Whistleblower behind PRISM Program Leak Revealed

Local Editor

A 29-year-old former CIA worker Edward Snowden is the source behind the leak of the top-secret NSA surveillance program, and has fled to Hong Kong to avoid the fate of American Bradley Manning.

Snowden noted that the government will launch an investigation against him, however it was "a matter of principle" for him because he believes that the people should know how the government intrudes their privacy.

Snowden had acted "to protect "basic liberties" and to "send a message to government that people will not be intimidated."

"I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," Snowden reiterated.

Snowden leaked covert documents from the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI that are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading US Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets.

The program, code-named PRISM, was leaked by Snowden to American The Washington Post and The Guardian UK dailies.

Moreover, Snowden said he sacrifices his very comfortable life with a family he loves and a stable career with a salary of around $200,000 for the sake of "informing the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them."

Until three weeks ago Snowden worked in a NSA office in Hawaii. There he made final preparations, copied the final set of documents he planned to leak and on May 20 boarded a flight to Hong Kong. At work he explained that he needed time off for treatment for epilepsy, a condition he was diagnosed with last year.

Snowden had said that he chose Hong Kong because it is the place that could and would "resist the dictates of the US government" and the city has "a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent."

Source: News Agencies, edited by website team