" I was Trained As A Spy" - Edward Snowden Says

Snowden

 

Fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden "trained as a spy" and worked "undercover overseas" for intelligence agencies, he has claimed.


In his first interview in American media, he rejected claims he was merely a junior contractor, saying he worked "at all levels from the bottom on the ground, all the way to the top".

The 30-year-old, who has been charged in the US with espionage, was granted asylum by Russia in August, 2013, after instigating a series of leaks on mass surveillance in America and around the world.

In the NBC News interview, due to air in full on Wednesday, Snowden defended himself against claims he had minimal intelligence experience before he released classified documents revealing the National Security Agency's programme of phone and internet surveillance.

"I was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word in that I lived and worked undercover overseas - pretending to work in a job that I'm not - and even being assigned a name that was not mine," he said.

He said he had worked covertly as "a technical expert" for the Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA, and as a trainer for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"I don't work with people," he said.

"I don't recruit agents. What I do is I put systems to work for the United States. And I've done that at all levels from, from the bottom on the ground all the way to the top.

"So when they say I'm a low-level systems administrator, that I don't know what I'm talking about, I'd say it's somewhat misleading."