A 29-year-old computer technician has admitted that he is the one who leaked information to several newspapers about the NSA’s top-secret PRISM program. Edward Snowden, who worked for a contractor employed by the security agency, said that he couldn’t “in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.” According to a report based on documents leaked to the media by Snowden, the NSA and FBI regularly access the servers of several of the Internet’s biggest companies including Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft. The access allows them to read emails, see chat conversations and view users’ activity logs.
Snowden is currently in Hong Kong, and told The Guardian, “I do not expect to see home again.” In a statement, Chairman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee, Rep. Peter King said, “The United States government must prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and begin extradition proceedings at the earliest date.” Though Hong Kong does have an extradition treaty with the United States, it makes exceptions for political crimes …
