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"You’re Being Watched": Edward Snowden Emerges as Source Behind Explosive Revelations of NSA Spying by Edward Snowden. Former CIA employee Edward Snowden has come forward as the whistleblower behind the explosive revelations about the National Security Agency and the U.S. surveillance state.

"You’re Being Watched": Edward Snowden Emerges as Source Behind Explosive Revelations of NSA Spying by Edward Snowden

Three weeks ago the 29-year-old left his job inside the NSA’s office in Hawaii where he worked for the private intelligence firm Booz Allen Hamilton. Today he is in Hong Kong — not sure if he will ever see his home again. In a video interview with The Guardian of London, Snowden says he exposed top-secret NSA surveillance programs to alert Americans of expansive government spying on innocents. "Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re being watched and recorded," Snowden says. Is Edward Snowden a Hero? A Debate with Journalist Chris Hedges & Law Scholar Geoffrey Stone.

This is a rush transcript.

Is Edward Snowden a Hero? A Debate with Journalist Chris Hedges & Law Scholar Geoffrey Stone

Copy may not be in its final form. GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world's communications. Britain's spy agency GCHQ has secretly gained access to the network of cables which carry the world's phone calls and internet traffic and has started to process vast streams of sensitive personal information which it is sharing with its American partner, the National Security Agency (NSA).

GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world's communications

The sheer scale of the agency's ambition is reflected in the titles of its two principal components: Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation, aimed at scooping up as much online and telephone traffic as possible. This is all being carried out without any form of public acknowledgement or debate. One key innovation has been GCHQ's ability to tap into and store huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables for up to 30 days so that it can be sifted and analysed. That operation, codenamed Tempora, has been running for some 18 months. See you on the dark side. Julian Assange: "Edward Snowden, Prism Leaker Is A Hero". OPERATION TROLL THE NSA. Edward Snowden: the truth about US surveillance will emerge.

The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has warned that the truth about the extent of surveillance carried out by US authorities would emerge, even if he was eventually silenced.

Edward Snowden: the truth about US surveillance will emerge

In a live Q&A with Guardian readers from a secret location in Hong Kong, Snowden hinted at more disclosures to come and that their publication could not be prevented by his arrest or – more chillingly – his death. Answering a ­question about whether he had more secret material, the 29-year-old former National Security Agency contractor wrote: "All I can say right now is the US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or ­murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped. " Snowden, who is hiding in a safe house in Hong Kong, where he remains free despite admitting to the biggest leak of US secrets in a generation, spent nearly two hours taking questions on the Guardian website.

Glenn Greenwald on security and liberty. Leaked: NSA's Talking Points Defending NSA Surveillance. The government has been passing around some "talking points" to politicians and the press trying to spin the NSA surveillance story.

Leaked: NSA's Talking Points Defending NSA Surveillance

We've got the talking points about scooping up business records (i.e., all data on all phone calls) and on the internet program known as PRISM. Both are embedded below. Let's dig in on a few of the points, starting with the business records/FISA issue: The news articles have been discussing what purports to be a classified, lawfully-authorized order that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) issued under an Act of Congress – the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Under this Act, the FISA Court authorized a collection of business records. "There is no secret program here"? It authorizes only metadata collection, which includes barebones records – such as a telephone number or the length of a call. This legal tool, as enacted by Congress, has been critical in protecting America. This is meaningless. Ha ha ha. Right. Edward Snowden Q&A: Dick Cheney traitor charge is 'the highest honor'

How we broke the NSA story. Shortly after Salon’s biographical sketch on Laura Poitras went live, the award-winning documentary filmmaker agreed to a phone interview, her first since she helped reveal the scope of the National Security Agency’s digital surveillance.

How we broke the NSA story

“I feel a certain need to be cautious about not wanting to do the work for the government,” she told Salon, but agreed to clarify some parts of her role in the story. Poitras is still in Hong Kong, where she is filming the story behind the story — including her co-author on the Guardian story and former Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald — for her forthcoming documentary on whistle-blowers and leaks. In a wide-ranging interview, she explained how she first made contact with Snowden, her reaction to the possible future investigation into his leaks, and why Snowden didn’t go to the New York Times. What follows is a lightly edited transcript. So how did this all begin?

I was originally contacted in January, anonymously. Snowden leaks caused US 'significant harm' - Mueller. 13 June 2013Last updated at 21:43 ET Mueller's testimony came during a flurry of hearings and news conferences in Washington on the leaks The disclosure last week of a pair of top secret surveillance programmes has caused the US "significant harm", the head of the FBI has said.

Snowden leaks caused US 'significant harm' - Mueller

Robert Mueller also told Congress the US would hunt down and prosecute leaker Edward Snowden. Mr Snowden, 29, has admitted disclosing information about National Security Agency (NSA) programmes that seize data from US internet and telephone firms. US officials have promised their own disclosures about the programmes. "We want to provide the American people the information," NSA chief Gen Keith Alexander said following a closed-door briefing to members of the House of Representatives intelligence committee. "But we don't want to risk American lives in doing that," he added. StopWatching.Us: Mozilla launches massive campaign on digital surveillance. Additional Perspectives from Mozilla: Mitchell Baker’s post, “Total Surveillance” Ben Adida’s post, “No User is an Island” Chris Lawrence’s post, “NSA Surveillance Revelations are a Teachable Moment” Last week, media reports emerged that the US government is requiring vast amounts of data from Internet and phone companies via top secret surveillance programs.

StopWatching.Us: Mozilla launches massive campaign on digital surveillance

The revelations, which confirm many of our worst fears, raise serious questions about individual privacy protections, checks on government power and court orders impacting some of the most popular Web services. Today Mozilla is launching StopWatching.Us — a campaign sponsored by a broad coalition of organizations from across the political and technical spectrum calling on citizens and organizations from around the world to demand a full accounting of the extent to which our online data, communications and interactions are being monitored.

What’s at stake But there are various levels of exposure. Get involved. Stop Watching Us. Edward Snowden 'banned from flying to UK' 14 June 2013Last updated at 15:16 ET.

Edward Snowden 'banned from flying to UK'

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things' – video. Digital Blackwater rules.