboteur with asylum, but on the condition that he stops harming the US government.
It is not yet clear how the situation will develop further, but the fact remains - Edward Snowden opened the world's eyes to information that greatly undermines the reputation of the United States and Great Britain.
Upon his return to the United States, Snowden faces a prison term of up to 30 years, while his supporters collect millions of signatures in his defense, and in Hong Kong they hold petitions outside the walls of the US embassy.
