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E D W A R D S N O W D E N
R Y A N M , C O D Y M I M S , E M M A S , A N D B R A N D O N W
Edward Snowden was an infrastructure
analyst inside the NSA center in Hawaii
who revealed to the mainstream media
that the government collects lots of
private data on American citizens.
On May 20, 2013, Snowden met with
two journalists he had summoned to
Hong Kong, Glenn Greenwald and
Laura Poitras, and revealed many
classified NSA documents.
The press later exposed a secret NSA
program, and on June 9, he made his
identity public.
• On June 14 the U.S. Department of
Justice charged him with two counts
of violating the Espionage Act and
theft of government property,
punishable by up to 30 years in
prison.
• The U.S. Department of State
revoked his passport on June 22.
• On August 1, 2013, Russian
authorities granted him a one-year
temporary asylum.
• A year later, Russia issued Snowden
a three-year residency permit.
• Snowden lives in an undisclosed
location in Russia to escape
American persecution.
• He is seeking asylum in the European
Union.
– E D W A R D S N O W D E N
“There have been times throughout American history where what is
right is not the same as what is legal. Sometimes to do the right thing
you have to break the law.”
W H Y H E I S
I M P O R T A N T
Edward Snowden is an American hero
who made the public aware of
wrongdoing and lies. He knew he would
have to give up everything and still
chose to be the person to blow the
whistle. Without him, the government
would still be monitoring us in secret.