Hours after he appeared on two Sunday shows — ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “Reliable Sources” — Glenn Greenwald’s source has been revealed as a computer technician for a defense contractor who says he’s worked with the CIA and, more recently, the NSA.
Edward Snowden, raised in North Carolina and Maryland, revealed himself to the Guardian newspaper, where Greenwald’s stories on secret NSA spying programs were first reported last week. From the Guardian:
Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. “I don’t want public attention because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing.”
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Snowden told the Guardian, in a story co-authored by Greenwald, about his final preparation for leaking the information:
At the NSA office in Hawaii where he was working, he copied the last set of documents he intended to disclose. He then advised his NSA supervisor that he needed to be away from work for “a couple of weeks” in order to receive treatment for epilepsy, a condition he learned he suffers from after a series of seizures last year. As he packed his bags, he told his girlfriend that he had to be away for a few weeks, though he said he was vague about the reason. “That is not an uncommon occurrence for someone who has spent the last decade working in the intelligence world.”
As for his part in this, Greenwald, live from Hong Kong, told Howie Kurtz he feels a sense of vindication in revealing the information because of what he calls the “subservient behavior” by some members of the American media when reporting on the government.
“So much reporting in Washington consists of running to government sources, mindlessly repeating what they say after giving anonymity to ensure that they can say it with no accountability, and then simply disseminating it to the public,” Greenwald says.
Video after the jump…