Academy Award®-winning director Oliver Stone, who brought Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Wall Street and JFK to the big screen, tackles the most important and fascinating true story of the 21st century. Snowden, the politically-charged, pulse-pounding thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley, reveals the incredible untold personal story of Edward Snowden, the polarizing figure who exposed shocking illegal surveillance activities by the NSA and became one of the most wanted men in the world. He is considered a hero by some, and a traitor by others. No matter which you believe, the epic story of why he did it, who he left behind, and how he pulled it off makes for one of the most compelling films of the year.

Snowden | Official Trailer [HD] | Open Road Films

Edward Snowden – Full Documentary 2016
“I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things … I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.” —Edward Snowden

Synopsis Born in North Carolina in 1983, Edward Snowden later worked for the National Security Agency through subcontractor Booz Allen in the organization’s Oahu office. During his time there, Snowden collected top-secret documents regarding NSA domestic surveillance practices that he found disturbing. After Snowden fled to Hong Kong, China and met with Guardian journalists, newspapers began printing the documents that he had leaked, many of them detailing the monitoring of American citizens. The U.S. has charged Snowden with violations of the Espionage Act while many groups call him a hero. Snowden has found asylum in Russia and continues to speak about his work. A documentary on his story, Citzenfour, won an Oscar in 2015, with a 2016 biopic also in the pipeline. Background and Early Years Edward Snowden was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on June 21, 1983. His mother works for the federal court in Baltimore (the family moved to Maryland during Snowden’s youth) as chief deputy clerk for administration and information technology. Snowden’s father, a former Coast Guard officer, later relocated to Pennsylvania and remarried. Snowden dropped out of high school and studied computers at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland (from 1999 to 2001, and again from 2004 to 2005). Between his stints at community college, Snowden spent four months (May to September 2004) in the Army Reserves in special-forces training. He did not complete training according to Army sources, and he was discharged after he broke his legs in an accident.

Snowden schreef memoires vooral om zijn handelen te verdedigen

De Amerikaanse overheid klaagt klokkenluider Edward Snowden aan. Die had zijn memoires eerst moeten voorleggen aan een censor.Seije Slager18 september 2019, 18:28

De Amerikaanse overheid wil beslag leggen op alle inkomsten van het boek ‘Onuitwisbaar’ van klokkenluider Edward Snowden. In dat boek legt Snowden uit waarom hij in 2013 besloot om het bestaan te onthullen van de omvangrijke surveillanceprogramma’s waarmee de Amerikaanse inlichtingendienst NSA in het geheim allerlei gegevens over burgers opslaat. Volgens het Amerikaanse ministerie van defensie heeft Snowden in het verleden een geheimhoudingsovereenkomst getekend, die hem verplicht om onthullingen over zijn werkzaamheden voor de inlichtingendiensten eerst voor te leggen aan de overheid.

De aanklacht, die op de dag van verschijnen van het boek werd ingediend, geeft wel aan dat de VS nog steeds van alles uit de kast willen halen om Snowden te raken. Want dat hij de inhoud van zijn boek eerst aan de VS ter goedkeuring voor zou leggen, is niet iets wat iemand verwacht had. Snowden sloeg na zijn onthullingen op de vlucht, en strandde op het vliegveld van Moskou, toen de Amerikaanse overheid zijn paspoort introk. Sindsdien woont hij in Rusland, waar hij politiek asiel heeft gekregen.

Geen nieuwe belastende verklaringen

Bovendien bevat het boek geen echt nieuwe belastende verklaringen, vergelijkbaar met de onthullingen van de spionageprogramma’s in 2013, die destijds de wereld schokten door hun verstrekkendheid. Al staan er genoeg passages in die geen fraai beeld schetsen van de Amerikaanse inlichtingenwereld: hoe die een groot deel van zijn taken heeft uitbesteed aan allerlei externe huurlingen, en hoe er een lucratieve baantjescaroussel bestaat tussen de inlichtingendiensten en de grote commerciële bedrijven die als dekmantel worden gebruikt voor zulke externe inhuur.

Maar Snowden schreef dit boek vooral als een verdediging van zijn handelen. Als iemand die strijdt voor privacy, zo schrijft hij, moest hij het een en ander overwinnen om zo veel van zijn eigen leven bloot te geven, omdat hij daardoor ook dingen moet vertellen over de levens van anderen die zijn pad kruisten. Maar hij achtte het toch nodig, omdat hij zich wilde verdedigen tegen het beeld dat in sommige kringen van hem bestaat als agent van de Russen of de Chinezen.

In zijn memoires benadrukt Snowden juist dat hij een patriot is, afkomstig uit een familie van ambtenaren en militairen die allemaal trouw waren aan hun land. Hij vindt dat hij juist met zijn onthullingen die traditie heeft voortgezet. “Ik voelde me gebruikt omdat ik me realiseerde dat ik als lid van de inlichtingengemeenschap al die tijd niet mijn land had beschermd, maar de staat.” https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/snowden-schreef-memoires-vooral-om-zijn-handelen-te-verdedigen~b498654f/

Where is Edward Snowden now in 2021? He resides in Russia with his wife and child

Edward Snowden is a former NSA contractor who leaked highly classified information from the agency in 2013. His leak revealed numerous global surveillance programs run by the United States and the United Kingdom. Snowden initially reported the perceived ethical breaches of the surveillance internally, but no one seemed interested in addressing the issues raised. 

In May 2013, Snowden flew to Hong Kong, where he presented journalists with drives containing thousands of NSA documents. He came to international attention after the leaks appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, and other publications. People initially viewed Snowden’s views as treasonable, but recent polls show that many have come to appreciate his leak due to the legal reforms it inspired. 

Edward was granted permanent residence in Russia in late 2020 where he lives with his wife and child

In October 2020, Reuters confirmed that Russia had granted Edward permanent residence. “His (Russian) residency permit was expiring and we asked to extend it,” Anatoly Kucherena, his Russian lawyer, told Reuters. 

“We submitted the documents in April and we got permanent residence rights,” he added. A potential return to the United States seemed possible as, in August 2020, President Trump flirted with the idea of pardoning Snowden. Then-Attorney General Bill Barr ‘vehemently opposed’ a potential pardon. 

“He was a traitor and the information he provided our adversaries greatly hurt the safety of the American people,’ Bill said. “He was peddling it around like a commercial merchant. We can’t tolerate that.”

In late December 2020, Snowden announced the birth of his first child, who will have Russian citizenship. “The greatest gift is the love we share,” Edward wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of himself, his wife, and his newborn child. The couple hid the baby’s face with a blushing emoji. 

Snowden’s wife, Lindsay Mills, joined Snowden in Moscow in 2014. Edward told The Guardian that Mills was pissed when he left their Hawaii home in a rush. Snowden didn’t tell her of his plans to be a whistleblower as it would have made her an accessory. Mills suspected that Edward was having an affair.

Extracts of Lindsay’s diary were published in Snowden’s memoir, Permanent Record. Mills wrote that the FBI suspected that she’d killed Snowden. “He was looking at me like I killed Ed,” Lindsay described one officer. “He was looking around the house for his body.”

Edward expected Mills to be mad at him, but she stated that she loved him and supported his decision to expose the NSA. Snowden and Mills wed in 2017 in a Russian courthouse. 

Snowden had planned to seek asylum in Ecuador, but he was stopped in Moscow

After leaving Hong Kong, Snowden planned to travel to Ecuador, where he would seek asylum. He, however, had to pass through Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport. At the airport, he learned that the United States government had canceled his passport. Russian intelligence services offered to assist Snowden in return for any secrets he harbored. 

“I didn’t corporate with the Russian intelligence services – I haven’t and I won’t,” Snowden told NPR. “I destroyed my access to the archive. I had no material with me before I left Hong Kong, because I knew I was going to have to go through this complex multi-jurisdictional route.”

Twenty-seven nations denied Snowden asylum before he settled in Russia. Paranoia governed his early life in Russia, as he feared that US agents would target him seeking retribution. “I was very much a person the most powerful government in the world wanted to go away,” Edward told The Guardian.

“They did not care whether I went away to prison. They did not care whether I went away into the ground. They just wanted me gone.” As time went by, however, he abandoned his disguises and started moving freely around the city. 

Snowden earns by speaking to civil rights activists, students, both locally and abroad via video link-ups. Edward loves traveling, and though he is restricted to Russia’s borders, he has plenty to see in the vast nation. Snowden told The Guardian that his perception of Russia has changed in the years that he’s lived there. He said:

“One of the things that is lost on all the problematic politics of the Russian government is the fact 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 did not understand any of this. I was terrified of this place, because, of course, they were the great fortress of the enemy, which is the way a CIA agent looks at Russia.” https://thenetline.com/edward-snowden-now/

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Pierre Monteux conducted the San Francisco Symphony in what I am guessing to be a mid to late 1940s recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring that I have found to be one of the most ferociously exciting performances I have ever heard and one of the most musically satisfying ones in which its beauties emerge. The recorded sound quality of these eight 78 sides was very vividly good, superior to the RCA Camden lp that I have, in which the various orchestral instruments had pith and spunk. The brass , woodwinds and percussion were outstanding in their handling of the complicated rhythms, every player fully alert and responsive.

The First Rite: Stravinsky: The Rite Of Spring (1929) Monteux

Igor Stravinsky Le Sacre du printemps Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire Pierre Monteux Studio recording, Paris, 2, 5, 6 & 11.XI 1956