Edward Snowden

E D WA R D S N O W DE NRYA N M , CO DY M I M S , E M M A S , A N D B RA N D O N W

Edward Snowden was an infrastructure analyst inside the NSA center in Hawaii who revealed to the mainstream media that the government collects lots of private data on American citizens.

On May 20, 2013, Snowden met with two journalists he had summoned to Hong Kong, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, and revealed many classified NSA documents.

The press later exposed a secret NSA program, and on June 9, he made his identity public.

• On June 14 the U.S. Department of Justice charged him with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

• The U.S. Department of State revoked his passport on June 22.

• On August 1, 2013, Russian authorities granted him a one-year temporary asylum.

• A year later, Russia issued Snowden a three-year residency permit.

• Snowden lives in an undisclosed location in Russia to escape American persecution.

• He is seeking asylum in the European Union.

– E D WA R D S N O W D E N

“There have been times throughout American history where what is right is not the same as what is legal. Sometimes to

do the right thing you have to break the law.”

W H Y H E I S IM P O RTA N T

Edward Snowden is an American hero who made the public aware of wrongdoing and lies. He knew he would have to give up everything and still chose to be the person to blow the whistle. Without him, the government would still be monitoring us in secret.