Government Quotes by Edward Snowden

The United States Government has placed me on no-fly lists.

— Edward Snowden

I'm still working for the government.

— Edward Snowden

So many of the things we're told by the government simply aren't true.

— Edward Snowden

I have no relationship with the Russian government at all.

— Edward Snowden

If I defected at all, I defected from the government to the public

— Edward Snowden

I have had no contact with the Chinese government. I only work with journalists.

— Edward Snowden

What the government wants is something they never had before. They want total awareness. The question is, is that something we should…

— Edward Snowden

Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest.

— Edward Snowden

The charges [government] brought against me, for example, explicitly denied my ability to make a public-interest defense.

— Edward Snowden

There's a real danger in the way our representative government functions today. It functions properly only when paired with accountability.

— Edward Snowden

If the government or the parties won't address our needs, we will. It's about direct action, even civil disobedience.

— Edward Snowden

As I said before, [patriotism] is distinct from acting to benefit the government - a distinction that's increasingly lost today.

— Edward Snowden

The US government still has no idea what documents I have because encryption works

— Edward Snowden

Has the center of gravity shifted such that all governments have greater powers and fewer restrictions than they ever had, and are…

— Edward Snowden

You don't need to justify your rights as a citizen - that inverts the model of responsibility. The government must justify its…

— Edward Snowden

Governments cannot require individuals, they cannot require the public as a body, and they cannot require corporations to make investigation and law…

— Edward Snowden

The majority of people in developed countries spend at least some time interacting with the Internet, and Governments are abusing that necessity…

— Edward Snowden

Let's put it this way. The United States government has assembled a massive investigation team into me personally, into my work with…

— Edward Snowden

There are times throughout history and it doesn't take long for either an American or a German, to think about times in…

— Edward Snowden

If you seek to help, join the open source community and fight to keep the spirit of the press alive and the…

— Edward Snowden

Technology provides us means outside of governments to begin enforcing our rights, enforcing protection of civil liberties, regardless of law, through the…

— Edward Snowden

When governments go too far to punish people for actions that are dissent rather than a real threat to the nation, they…

— Edward Snowden

In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned,…

— Edward Snowden

Maybe boutique media, maybe people who are reading papers and talking to academics and whatnot, maybe they understand, because they're high-information. But…

— Edward Snowden

While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted…

— Edward Snowden

Using the language of heroism, calling Daniel Ellsberg a hero, and calling the other people who made great sacrifices heroes - even…

— Edward Snowden

You are also asked to take an oath, and that's the oath of service. The oath of service is not to secrecy,…

— Edward Snowden

We're now more than a year since my NSA revelations, and despite numerous hours of testimony before Congress, despite tons of off-the-record…

— Edward Snowden

We have a media that goes along with the government by parroting phrases intended to provoke a certain emotional response - for…

— Edward Snowden

“I was right outside the NSA [on 9/11], so I remember the tension on that day. I remember hearing on the radio,…

— Edward Snowden

When you are subverting the power of government, that's a fundamentally dangerous thing to democracy.

— Edward Snowden

I told the government I'd volunteer for prison, as long as it served the right purpose,

— Edward Snowden

I have been to the darkest corners of government, and what they fear is light.

— Edward Snowden

The US government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and…

— Edward Snowden

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example…

— Edward Snowden

The big tech companies understood that the government had not only damaged American principles, it had hurt their businesses.

— Edward Snowden

I know the media likes to personalize political debates, and I know the government will demonize me.

— Edward Snowden

It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised - and it should be.

— Edward Snowden

We should know at least the broad strokes of the powers that the government's claiming in our name, and using allegedly, on…

— Edward Snowden

The government would assert that individuals who are aware of serious wrongdoing in the intelligence community should bring their concerns to the…

— Edward Snowden