[Editor's note: This video interview and text is reprinted from AlterNet. It first appeared on Democracy Now.]
Speaking from Hong Kong where he broke the story of Edward Snowden outing himself as the National Security Agency whistleblower, Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald joined Democracy Now to discuss Snowden's actions and the multiple disclosures he's revealed about government surveillance.
"There is this massive surveillance apparatus being gradually constructed in the United States that already has extremely invasive capabilities to monitor and store the communications and other forms of behaviour, not just of tens of millions of Americans, but of hundreds of millions, probably billions of people, around the globe," Greenwald says.
"It's one thing to say that we want the U.S. government to have these capabilities. It's another thing to allow this to be assembled without any public knowledge, without any public debate, and with no real accountability. What ultimately drove [Snowden] forward -- and what ultimately is driving our reporting -- is the need for a light to be shined on what this incredibly consequential [surveillance] world is all about and the impact it's having both on our country and our planet."
Read more: Rights + Justice, Politics
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