Edward Snowden Biography

Edward Joseph Snowden was a former computer intelligence consultant who was responsible for leaking the highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 while being an employee and a subcontractor from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). His revelations exposed a slew of worldwide monitoring operations, many of which were conducted by the NSA and the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance with the help of telecommunications corporations and European governments, and sparked a cultural debate over national security and individual privacy.

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Snowden was hired by the NSA contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton in 2013, and before that he worked with Dell and the CIA. Snowden claims that he eventually got disillusioned with the activities in which he was involved and that he attempted to express ethical concerns through internal channels but was disregarded. Snowden went to Hong Kong on May 20, 2013, after abandoning his employment at an NSA site in Hawaii, and in early June he leaked thousands of secret NSA papers to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, and Ewen MacAskill. Snowden gained worldwide prominence after articles based on his information emerged in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and other media.

This article could be considered as a Snowden documentary where we would be discussing who is Snowden, Edward Snowden’s real life, his education, leaks, charges against him, and also a few of the most important and frequently asked questions related to Edward Snowden will be answered. 

Birth and Early Years

Edward Joseph Snowden is the full name of Ed Snowden and he was born on June 21, 1983, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Edward Snowden’s maternal grandfather, Edward J. Barrett, was a rear admiral in the United States Coast Guard who later became a top officer with the FBI and was present at the Pentagon during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Snowden's father, Lonnie, was also a Coast Guard officer, and his mother, Elizabeth, works as a clerk at the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Jessica, his older sister, worked at the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. Edward Snowden stated that he, like the rest of his family, anticipated working for the federal government. In 2001, his parents separated, and his father remarried.

Edward Snowden Education

In the early 1990s, while Snowden was still in grade school, he had to move with his family to the area of Fort Meade, Maryland. He got infected and had Mononucleosis which caused Snowden to miss almost nine months of his high school. After recovering, he did not return to school; rather he passed the GED test and had an interest in taking classes at the Anne Arundel Community College and so he did. Edward Snowden did have an undergraduate college degree but he worked online to get a master’s degree at the University of Liverpool, England in 2011.

Edward Snowden was fascinated by Japanese popular culture, had learned Japanese, and worked for an anime business with a U.S. office. He also stated that he knew a little Mandarin Chinese and was very interested in martial arts. Snowden disclosed to The Guardian in September 2019, as part of preparations for the publishing of his memoir Permanent Record, that he married Lindsay Mills in a Moscow courthouse. The couple is expecting a boy in December 2020.

Initial Career of Snowden 

Edward Snowden joined the United States Army on May 7, 2004, feeling a duty to participate in the Iraq War to help free oppressed people. He became a Special Forces candidate under the Army's 18X enrollment option. He was released on September 28, 2004, after failing to finish the program owing to bilateral tibial stress fractures.

Snowden after being released from the army in 2004 was then employed for less than a year in 2005 as a security guard at the University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Study of Language which was a research centre that was sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA). This was not a secret facility, according to the University, although it is closely secured. Snowden told Wired in June 2014 that his work as a security guard necessitated a high-level security clearance, for which he passed a polygraph exam and completed a thorough background investigation.

In the year 2009, Snowden was suspected of trying to break into the classified files and because of that, he left the work for the Private contractor among which were dell and Booz Allen Hamilton which are basically the tech consulting firms. He worked as a subcontractor in an NSA office in Japan before being transferred to an office in Hawaii while at Dell. After only a few months, he went from Dell to Booz Allen, another NSA subcontractor, and stayed for barely three months.

Snowden’s Leaks 

Edward Snowden had observed the breadth of the NSA's routine monitoring throughout his years of IT employment. Snowden began copying top-secret NSA papers while working for Booz Allen, compiling a dossier on procedures he considered intrusive and unsettling. The documents included a wealth of information on the NSA's domestic spying tactics.

Snowden had collected a large store of documents. After collecting all the documents Snowden made an excuse to the NSE supervisor that he needed a leave as he had to be medically treated for epilepsy. On May 20, 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong, China, where he remained while arranging a covert meeting with journalists from the UK magazine The Guardian and filmmaker Laura Poitras.

The consequences from Edward Snowden’s revelations continued to develop over the next few months, including a judicial struggle over the NSA's acquisition of phone data. In January 2014, President Obama tried to allay public concerns about government snooping by directing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a review of the country's monitoring operations.

Exportation to Russia

After Snowden leaked all the information, he hid for slightly more than a month. He had intended to seek refuge in Ecuador, but after making a stopover, he was stuck at a Russian airport for a month after the American authorities cancelled his passport. The Russian government has turned down US efforts to extradite Snowden.

In October 2013, Snowden gave a statement that he does not have any NSA files which he leaked to the press and he said that he continued by saying that he had given the materials to the journalists he met in Hong Kong. It has also been reported that Snowden’s father did meet him in Russia and also offered his support to me. Snowden's appeal for pardon to the US government was denied in November 2013.

Edward Snowden POV on the Government 

Even in exile Snowden has remained as a polarising figure and has been very critical of government surveillance. He even had an appearance at the popular South by Southwest festival with the help of teleconference in March 2014 and was at that time very critical of the US government. Around this time, the US military acknowledged that the information Snowden leaked might have cost the country billions of dollars in security costs.

Snowden conducted an in-depth interview with NBC News in May 2014. He informed Brian Williams that he was a trained spy who worked secretly for the CIA and NSA, which National Security Adviser Susan Rice refuted in a CNN interview. Snowden said that he saw himself as a patriot and that he believed his activities were good. He claimed that his information breach sparked "a lively public debate" and "new protections for our rights in the United States and overseas to ensure they are no longer infringed." He also indicated a desire to return to America.

Edward Snowden made an appearance with Poitras and Greenwald through a video conference in February 2015. In March he had spoken to the students of the Upper Canada College where he told them the problem with mass surveillance is that it collects everything even if it does not make any sense. He also said that the government spying on everyone unbalances the country in which the government has the upper hand on everyone. 

Charges Against Edward Snowden

To control the damage the U.S government soon responded to the legal disclosures done by Snowden. Snowden was charged with "theft of government property," "unauthorized transmission of national defense secrets," and "willful communication of sensitive communications intelligence material to an unauthorized person" on June 14, 2013.

Charges such as the unauthorized transmission of national defense secrets and willful communication of sensitive communications intelligence material to an unauthorized person fall under the Espionage Act. While the government has recognized Snowden’s acts as a traitor and of a whistleblower, others, basically the common people, have supported his cause. In June 2013, more than a lakh people had signed a petition and had asked President Obama to pardon Snowden. 

The case of Snowden is considered to be controversial as he has been called a traitor, a hero, a whistleblower, a patriot, and a dissident. The U.S. officials have publicly criticized his actions as they had grave damage to the U.S.intelligence capabilities. On the other hand, Snowden has defended his actions of leaking information as an effort to inform the public as to what has been done in their names and what and all is done against them. His actions have caused mass debates across various international channels over the topics of mass surveillance, the balance between national security and the information policy, and has also raised questions regarding government secrecy.