Edward Snowden in Russian exile: ‘you have to be ready to stand for something’

[Music] so I don't know anything about you okay I work for love you know sorry I my name is Edward Snowden I go by ahead in 2013 I don't know who Edward Snowden was a no idea he would become the whistleblower responsible for the biggest leak of top-secret documents in history not long after Hollywood came calling this is everything I have they're gonna figure out what I've done did you access an unauthorized throw around despite being exiled from his home country Snowden is now living a relatively normal life in Moscow he invited me to come out here to discuss that a lease of his memoirs permanent record [Music] he's usually shy about talking about his private life but in the book he talks freely for the first time about his relationship with his partner Lindsay poles when she came to the door in Moscow I mean you said that your place for a slap in the face I mean what would you do you're married if you ran out on your wife if she sees you on the news you're now wanted and can't come home again and then months later you see her what would you expect she's so much more than I'll ever deserve I mean when did you first meet there's like a site called hot or not calm and it was the most vain and basic venal thing in the world and if you saw someone that you thought was attractive who was near you you could say I'm interested in meeting this person what did you rape her as she was a 10 what did you rate you not attend but high enough that she clicked the the meet me the way she was treated in how you feel about that once he's always been a much more complex figure then I think the media was ready to grapple with they saw of it she had been a pole dancing instructor and you know things there were videos on YouTube of her doing performances and they're like oh she must be a stripper because that's that's they reduce women to these sexualized objects this sort of supporting role they didn't look at her complexity they didn't look at the fact that she's a photographer they didn't look at the fact that she's a poet they didn't look at the fact that she's a political being whose politics in fact shaped my own you write about when you go law school you change your appearance a bit by your not wearing glasses or shaving or wearing a scarf or a heart why is it necessary to take these precautions are you scared that the CIA are going to snatch you or what you worried about well I don't actually live that way anymore I go around much less incognito but you have to remember that in the twenty thirteen moment I very much was a person the most powerful government in the world wanted to go away they didn't care whether I went away to prison they didn't care about whether I went away into the ground they just want to be gone and they wanted me no longer speaking but I'm not going to let any kind of concern for what makes my life easier for what makes my life safer allow me to be less free you've troubled that I Russia and I was in Petersburg I've been to st. Petersburg I've been to Sochi I love traveling I still do even though I can't cross borders now one of the things that's lost in all the problematic politics of the Russian government is the fact that this is one of the most beautiful countries in the world the people are friendly the people are warm and when I came here I didn't understand any of this I was terrified of this place because of course they were the great fortress of the enemy you know that he thickest eih it looks at Russia and it was never my plan to be here but with time with open eyes you can see that our presumptions about a place are almost always different from the reality of it the hell with the stop box yeah there's a just be completely yeah what people don't realize about Russia is you can get basically all the same things you can get new unites says they got Burger King they got McDonald's they got Krispy Kreme echo some of the couple did if you want the only thing they don't have in Russia its Taco Bell uh can you go and convince two people in Russian is it good enough for that as long as I've been sort of a live or real thinking breathing of being you know from adolescence onward my life has been mediated by screaming that's when you ask about my daily like yeah I go out I go to restaurants friends come to visit I have great conversations but I'm an indoor cat that's by choice I pick a dangerous dog from we have moved into a time where people care much more deeply about feelings then they do about facts and this is a dangerous moment for democracies because people believe that once we have achieved an established a free and open society that it will remain that way and and will always be there but the reality is things can backslides very quickly and we have seen democracies fall in just a matter of a few years in the book you come to the conclusion that you know maybe legislate over surveillance legislative change and might not happen so maybe the best way to resist this through some mass international protests you know in the way like extension rebellion or by Wall Street me not that that's basically what you're advocating though does that change because I mean when our political systems are being slanted to deny influence when our economic systems are being shaped to prevent us from having an equal opportunity to benefit from the production that has been created we need people to recognize these problems to understand these problems and then to be willing to give something up to change that problem this is what we're struggling with on climate this is what we're struggling with on so many fronts yes people can believe that mass surveillance is wrong yes people can believe that climate change is an enormous threat facing the future not of a country but of the planet but it's not enough to believe in something you have to be ready to stand for something if you want it to change and so that is what I hope this book will help people come to decide for themselves are you ready for this to change you

Channel: The Guardian

Views: 360,460

Rating: 4.9268904 out of 5

Keywords: Edward Snowden, Snowden, Edward Snowden interview, nsa, national security agency, Lindsay Mills, CIA, prism, Donald Trump, Russia, Moscow, Permanent Record, julian assange, edward snowden movie, where is snowden, exile, spy, snowden full interview, gchq, trump, 2019, ed snowden, ed snowden interview, snowden book, ed snowden book, gdnpfpnewsus, gdnpfpnewspolitics, wikileaks, putin, snowden wife, edward snowden wife, guardian, citizen four, gdnpfpnewsworld, snowden russia, snowden documentary

Id: EezWIxcinnw

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 13 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

Whistle blowers are a necessary for any open society, if only to keep the ruling classes on their toes. When I heard that Edward Snowden would be publishing a book, I found and spent the weekend on Amazon Prime video’s, where a treasure trove of interviews and information on Mr. Snowden can be viewed, and now he will be on The Eleventh Hour with Brian Williams, is not to be missed.