In 2013, a 29-year-old NSA contractor quietly walked out of Hawaii carrying one of the largest classified document troves in United States history.

His name was Edward Snowden.

Within weeks, he would expose secret surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency — programs that collected phone records, internet data, emails, and global communications on a scale the public never imagined.

Some called him a hero.

Others called him a traitor.

Sources

Greenwald, Glenn. No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. Metropolitan Books, 2014.

Harding, Luke. The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man. Vintage Books, 2014.

Poitras, Laura, director. Citizenfour. Radius-TWC, 2014.

Snowden, Edward. Permanent Record. Metropolitan Books, 2019.

United States, Department of Justice. Criminal Complaint: United States v. Edward J. Snowden. 14 June 2013, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Guardian. “NSA Prism Program Taps in to User Data of Apple, Google and Others.” 6 June 2013.

The Washington Post. “U.S., British Intelligence Mining Data from Nine U.S. Internet Companies in Broad Secret Program.” 6 June 2013.

United States Congress. USA FREEDOM Act of 2015. Public Law 114-23, 2 June 2015.