Just when you thought Edward Snowden was finally finished trying to convince you that he’s a great American, the exiled whistleblower gave an unprecedented interview to Wired magazine. It wasn’t just any writer asking the questions either. Snowden sat down for three days with James Bamford, the other NSA whistleblower.
Bamford spent three full days with Snowden, the longest amount of time any journalist has managed to arrange since the 31-year-old landed in Russia. The two former NSA employees covered lots of ground in that time, as well, from Snowden’s sickly youth to his grocery shopping habits in Moscow. Fun fact: When Russians recognise Snowden on the street, he simply (and one imagines, creepily) says “Shhh” and puts his finger to his lips.
Another fun(?) fact: Snowden thinks that the most damning revelations from his leaks have still yet to surface. As he told Bamford:
I think they think there’s a smoking gun in there that would be the death of them all politically. The fact that the government’s investigation failed — that they don’t know what was taken and that they keep throwing out these ridiculous huge numbers — implies to me that somewhere in their damage assessment they must have seen something that was like, ‘Holy shit.’ And they think it’s still out there.
Click through to Wired to read the full feature. Even if you think you’ve heard enough about Snowden and spies, you’ll enjoy Bamford’s unique perspective on the matter. After all, this guy was an NSA whistleblower himself. So you can be sure he knew the right questions to ask. [Wired]
Picture: Getty