US Prism Surveillance Leak Source Revealed

National Security Agency (NSA)

The source of the recent leaks and revelations about the Prism surveillance scheme by the NSA in the US has been revealed as former CIA technical operative Edward Snowden.

Mr Snowden, 29, is described by The Guardian, which originally broke the story and today revealed his identity at his request, as an ex-CIA technical assistant and currently employed with defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton.

Mr Snowden flew to Hong Kong on 20th May where he has since been holed up in a hotel room, whilst the NSA has referred the matter of his leaks to the Department of Justice as a “criminal matter”. He has rarely left the room to prevent US spies having access to him, and even inside the room he shields his laptop screen when typing in passwords in case the CIA have planted a video camera in there to observe him.

Discussing the leaks, Mr Snowden said:

“We can plant bugs in machines. Once you go on the network, I can identify your machine. You will never be safe whatever protections you put in place…I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded.”

Mr Snowden accepts that he may go to jail and may never return home to Hawaii, but he said he went to Hong Kong because of it “strong tradition of free speech”, but the region did sign an extradition treaty with the US in 1997 shortly before becoming a Chinese territory. He also expressed interest in seeking asylum in Iceland, under their recently redrawn constitution.