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Snowden: US has been hacking China for years

China.org.cn, June 13, 2013

• The US government had been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland for years, US whistleblower Edward Snowden told the South China Morning Post. 

  Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old American intelligence contractor, has revealed himself as the source who disclosed the U.S. government's secret phone and Internet surveillance programs.

  Snowden, a former CIA employee, said that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been hacking computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland since 2009.

  NSA hacking mainly targeted the Chinese University of Hong Kong, public officials, businesses and students in the SAR and the NSA also hacked mainland targets, said the newspaper.

  Snowden said there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally, with hundreds of targets in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

  On May the 20th, Snowden flew to Hong Kong from Hawaii, where he had been working for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton at the National Security Agency.

  He said he will stay in the city "until I am asked to leave".

  "I have had many opportunities to flee HK, but I would rather stay and fight the US government in the courts, because I have faith in HK's rule of law."

  Snowden said he was releasing the information to demonstrate "the hypocrisy of the US government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure."

  As a debate has been held across the US over whether Snowden should be praised or prosecuted for his actions, he told the South China Morning Post, "I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."

  He said he was not hiding from justice but exposing criminality. He vowed to fight any attempt to extradite him and asked the court and people in Hong Kong to decide his fate.

  He also expressed his fear for his own safety and that of his family.

  A petition to the White House has been started to seek a presidential pardon of Snowden, with more than 60,000 people signing by Wednesday.

  The petition said: "Edward Snowden is a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs."

  House Speaker John Boehner Tuesday branded Snowden a 'traitor' as U.S. officials reportedly start the process of filing charges against him for leaking government secrets.

  Despite the uncertainty, Hong Kong supporters of Snowden have organized a protest in front of the US consulate on Saturday afternoon.

  On Tuesday, Russia offered to consider an asylum request from the whistle-blower.

  "If such an appeal is made, it will be considered. We'll act according to the facts, "Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Russian newspaper.

  Snowden previously leaked information to the media about PRISM, a top secret program of the US National Security Agency that collects and analyzes data from Internet users around the world.

  According to news reports, the NSA and FBI have been tapping directly into the central servers of nine major US internet firms, such as Apple and Google, extracting video chats, photos, e-mails, documents, connection logs and other information that enables analysts to track foreign targets.

  Profile of Edward Joseph Snowden

  Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American former technical contractor and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) before disclosing details of a classified NSA spy program to the press.

  Snowden released classified material on top-secret NSA programs including the PRISM surveillance program (a clandestine national security electronic surveillance program operated by NSA since 2007) to The Guardian and The Washington Post in June 2013.

  Snowden said his disclosure of PRISM and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act(FISA) orders related to NSA data capture efforts was an effort to expose what he believes is excessive government surveillance of the American people. [Source: Wikipedia]

  (China Daily, Xinhua News Agency and CNTV contributed to the story)

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