I, spy: Edward Snowden in exile -MUST READ INTERVIEW

[malaise]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/-sp-edward-snowden-interview-rusbridger-macaskill
<snip>
Fiction and films, the nearest most of us knowingly get to the world of espionage, give us a series of reliable stereotypes. British spies are hard-bitten, libidinous he-men. Russian agents are thickset, low-browed and facially scarred. And defectors end up as tragic old soaks in Moscow, scanning old copies of the Times for news of the Test match.

Such a fate was anticipated for Edward Snowden by Michael Hayden, a former NSA and CIA chief, who predicted last September that the former NSA analyst would be stranded in Moscow for the rest of his days – “isolated, bored, lonely, depressed… and alcoholic”.

But the Edward Snowden who materialises in our hotel room shortly after noon on the appointed day seems none of those things. A year into his exile in Moscow, he feels less, not more, isolated. If he is depressed, he doesn’t show it. And, at the end of seven hours of conversation, he refuses a beer. “I actually don’t drink.” He smiles when repeating Hayden’s jibe. “I was like, wow, their intelligence is worse than I thought.”

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/-sp-edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-interview-transcript
Edited transcript

[Blue_Tires]

1. As time goes on it's ironically looking like

the Vanity Fair piece was his "toughest" and at-least-trying-to-be-balanced interview...

I have no faith that The Guardian can be dispassionate about a subject that they're so close to and too heavily invested in...

[malaise]

2. The Guardian has been my favorite news source

for decades. We used to buy the printed weekend paper. I love it's ownership structure.

[Blue_Tires]

3. I'll confess their Premiership coverage grudgingly brings me back

on occasion

[BeyondGeography]

4. The reader comments re. football are not to be missed

Snowden, otoh...

[sabrina 1]

5. Lol, 'wow, their intelligence is worse than I thought'. Well they are all Bush/Cheney guys, what

can anyone expect?

[riderinthestorm]

6. Weekend kick. This really is an excellent interview. Much more philosophical

and deeply interesting for those of us who are geeky about privacy concerns.