NDR - Exclusive Interview with German NDR (English translation) lyrics

Mr Snowden, did you sleep well the last couple of nights? I read that you requested police protection. Are there any threats? There are explicit threats, but I sleep very well. There was an article on a website called Buzz Feed, in which Pentagon and NSA officials had been interviewed. They were pledged anonymity so they could say whatever they wanted and they told the reporter that they want to k** me. These people – and they are government officials – said that they would like to shoot a bullet through my head or poison me, when I would come out of the supermarket and then watch me dying under the shower. Luckily you are still alive. Right, I am still alive and I do not spend sleepless nights because I did what I thought had to be done. It was the right thing and I will not have fear. "The biggest fear I have, concerning my revelations, is that nothing might change” you said back then. But meanwhile there is a lively debate about the state of the NSA; not only in America, but as well in Germany and Brazil, and President Obama was forced to legitimate the actions of the NSA. As a first reaction to the disclosures the government built a kind of wall around the NSA. Instead of bolstering the public and protect their rights, politicians encouraged the security establishment and protected its rights. Interestingly that only was the initial reaction, since then there have been concessions. The President said: "We stayed within proportion, there was no abuse", then him and his officials admitted that there thoroughly has been an abus. Every year there were countless offenses by the NSA and other institutions and authorities. Is Obama's Speech the beginning of a wholehearted regulation? The President's speech pointed out that he is going to make small modifications to protect agencies that we don't need. The President formed a board of inquiry out of officials that belong amongst his close friends, out of members of the national security and former dependents oft he CIA – out of people that all have their reasons to be treat the programs carefully. But even they realised that all these programs are worthless and they have not prevented any terrorist attacks and at best have a bit of an use for other things. The Section 215 program, that is a huge data-collection program – that means ma**surveillanceprogram – has solely found out that a telegraphic money transfer of $85.000 by a cab driver had been discovered and blocked. Experts say that we do not need this kind of examination, that these programs do not secure us. Their maintenance is expensive and they are worthless. Specialists say that we could modify them. The NSA is under the control oft he President. He can stop their course of action anytime or initiate adjustments. President Obama admitted that the NSA collects and record billions of data. Every time you make a phone call, write an e-mail, transfer money with a cell phone, ride the bus or draw a card through a reader you leave a trace and the government decided that it is a good idea to collect all oft hat with these programs. Everything, even if you have never been suspected of a crime. Usually the governmant asks a judge and explains that someone has been suspected of a certain crime, a warrant is issued and not until then the authority is used for investigations. Today the government makes use of their authority even before an investigation has started. You triggered this debate. The name Edward Snowden stands for the whistleblower in the age of the internet. Until last summer you worked for the NSA and in that time you secretely collected thousands of confidential documents by the NSA all around the world. What was the crucial moment – or was it a longer time period – why did you do it? I would say a crucial point was when I saw how the head of the national security agency, James Clapper, lied to the congress under pledge. There is no resort for a security agency that believes it could lie to the public and the legislator who trusts and regulates its actions. When I saw that it meant that I cannot go back. There was no doubt. Furthermore it was the creeping cognition that no one else would do it. The public had a right to find out about these programs. The public had a right to know what the government is doing in their name and against the public. But neither that nor the other we were allowed to discuss. It was even forbidden to tell about or discuss it with our elected representatives and that is dangerous. The only examination we had came from a court, the FISA Court which is a type of completion aid. If you belong to them, if you go to work there every day and sit down at your desk you you become aware of the power you have. That you could monitor even the President of the United States or a federal judge and if you were careful enough no one could find out because the only way to expose NSA abuse is to report oneself. Regarding that, let us not only talk about the NSA. There is a multilateral agreement for cooperation of the security agencies. That pact is known as Five Eyes. Which security agencies and countries belong to that alliance and what is their ambition? The Five Eyes Alliance is a type of relict from the era after World War II, when the english speaking countries were the great powers that joined to work together and share expenses of the infrastucture of the security agencies. So we have the GCHQ in England, we have the NSA in the USA; and we have Canada's C-Sec, we have the Australian Signals Intelligence Directorate and we have the New Zealand DSD. The result has been a type of supranational security agency that does not regard the laws of its own country for decades.