Traitor or patriot? Low-level systems analyst or highly trained spy? Slammed by top U.S. government officials and facing espionage charges in the United States, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden defended his decision to leak documents about classified surveillance programs during an interview with NBC "Nightly News" broadcast Wednesday. "I think it's important to remember that people don't set their lives on fire," Snowden said. "They don't walk away from their extraordinarily, extraordinarily comfortable lives ... for no reason." Speaking to anchor Brian Williams in a Moscow hotel, Snowden said he considers himself a patriot, and he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to reveal secret U.S. government surveillance programs if he didn't have to.
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Edward Snowden says NSA analysts can watch people's "thoughts as they type"
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"The Constitution of the United States had been violated on a massive scale," he tells NBC
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Snowden says he considers himself a patriot and would like to return to the U.S. someday
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He faces espionage charges in the United States and received temporary asylum in Russia
But he stressed he has no ties with the @placeholder government.