Mr. Greenwald’s forthcoming book titled “No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the U.S. Surveillance State” is eagerly anticipated. He was the first to publish Mr. Snowden’s findings and materials ten months ago. He then announced that he had a special guest, and to the surprise of the audience, whistleblower Snowden appeared via video link. Immediately the nearly 1,000 people in the ballroom stood to their feet and cheered. Mr. Snowden was granted political asylum in Russia and faces arrest if he ever attempts to return to the United States.
Mr. Greenwald and Mr. Snowden in their comments warned that anyone involved in activism and making a difference is being spied upon by the government, and whatever the government admits to doing related to surveillance and monitoring—there’s even more than that taking place. Specifically, Mr. Snowden warned about the government’s monitoring of “Metadata” which consists of which telephone numbers are calling other numbers, when calls are being made and their length enabling the tracking of associations and political inclinations. Metadata is what allows the government to see “a precise record of all of the private activities of all our lives,” said Mr. Snowden.
“I took a big risk to bring this information back into the public (but) this information shouldn’t have been classified in the first place,” Snowden said. “The fact that everyone in the world knows about this now makes us all safer and it is an incredibly empowering and encouraging thing to see people talking about this,” Mr. Snowden added.
“What we need to understand is that, this isn’t about being watched. The conversation we’re having isn’t about what we are saying on Facebook,” said Mr. Snowden. “It is about the relationship between the public and the government,” he added.
“When we see that even senior officials are violating the constitution, we have a duty and an obligation to tell the public and let the public decide what should be done,” said Mr. Snowden.