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 "For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already
accomplished," he told the Washington Post. The newspaper said it
spoke to Snowden over two days of nearly unbroken conversation in
Moscow, "fueled by burgers, pasta, ice cream and Russian pastry."
It was the first extensive face-to-face interview Snowden has
granted since arriving in Russia in June and being given temporary
asylum there.
"I already won," Snowden said. "As soon as the journalists were able
to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated.
Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give
society a chance to determine if it should change itself."
Last week, a White House-appointed panel proposed curbs on some key
NSA surveillance operations, recommending limits on a program to
collect records of billions of telephone calls, and new tests before
Washington spies on foreign leaders. The panel's proposals were made
in the wake of Snowden's revelations.
President Barack Obama later tried to strike a middle ground, saying
some checks were needed on the NSA's surveillance, but "we can't
unilaterally disarm.
In the interview, Snowden denied he was trying to bring down the
NSA. "I am working to improve the NSA," he said. "I am still working
for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't realize it."
Snowden left his post in Hawaii in May and went public with his
first revelations about the NSA from Hong Kong a few weeks later.
Later in June, he left for Russia and stayed at Moscow's
Sheremetyevo airport until the Kremlin granted him temporary
one-year asylum after nearly six weeks. Called a champion of human rights by his admirers and a traitor by
critics, Snowden lives at an undisclosed location in the Russian
capital. The Washington Post said he was unaccompanied when he met
the reporter for the interview, and did not try to communicate
furtively. He said he has had access to the Internet and to lawyers
and journalists throughout his stay in Russia.
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"INDOOR CAT"
Snowden called himself "an indoor cat," and says he rarely leaves
his house. "I just don't have a lot of needs," he said.
"Occasionally there's things to go do, things to go see, people to
meet, tasks to accomplish.
"But it's really got to be goal-oriented, you know. Otherwise, as
long as I can sit down and think and write and talk to somebody,
that's more meaningful to me than going out and looking at
landmarks."
Snowden said he was an ascetic and lived off ramen noodles and
chips. He has visitors and many of them bring books, but they pile
up, unread.
He denied he had loyalties to Russia or China.
"I have no relationship with the Russian government," he said. "I
have not entered into any agreements with them. If I defected at
all, I defected from the government to the public."
(Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; editing by Ian Geoghegan)
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