and word Snowden was interviewed for the first time by a US media figure Brian
Williams I journeyed to moscow to talk to
the leaker the former hacker they had an interesting conversation let's play the
first got
I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word in that I
we have to work
undercover overseas pretending to work in a job that I'm not
I and even being assigned a name that was not mine
on but I am
a technical special assignment technical expert a
I don't work with people I don't recruit
agents what I do is I put systems to work
for the United States and I've done that at all levels
from from the bottom on the ground all the way to the top
so what and what's known as doing there is trying to fight
I guess the charge it's been both over and Culver
are subtle at least that he is just a little hacker who some guy in a basement
the NSAA on computers and he stole this information. he doesn't know anything
about the actual operation I love our I guess counterintelligence and
and intelligence communities around the globe he doesn't like to believe that
we have no idea because the NSA didn't respond to comment about whether he held
both positions are not but that's what is alleging at least
any continues on the same trying to find this club now the government the 90s
think they might freemen in certain ways and say all you know he's a low-level
analyst
but what they're trying to do is they're trying to use
one position that I've had in a career here where their
to distract from the totality of my experience which is that
I've worked for central told it's a good thing undercover
overseas I've worked for the national security
agents being undercover overseas and I'm work for the defense
intelligence agency has a lecture at the joint counterintelligence training
academy
where I'd developed sources and methods for keeping our information people
secure
in the most hostile and dangerous environments around the world
so when they say I'm a little Systems Administrator that I don't know what I'm
talking about
I'd say it's somewhat misleading so look
that's just a small portion from the interview which will be airing tonight
at 10 p.m.
Eastern a we've seen just a little bit ovett that was leaked I left there that
was broadcast last night
wire--the focusing on this element a bit like I understand his desire to defend
his reputation and to give himself a little bit of credibility
I don't know how much it really matters going forward since the documents are
already in the hands of
love Glenn Greenwald other journalists but yeah this is just another attempt by
the media I think to distract from the actual point
the actual thing he represents which is the programs that he revealed the
information you gave to the American public about what the government was
doing vis-a-vis their privacy rights
their data their phone calls their emails all the information that we now
know they have access to we know
because I've him and I don't fundamentally see how it matters
if he was you know if he was in this country at this point working for the
CIA and then he went over East Africa
the NSA I don't care if he was a janitor he got the information and information
is accurate
and he gave it to us that now we can in an informed sense
vote for the right politicians to regulate what the NSA and the other I
intelligence department to the US government does really don't care what
his job was
now at the same time they described him earlier on
you can see in that clip but they describe him as the guy who would lead
to these documents
which i think is an interesting way of putting it don't give him any credit for
having revealed these massive government programs just say the leaked documents
you can decide for yourself if there was any value to the documents and then also
in CNN they showed a bit this
I believe was last night they showed a bit and then they came back
from the clip they said a whole look at him using a lot energy to defend his
position
he shouldn't have to defend his position he's been out there for a year now the
american public should have all the information they need
to determine if he was a hero or zero as you always say in your headline
they should already know this stuff if the fault other
outlets like CNN that america the american people don't have the right
impression of what Edward stone did
who think that journalism is just some sort of like
optional being in the present day or if it's our replica of an earlier time
back that argument now like I saw in it was a New York Times Book Review
it's that that the government should have the final say when it comes to
revealing any government programs
how does that make any sense is a country that historically has had a
great distrust for government power
and yet when it comes to them revealing the secrets on the way they're invading
your privacy were supposed to trust them
know we're supposed to have the information there might be something
some program
something that he could leak that I could feel was not actually in our
interests to know that it did actually harm
the national security up the United States we haven't reached that point yet
everyone other programs he revealed I am go out to the repeat that were
revealed it you should be as well we need that information we haven't done
much with the information yet we got an increase incredibly weak sauce a bill
%uh that's being debated in Congress right now but we need the information
know it might be the in the full interview which as I said will be
available tonight
bill actually reveal something a value but at this point I feel like it's going
to be a smear job against Edward snowed in
and even the part where they're letting Edward stone speak is just going to be a
distraction from
the real point the real hard in this matter
which is that we need this information he's the only one has provided to us at
least in the past few years