Edward Snowden says he's OK ending up 'in chains in Guantanamo'

By Chad Merda

National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden says in a new interview that if he ends up being detained in Guantanamo Bay, he’s perfectly fine with that.

“Regardless of what happens, if I end up in chains in Guantanamo, I can live with that,” he told the Guardian.

Snowden gave a wide-ranging interview that lasted seven hours, touching on life in Russia, his future and said he’s holding out for a jury trial in the United States. Snowden is wanted for leaking tens of thousands of top secret document. It’s not the first time Snowden has given an interview, but the one with the Guardian is by far the most in-depth.

During the interview, Snowden said for now, he’s working on designing encryption tools to help professionals protect both sources and data, while also negotiating funding for the project.

An unfortunate side effect of the development of all these new surveillance technologies is that the work of journalism has become immeasurably harder than it ever has been in the past, Snowden said. Journalists have to be particularly conscious about any sort of network signalling, any sort of connection, any sort of licence-plate reading device that they pass on their way to a meeting point, any place they use their credit card, any place they take their phone, any email contact they have with the source because that very first contact, before encrypted communications are established, is enough to give it all away.

He said he’s not depressed and rejects any conspiracy theories around him. He said it’s “bulls—” that he’s a Russian spy.

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