In an in-depth interview published by Wired Magazine on Wednesday, Edward Snowden discloses what government activities proved to be the “last straw,” prompting the whistleblower to expose the depths of the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance operation.
Speaking with investigative journalist James Bamford—who blew the whistle on a government eavesdropping program when stationed in Hawaii during the Vietnam War and later wrote a number of best-selling books about government secrecy and the NSA—Snowden reveals how a botched U.S. government hacking operation caused Syria’s 2012 internet blackout.
Bamford writes:
Snowden also revealed that, after the operatives realized what they had done, one jokingly said: “If we get caught, we can always point the finger at Israel.”
During his clandestine meeting with Bamford, Snowden disclosed for the first time the existence of another “Strangelovian cyberwarfare program,” codenamed MonsterMind, which he described as the ultimate threat to privacy.
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