After 7 years of fleeing after exposing project Prism, Edward Snowden was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief recently.
According to the Russian news agency reported on October 22, Snowden's lawyer Kucheleina said on the same day that Snowden has obtained a permanent residence permit in Russia, but he has not yet considered applying for Russian citizenship.
As soon as the news came out, the melon-eating masses could not help but wonder: How has this "fourth citizen" who has made the US government hate it so much that he has lived in these years?
You know, the last person who became a "thorn in the eye" in the United States because of the leak, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was "captive" in the embassy to sleep in the women's restroom during the 10 years of exile abroad, and was thrown into the London prison for felons, and almost did not see the light. But even so, he evaded surveillance and gave birth to two babies....
In contrast, Snowden's life of "defecting" to Russia is much better. He wrote autobiographies, gave speeches, played music, earned no less money during his escape, and took time to solve life events and marry his girlfriend.
He had to worry about the expiration of his residence permit in Russia, but now the tight string could be loosened.
Hot-blooded youth becomes a "leaker"
Snowden's story begins in 1983.
He was born that year into a middle-class family in North Carolina, the son of a Coast Guard officer, a civil servant in a district court, and an older sister who later became a lawyer.
If it weren't for his parents divorcing, he would have spent his teenage years uneventfully. After the accident, Snowden moved away with his mother and began to enter a community college to study computers, which undoubtedly laid the groundwork for his later career development.
Snowden was keen to tinker with electronics as a young man
However, snowden, a hot-blooded young man at that time, did not want to turn his interest in electronic products into a career, and his real dream was to enter the special forces to serve the country.
In 2004, he joined the U.S. Army as he wished. However, fate soon played a joke with him: during a training session, he unfortunately fractured his leg bone and could not remain in the army, and eventually had to retire in disappointment.
By coincidence, Snowden's life reached a real turning point 2 years later - getting a job with the NSA. He then moved to the CIA in positions related to information technology security. Snowden, who liked to tinker with computers since childhood, was soon appreciated for his excellent work ability and was promoted out of the ordinary.
At the same time, Mr. Snowden began to come into contact with a large number of documents that were ulterior motives but were relevant to the citizens themselves, which made him wonder: Does the United States really respect freedom and human rights as it ostensibly claims.
He regretted to find the answer no.
Snowden's computers are labeled with support for internet freedom.
As a result, Snowden resolutely gave up his job with an annual salary of $200,000 (1 US dollar is about 7 yuan) and decided to give two top-secret documents to the Guardian and the Washington Post in June 2013. As a result, the secret surveillance project of the US National Security Agency and the FBI, the "Prism Project", was exposed to the world.
According to Snowden, 9 international network giants including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Apple, etc. are involved, and this plan is unscrupulously monitoring everyone's privacy, including email, video, photos, stored data, voice chat, file transfer, video conferencing, and so on.
"You are not at fault, but you may be the object of suspicion." Maybe just because of a wrong phone call, they can use the project to scrutinize all your past decisions and review all the friends you've talked to. Once you're connected to the network, they can verify your machine. No matter what measures you take, it can't be safe. ”
Snowden's words instantly ignited the anger of the American people.
Embark on a journey of escape
In the short time of preparing to expose the US government, Snowden was ready for "the end of the world".
The first stop on his escape was in Hong Kong, where he believed the government was completely independent of other major Western countries. But hiding in room 1014 of the Miramar Hotel, he still did not dare to let down his guard.
He has a wealth of experience in "anti-eavesdropping", not only closing the windows and closing the curtains in the room, but also using pillows and sheets to tightly tuck the door of the guest room, and even wrapping himself and the screen with a quilt every time he uses the computer to prevent being photographed by the camera that may exist in the room.
In the meantime, in addition to being interviewed by reporters from The Guardian and The Washington Post, he will not easily contact the outside world.
The Mira Hong Kong Hotel, where Snowden is hiding
But Snowden also knows that hiding in a hotel in Hong Kong is not a long-term solution.
According to the South China Morning Post, snowden left Hong Kong at about 10:55 a.m. on June 23, 2013, and he unknowingly evaded the tracking of American agents lurking near the Miramar Hotel and flew to Moscow on Aeroflot flight su213.
However, sources said moscow was not Snowden's final destination and that he would fly to Havana, Cuba. Aeroflot also confirmed that Snowden had purchased a ticket from Moscow to Cuba. But in the end, he didn't show up on that flight.
On the other hand, Ecuador's foreign minister confirmed on Twitter that Mr. Snowden had sought political asylum in the country. For a time, people thought that Snowden had played a "golden cicada shell".
But in fact, since there was no state at the time to explicitly offer asylum to Snowden, he had to stay at the Airport in Moscow ... It was not until August 1 of that year, more than a month after being stranded at the airport, that he was granted documents allowing him to leave the airport and enter Russian territory.
The Russian side first promised to grant him a one-year residence permit, and then gave him a three-year residence permit after it expired, and in 2017, it extended the residence permit for another 3 years, until it recently granted him permanent residence.
Since Russia "took him in", some people suspected that he was a Russian spy. In an interview with the American magazine The New Yorker in Moscow in January 2014, Snowden adamantly denied being a spy and called the speculation absurd and ridiculous.
Life in Russia
The debate in the United States about whether Snowden was a traitor or a hero never stopped.
Some accused him of leaking secrets for harming the national interest, even defining it as treason; others supported him as a "whistleblower", after all, the Prism Project did seriously invade personal privacy.
With such topical and controversial characters and themes, how can the media and literary circles be left in vain? As a result, a series of "peripherals" about Snowden began to emerge in an endless stream.
The United States, Germany, and France co-produced a film of the same name based on Snowden himself. Although the male lead actors Gordon Levitt and Snowden are quite similar in appearance and have good acting skills, the film has a score of only 6.2 on Rotten Tomatoes, just past the passing line.
Poster of the biographical film Snowden
HBO also previously produced a documentary about Snowden, "The Fourth Citizen", which won the Best Documentary Award at the 87th Academy Awards with its first-hand information and superb editing narrative technique.
The documentary "The Fourth Citizen" has a rotten Tomatoes freshness rating of 96%
However, no matter how good the "peripheral" is, it is not as good as the "opening wheat" in person. On September 17, 2019, the autobiography "Permanent Record", written by Snowden himself, was published. He reviews the first half of his life in detail and spends a great deal of time expressing his skepticism and unease about the U.S. government's surveillance.
It is interesting to note that September 17 is the annual Constitution Day of the United States, and choosing to release autobiographies to 20 countries around the world on such a special day undoubtedly hit the "face" of the US government.
Subsequently, the United States Government indicted him, accusing him of violating a confidentiality agreement. Unexpectedly, this aroused everyone's curiosity, leading to a big sale of Snowden's new book - "Permanent Record" was sold out as soon as it was listed on Amazon, and it ranked first on the new book list of the day.
Snowden also did not forget to "mend the knife" on Twitter: "This book that the U.S. government does not want you to see has become the world's number one bestseller." ”
Permanent Records Chinese and English covers
In addition to writing books, Snowden has also lectured in Hong Kong, Russia and other places. His first public address was at prism gates for nearly nine months at TED2014. At that time, he gave a speech entitled "Reclaiming the Internet That Belongs to Us" and discussed with the guests about surveillance and internet freedom.
In March 2014, Snowden gave a TED talk online.
According to the US politico news website reported in August this year, Snowden has made nearly $1.2 million in speeches over the past seven years.
Snowden's agents revealed that between September 2015 and May 2020, Snowden participated in a total of 67 online presentations or small conferences. Among them, the presentation fee of CLSA in Hong Kong in 2015 was $50,000, $20,000 each from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Winnipeg, and $15,000 from the University of Pittsburgh.
While living in Russia, Snowden also solved a major life event — marrying Lindsay Mills.
Mills is an American acrobat who had a sweet relationship with Snowden long before the "Prism Gate" broke. In October 2014, she chose to leave the United States to follow Snowden in exile in Moscow. The two entered the marriage hall in 2017.
Lindsay Mills (right) with Snowden
In addition to work and life, Snowden did not forget to develop a personal hobby - playing music. In April 2016, he recorded an electronic music "Export" with the French electronic music master Jean Michel Jarre (Gong Li's husband).
Yar said the duo's collaboration was an attempt to express musically "the CIA, the NSA and the FBI's pursuit of a young man." It seems that Snowden has given himself an exclusive bgm ah...
Snowden (right) with Yar
I have to say that although Snowden is a foreigner, his life is still quite moist, sitting on money, fame, love and all kinds of happiness.
However, after the publication of his autobiography" "Permanent Record" last year, he still said in an interview with the media that returning to the United States was his ultimate goal, and that he did not seek pardon, but only a fair trial. I don't know if this goal of his life can be achieved...
Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Wu Text Editor: Song Hui Title Image Source: Xinhua News Agency Photo Editor: Xu Jiamin
Source: Author: Global People