Editing National Security Agency (section)

===[[Edward Snowden]]===
Edward Snowden is a former American intelligence contractor who revealed in 2013 the existence of secret wide-ranging information-gathering programs conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA).<ref>{{cite web |title=Edward Snowden |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Snowden |access-date=February 6, 2022 |archive-date=February 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220202130452/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Snowden |url-status=live }}</ref> More specifically, Snowden released information that demonstrated how the United States government was gathering immense amounts of personal communications, emails, phone locations, web histories and more of American citizens without their knowledge.<ref>{{cite web
| title= Why Edward Snowden should be pardoned
| url= https://www.amnesty.org.uk/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-pardon
| access-date= February 6, 2022
| archive-date= February 7, 2022
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220207014116/https://www.amnesty.org.uk/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-pardon
| url-status= live
}}</ref> One of Snowden's primary motivators for releasing this information was fear of a surveillance state developing as a result of the infrastructure being created by the NSA. As Snowden recounts, "I believe that, at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents... It is not that I do not value intelligence, but that I oppose . . . omniscient, automatic, mass surveillance. . . . That seems to me a greater threat to the institutions of free society than missed intelligence reports, and unworthy of the costs."<ref>{{cite web
| title= Why NSA IT Guy Edward Snowden Leaked Top Secret Documents
| website= [[Forbes]]
| url= https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/06/10/why-nsa-it-guy-edward-snowden-leaked-top-secret-documents/?sh=6e3f2e755673
| date= June 10, 2013
| access-date= June 7, 2024
| archive-date= May 12, 2024
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240512132008/https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/06/10/why-nsa-it-guy-edward-snowden-leaked-top-secret-documents/?sh=6e3f2e755673
| url-status= live
}}</ref>

In March 2014, Army General [[Martin Dempsey]], [[Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff]], told the [[United States House Committee on Armed Services|House Armed Services Committee]], "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden ... exfiltrated from our highest levels of security ... had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities. The vast majority of those were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques, and procedures."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Capra |first=Tony |date=March 6, 2014 |title=Snowden Leaks Could Cost Military Billions: Pentagon |work=NBC News |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/snowden-leaks-could-cost-military-billions-pentagon-n46426 |access-date=April 11, 2015 |archive-date=April 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410091944/http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/snowden-leaks-could-cost-military-billions-pentagon-n46426 |url-status=live }}</ref> When asked in a May 2014 interview to quantify the number of documents Snowden stole, retired NSA director Keith Alexander said there was no accurate way of counting what he took, but Snowden may have downloaded more than a million documents.<ref name="AlexanderTrascriptDontKnowWhatHeTook">{{Cite web |title=Interview transcript: former head of the NSA and commander of the US cyber command, General Keith Alexander |url=http://www.afr.com/p/technology/interview_transcript_former_head_51yP0Cu1AQGUCs7WAC9ZVN |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006113815/http://www.afr.com/p/technology/interview_transcript_former_head_51yP0Cu1AQGUCs7WAC9ZVN |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |access-date=May 30, 2014 |website=Australian Financial Review}}</ref>