Edward Snowden is a whistleblower from the United States who leaked several highly classified information from NSA back in 2013. During that time, he was a subcontractor and employee of the CIA. The result of his whistleblowing was the release of several global surveillance programs that were run by the national security agency and other ones who were run together with some of the European governments. His actions were unheard of before he had done it. Two days after his whistleblowing he fled to Moscow. One month later, the Russian government granted him asylum and permitted him to stay at least until 2024.
Private Life
Edward Snowden was born as Edward Joseph Snowden on the 21st of June 1983. His home town is Elizabeth City in North Carolina. His mother Elizabeth is a clerk in the US District in Maryland. His father, Loonie was an officer in the Coast Guard. Back in 2001, his parents divorced and Loonie, his father, remarried. He had mononucleosis during high school, which made him being absent for nine months. Instead of coming back to school, he decided to get his degree online at the University of Liverpool.
He is a really versatile person and he loves language. He even studied the Japanese language at some point. When he was 20 years old, he listed Buddhism as his religion in a form for military recruitment. During presidential elections that were held in 2008, he supported the third-party candidate even though he had sympathies for Obama. At the same time, he was strongly opposed George W. Bush. After his departure from the US, he married his girlfriend Lindsay Mills in a courthouse in Russia. His current residence is unknown.
Career
During the Iraq war, he enlisted to the military in order to help in freeing people who were feeling oppressed by the Iraqi government. However, some bad luck led him to break both of his legs in an accident during training. He was discharged that same year. In 2006, he accepted to come and work for the CIA. He was assigned to the global communications division in Virginia. He was on numerous diplomatic tasks in Europe, especially Switzerland. In one computer magazine, he told that he doesn’t work too hard to get a job, because people consider him to be a computer genius.
In 2013, for unknown reasons he leaked some of the secret files from many different countries. For example, according to UK’s official statement he released about 58,000 files. Also, a source from Australia’s government says that he leaked more than 15,000 secret files. He is considered to be the most popular whistleblower in the world. In 2019, he released a book called “Permanent Record” in which he talks about his work in CIA and him leaking some of the most important documents.
Net Worth
According to several sources, his estimated net worth as of 2024 is $8.4 million. It is hard to say from which jobs he made his wealth but we can surely say that his work as a CIA operative has a large chunk.
