At the end of March 2024, news came from the famous hacker Assange in the United Kingdom for the first time in a long time: after a long discussion, the London court decided to give Assange a chance to allow him to appeal the decision to extradite the United States.
This move directly saved Assange's life, and everyone knows that once he goes to the United States, he will inevitably die.
You must know that Assange's "WikiLeaks" made the United States hate it so much, and after being wanted by the United States, Assange lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in the UK for 7 years, and the scope of his activities was a small house with cameras inside.
7 years of otaku life, Assange has been "suffocated" from a handsome guy to an old man, and the US government is very happy.
But there is another person who also blew up the US intelligence security system, and now he has a nourishing life that the US whip cannot reach, and he is Snowden.
Before the mutiny, Snowden could be described as three generations of the U.S. military, whose ancestors served the U.S. government, and he even joined the army to fight the Iraq War.
But after later exposure to intelligence work, Snowden's self-proclaimed "American faith" — equality, openness, democracy — and other ideas — took a huge hit.
After learning that the United States was monitoring the Internet in several countries, including his own country, he chose to expose the scandal.
Subsequently, Snowden fled to Hong Kong, and eventually fled to Russia, where he was sheltered for 10 years.
In 2022, Snowden will become a Russian citizen, and his life will be quite nourishing, because of Snowden's case, foreign netizens are sorry that Assange did not go to Russia, otherwise he would not have suffered so much.
So, what is the story behind Snowden? How much did the "Prism Project" he exposed hit the United States? And what happened to Snowden's life after he fled to Russia?
[a]
The most orthodox Americans, do the most outrageous things
When Snowden defected in 2013, irresponsible media outlets said: "Snowden was a Russian spy and fled back to Russia after he was discovered." ”
These news look very shocking today, but at that time, the domestic information was relatively closed, and the United States released a lot of smoke bombs on the Snowden case, so all kinds of strange theories flew all over the sky.
Edward Snowden, an American, was born in North Carolina in 1983.
His family was typical of the white middle class of the eastern United States, and his grandfather, Edward Barrett, served in the U.S. Coast Guard for a long time, and was at least a general. His parents are also public officials, with his father, Lonnie, also working in the Coast Guard, and his mother a court employee.
Mr. Snowden later lived in a traditionally white community in Maryland, where most of his friends and family worked in government. This kind of group-style public service system can also be regarded as a major feature of the United States, and it can at least save a large part of the cost of political trials.
Snowden grew up at the beginning of the Internet age at the end of the century, so he has always had a soft spot for computer technology, and he taught himself computers in high school, just like another "intelligence terrorist" Assange.
Because of his addiction to computer programming and games, Snowden's grades were so poor that he couldn't go to high school. He later completed his high school degree at a community college, but Snowden did not go to college.
It was the beginning of the 21st century, and Snowden taught himself computer technology and got a certificate. He wanted to get a decent job with his certificate, but because of his academic qualifications, he stayed at home.
Because of this experience, the U.S. government later attacked Snowden, saying that he was autistic, depressed, and dissatisfied with American society for a long time.
In 2004, Snowden joined the U.S. Army for military training, and he himself said he quit the army after three months due to injury. But U.S. government filings showed that he had health problems and was unable to complete his training, so he was discharged.
Depressed after returning home, Snowden worked as a security guard at the University of Maryland the following year.
In 2006, Snowden finally joined the U.S. National Security Agency with computer technology and the recommendation of his family, relatives and friends, and was responsible for network information security.
This job is full of gold, because Snowden's colleagues are highly educated, large companies, and high-achieving students with clean foundations, and belong to the elite class in the United States.
During this period, Snowden was so pleased with his job that he once flaunted his high income online and found a beautiful pole dancer as his girlfriend.
[two]
Project Prism: The United States plays with words
After 2010, when the mobile Internet was rolled out, the number of Internet users around the world increased exponentially, and the U.S. government and military believed that the new information security challenges would be more powerful than ever.
In Europe, East Asia, the Pacific, and other places, wherever there are US troops, the NSA is emphasizing the importance of information security.
As a member of the NSA, Snowden worked in various locations in Europe and Asia, and in 2010 became a senior cybersecurity lecturer hired by the U.S. military.
It was also a mistake that Snowden was able to get this job.
It turned out that he lost his job in 2009 because of asthma, returned to the United States to recuperate, and switched to Dell. Dell saw that Snowden had experience with the NSA, so they simply sent him to be the NSA's outsourced network project staff.
Therefore, Snowden is just changing his identity, and he is still doing cyber security for the NSA.
In 2011, he gave a lecture to the military in Japan to great acclaim, and the content was actually very simple now: information about fake emails, Internet viruses, Trojan horses, and so on.
But the military bigwigs felt that they had benefited a lot, and since then Snowden has been specially hired as a lecturer to lecture everywhere.
At that time, the NSA was secretly conducting a huge cyber surveillance project, codenamed "Project Starwind".
The program has a long history, starting with the "terrorist attack surveillance system" adopted by the George W. Bush administration after the 911 attacks in 2001, which searched for terrorists by listening to e-mails and phone calls.
In fact, the nature of the "Starwind Project" is infinitely close to the Soviet Union's internal communications surveillance, and there is a great deal of controversy within the US Government. There are even people who are dissatisfied with this, and in 2005, the "Starwind Project" was exposed, which caused criticism from the media.
However, under tremendous security pressure, Congress still passed the "Protect America Act" to promote the "Starwind Project".
Externally, the U.S. government has said that the program has been abandoned and that indiscriminate surveillance of citizens is contrary to U.S. purposes and is not acceptable to U.S. values.
Behind the scenes, the "Prism" project of the "Starwind Project" monitors hundreds of millions of phone calls, text messages, and emails every day, and a large amount of data is stored in super servers built by the government, which can be viewed by even low-level security personnel at any time.
According to the U.S. Personal Privacy Act, any person or organization must have the permission of a court to access personal private information, otherwise it is a crime.
The data collection in "Prism" is a play on words: the U.S. government says that in the first phase, they only "downloaded" the information and did not actively access it, so it was not a crime.
When they find someone with terrorist characteristics, or someone who endangers U.S. security, the NSA will apply to the court to see his information and then "see" it, which is perfectly legal.
But is it really legal if it is procedurally legal? Can the NSA supervise itself?
Snowden later proved that this so-called legal process was all fake.
At that time, Snowden himself wrote a program to wander between the NSA and the Federal Intelligence Agency to secretly access classified information, and he found that the privacy of citizens in the database was completely unguarded and casually accessed inside.
In April 2013, under the pseudonym "Fourth Citizen," Snowden sent emails to a group of journalists and independent media personalities exposing the "Prism" project.
In May, Mr. Snowden traveled to Hong Kong, China, with a few laptops, and he began sorting out documents to send to reporters for The Guardian and The Washington Post. Immediately after that, the United States discovered Snowden's defection and held accountable the "Booz Allen Company" where he worked.
In early June, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Snowden's revelation that the world's major Internet giants are sharing information with the US National Security Agency, and even overseas international dignitaries are being monitored by the United States.
The Guardian then published an interview with Snowden, in which he described the U.S. government's surveillance of the private information of ordinary people, and the world's media rushed to retweet the news, calling it "Prismgate."
[three]
Picking up a life, Snowden is content
In the summer of 2013, the whole of the United States was boiling over Snowden, and the news of his revelations exploded public opinion and the stock market - major American Internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and even Apple all cooperated with the NSA.
Most of the politicians in NATO countries have been monitored by the United States, and other major countries such as India and Brazil, as well as anti-American countries such as Iran and Venezuela, have all had their Internet systems monitored by the NSA.
Accountability and suspicion from all walks of life have come and gone, European and Asian countries have begun to clean up their network systems, the US has been ruined for many years, and the US government is in a state of anxiety.
At that time, Snowden was hiding in Hong Kong and accepted the protection of the Hong Kong SAR Government, and the United States immediately sent a note to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region demanding that the SAR Government not allow Snowden to leave the country.
Soon after, the United States indicted Snowden on charges of espionage and embezzlement of government property. In mid-June 2013, Snowden sent a distress signal to more than 20 countries around the world in desperation, hoping for political asylum, but no one responded.
On June 15, the United States asked the Hong Kong SAR government to extradite Snowden, and at the same time, Snowden contacted Assange and received asylum offers from Assange and the Ecuadorian government.
Soon, Snowden bought a plane ticket and prepared to transfer to Moscow and then to South America. But American agents have arrived in Hong Kong, and they need to take control of Snowden and get back the contents of his laptop.
Later, the story of Snowden's escape from C.I.A. agents was widely debated on the Internet, with China helping, Russia helping, and Assange helping.
In this regard, there is some evidence for various claims, such as the Chinese help in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the Russian help in the United States, but according to Snowden, it was Assange and the WikiLeaks staff who helped him arrange his departure.
At that time, the Hong Kong SAR government was also willing to see this situation, because Snowden brought tremendous pressure, the United States was actively asking for people, and the SAR government was under great pressure.
Later, Snowden left the Kaide airport and stayed at Moscow's Pushkin airport to prepare for South America.
However, because Russia is under pressure from the United States to refuse Snowden's entry, Snowden is in danger of being extradited. It just so happened that the South American country of Bolivia expressed its willingness to shelter Snowden, and it was Assange and the Ecuadorian government that contributed.
At that time, Bolivian President Morales visited Moscow, but on the way back, Morales's plane was actually detained in Austria and investigated by the local police.
The Americans thought that Snowden was on Morales' plane, but they did not expect that there was only a Bolivian delegation on the plane.
Morales was furious, angrily accusing the West of disrespecting Bolivia, and countries were shocked by the United States' actions to undermine the principles of international diplomacy and intercept the planes of foreign leaders for Snowden's sake.
There are few people in American history who are worthy of the United States to do so. Thankfully, Snowden heeded Assange's advice and didn't get on Ramolaes' plane, but by this time he had no way out.
But for Snowden at this moment, once he leaves Russia, Snowden will be intercepted no matter what means of transport he uses, so he can only stay at the Moscow airport.
At this time, the whole world is staring on Russia, on Putin.
On August 1, 2013, after much deliberation, the Russian government decided to grant Mr. Snowden a one-year asylum permit, allowing him to leave Moscow's Pushkin airport and live in a villa under the protection of Russian security services.
Russia suddenly decided to give Snowden asylum, and the United States claimed that it was to obtain information from Snowden, and Snowden claimed that he had more information than it had exposed, and that Russia would eat this fat even if it was under moral pressure.
Moreover, Snowden's escape has aroused global sympathy, and in the United States, demonstrations in support of Snowden have swept the country, and Snowden has been regarded as a "liberal hero" on the Internet.
The Russian people support Putin to keep Snowden, and Putin is also borrowing the slope to get off the donkey.
After Snowden settled in Russia, his father came to Russia to visit him at the end of the year, and his father, Lonnie, supported his son's actions in a high-profile manner, calling him a hero.
The following year, Snowden's girlfriend Mills went to Russia to meet Snowden, and since then the two have lived for a long time and have children.
Later, Snowden's asylum certificate was extended twice until 2022, when Putin admitted him as a Russian citizen, and Snowden said he was finally "completely safe."
In 2024, American journalist and host Carlson met Snowden in Moscow, saying that he had gone to meet privately and that no one knew about it. But the meeting was still learned by American spies, and the news of the meeting between the two quickly spread to the United States.
The fact that the U.S. government is still staring at Snowden shows that it attaches great importance to him. There is also a group in the United States that advocates pardoning Snowden because what he did was for the purpose of protecting citizens' privacy and paying for justice.
But from the perspective of the US government, Snowden must not be forgiven, otherwise the US intelligence services in the future will not be able to exist.
Literature / Shogakuno
Resources:
1. The New Adventure of Internet Thought in the 21st Century: The History Changed by Snowden and the Snowden Changed by History, Fang Xingdong
2. "The Snowden Incident and the Adjustment of U.S. Cybersecurity Policy", Li Hengyang