Edward Snowden Exposes America of Hacking Into Other Country's Computer

 29-year-old (Edward Snowden) computer technician for a U.S. defense contractor leaked details of a top-secret American program that collects vast streams of phone and Internet data, American and British newspapers revealed Sunday.

He's a high school dropout who worked his way into the most secretive computers in U.S. intelligence as a defense contractor -- only to blow those secrets wide open by spilling details of classified surveillance programs. 

Snowden is a former technical assistant for the CIA and has been working at the National Security Agency, the U.S. electronic intelligence service, for the past four years, the newspaper reported. He said he walked away from a six-figure job in Hawaii for the computer consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and has holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong in preparation for the expected fallout from his disclosures.

"I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, Internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," he said.

Snowden has revealed himself as the source of documents outlining a massive effort by the U.S. National Security Agency to track cell phone calls and monitor the e-mail and Internet traffic of virtually all Americans.

Snowden, 29, said he just wanted the public to know what the government was doing.

"Even if you're not doing anything wrong you're being watched and recorded," he said.

Snowden told The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom that he had access to the full rosters of everyone working at the NSA, the entire intelligence community and undercover assets around the world.

"I'm just another guy who sits there day to day in the office, watching what's happening, and goes, 'This is something that's not our place to decide.' The public needs to decide whether these programs or policies are right or wrong," he said.

Snowden fled to Hong Kong after copying one last set of documents and telling his boss he needed to go away for medical treatment.

WikiLeaks, which facilitates the publication of classified information and has said it's helping Snowden's asylum bid, said Sunday that Snowden was heading to Ecuador "via a safe route."

"Once Mr. Snowden arrives in Ecuador, his request will be formally processed," WikiLeaks said in a statement on its website.

CNN spotted a car with diplomatic plates and an Ecuadorian flag at Moscow's airport on Sunday.

And the Reuters news agency reported that Ecuador's ambassador to Russia said he would be meeting with Snowden at a Moscow airport hotel.

As word spread that Snowden had left his Hong Kong hideout and was headed to Russia on Sunday, the former NSA contractor became the center of a global guessing game.

Media reports speculated that he could be traveling to Ecuador, Venezuela or Cuba -- all countries where leaders have sharply criticized what they call the U.S. government's imperialist approach.

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