Edward Snowden Is Still Optimistic That Whistle-Blowers Will Still Disclose Secrets

Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. © Mark Blinch / Reuters

The Guardian: Edward Snowden: 'I'm not an unhappy ending' for future whistleblowers

Speaking at a conference Snowden refused to be seen as a warning sign to future leakers, saying of his time in Russia: ‘I am actually more effective now’.

It’s not hard to argue that Edward Snowden is a warning to future leakers of government secrets. He’s stuck in Russia. Can only show up at parties as a video screen. And many of the western surveillance programs he outed continue three years later.

But in a video interview on Friday at RightsCon, a technology conference in San Francisco focused on free speech, Snowden said that’s not how he sees it. That, he said, hopefully encourages more Snowden’s to come forward in the future.

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WNU Editor: It looks like he has settled in .... but I am sure he must feel homesick at times. Will he eventually return to the U.S. .... probably. The culture on keeping intelligence secrets is changing .... maybe in 15 or 20 years he will be able to go back to the U.S. on a plea deal, and after serving some time go out and make some money on the lecture circuit. On a side note .... to give a heads-up on how times are changing .... if I was doing what I am doing today on this blog in the former Soviet Union 30 years ago .... I would have been fired from the foreign office, and probably spending the next 30 years of my life in a labour camp. Today .... they are always bugging me to post their stuff.