Edward Snowden: US surveillance 'not something I'm willing to live under'
Glenn Greenwald: Edward Snowden predicted more than a month ago while still in hiding in Hong Kong that the US government would seek to demonise him, telling the Guardian that he would be accused of aiding America's enemies. In the second instalment of an interview carried out before he revealed himself as the NSA whistleblower, Snowden insisted that he was a patriot and that he regards the US as a fundamentally good country. But he said he had chosen to release the highly classified information because freedoms were being undermined by intelligence agency "excesses". The interview was conducted on June 6 in a hotel room in Hong Kong. The first part of the interview was released on Sunday June 9, starting a media frenzy and intensifying US efforts to track him down. Snowden has since fled Hong Kong for Moscow, where he is reportedly marooned while resisting US attempts to extradite him to face charges under the Espionage Act. In the newly released interview excerpts, he predicted he would be portrayed not as a whistleblower but a spy.
The Guardian: Edward Snowden: 'The US government will say I aided our enemies' – video interview