Edward Snowden has sparked a global debate about spying U.S. Intelligence agency ( NSA ) , but he is actually a " very private person " who does not like looking for a thrill or publication , Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman told the Russian Post ( RT ) . Snowden told Gellman that the idea of having a " suicide switch " of the leak is not logical .
Gellman , a Washington Post reporter and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the report , became the first reporter who interviewed Snowden since former NSA contractor was granted temporary asylum in Russia .
Snowden - who spoke with Gellman for 14 hours in two days - to explain the reasoning behind whistleblowing , but do not talk much about his personal life .
However , Gellman has his own impression of his personality Snowden catapult to RT correspondent in America , which tells the rare insight of the " most wanted man on Earth , " which, according to Gellman Edward Snowden spent most of his time on the internet .
Washington Post reporters also revealed his actions to be taken before meeting with Snowden , the whistleblower .
RT : Why are you willing Snowden interviewed ? And why now ?
Barton Gellman : Well , the reason , Snowden did not want to be in the middle of the story . He wanted the story to be about electronic surveillance and espionage boundaries and democracy . So he kept away from the story . I spent a lot of time trying to persuade him that by the end of this year , half a year after the global debate incredible , that there should be some sort of conclusion , what we have learned , what it means . And we need a voice in the story . And he agreed to let me come and see it .
RT : you are with him for two days , and interviewed her for 14 hours . How would you describe Edward Snowden now , in terms of attitude and mentality ?
BG : He was at peace with everything . He is a man under considerable pressure , I have to assume , but he did not show it . He feels like he's doing what he said " I have to do . " When he said what he accomplished in his mission , what he meant was that he took a very important topic of a secret world and submit it to the public so people can decide for themselves where they want to draw the line - instead of having a line drawn for them .
RT : In the article, you mention that " guards never down " during the interview . Do you get the sense that he is constantly worrying , or care at all about his future ?
BG : He is not projecting fears about his future . What I mean by that is ... its limits . For one thing , he is a very private person . He understands that he is in the news , that he had done something very newsworthy . He wanted the news to be about policy , the subject , the documents themselves . He did not notice that he had an obligation at all to talk about his personal life . And he has a natural security issues . And so he noticed what he said .
RT : Can you talk about how you prepared for this trip ? Do you have to leave your laptop , your cell phone ? What precautions should you take?
BG : I can say little about it . I mean, I did not bring anything with me that I was not ready to have one or the other , hold the government and seek or store or copy . So , no , I did not bring anything which is too sensitive . I bring a blank notebook computer and I do not usually bring my phone to use , with none of my data on it . And , as far as I know , these precautions are excessive in the end , because there's nothing stopping me .
RT : Does Stanford have anything to say about the reform efforts currently underway on Capitol Hill ?
BG : He obviously has his own views about what should happen . What he most wanted to make sure is that there can be an open debate about it with full knowledge . It was all in a secret court , it's all in a very small committee of Congress .
We spoke before a huge week for him which justified many statements . He has said all along that he believes some in the NSA program is illegal . Well , as soon as we were talking , a federal judge - the first to consider it in open court - said that one of the NSA program is almost certainly "unconstitutional . "
's Own review board president came back with many reform proposals . U.S. technology industry leaders come and personally told the president that the adverse action NSA information economy . So he had a lot of validation on the last working week of the year.
RT : Snowden insisted that she would never want to publish his leaks at once , that would Could you explain what is meant by " suicide switch . " ?
BG : He opposes [ mass ] publication or throw out all the paperwork . He did not want me to publish everything that I have, he wants me to use my own judgment about what is newsworthy and what will hurt . So , not only that he does not want it all at once , he does not always want everything to be published in the first place .
What is she talking about with this " suicide " is this : there are those who claim that he had some other money from the materials he had rigged up a switch of the dead so if he does not continue to check , if something bad happens to him , then it releases all of these in the world .
First of all , there is no evidence of it . This is contrary to what he says he wants . But he said , " just look at it logically , if I 've rigged up a switch of the dead , I might as well ask everyone to shoot me , because every service in the world who really want it to go public , all they have to do is get rid of I am . "So it is not logical , he said . It's not a switch of the dead , but rather a suicide switch .
RT : You mentioned that you have all of these ingredients . How do you make decisions about what will be released and when?
BG : I review the material with a very small number of peers that reliable, I 'm doing the reporting around it . A lot of it is in the form of instructions , which may be one line in each of the 16 documents , which makes me think that something is going on or there is something interesting . I checked it out , I spoke with government officials . I spoke with people in the industry . Sometimes I'm convinced that my idea is wrong , sometimes I'm persuaded by [ a] government that it would be a bad idea to publish this story . But most often we find something that we think is interesting and public import , and after consultation with my editor at the Post , we recently published .
RT : The Guardian journalists threatened by the British government and was forced to destroy a copy of the documents leaked by Snowden on their servers . Is it ever becomes a problem for you ? How you were able to maintain a newspaper these documents and protect them ?
BG : If there is a threat or coercion used against me or The Washington Post , you 'll know it . That would be news , and we will be the first to report it . There has been no attempt by the U.S. government to force us to do something . There are times when they would ask us , they will try to persuade us not to publish anything . There are times when we agreed and times when we have not . We are taking steps to maintain a very large safe materials . | RT / MJF
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