What you need to know:
- Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden broke headlines in 2013 by leaking highly sensitive information regarding U.S. government programs that spy on American citizens.
- Snowden skirted NSA in-house whistle blowing procedure. Instead, he took a medical leave from the NSA, claiming that he needed surgery. In reality, he flew to Hong Kong to meet with Glenn Greenwald of UK newspaper The Guardian and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.
- In these secret meetings, Snowden revealed to them the breadth of the government surveillance programs.
- June 05, 2013, The Guardian broke the news, but only scratched the surface of the issue in their first article.
- The Washington Post soon followed suit.
- These articles started a domino effect, and for better or worse, the course of American history was changed.
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