{"id":58640,"date":"2016-09-11T13:48:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T20:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=58640"},"modified":"2016-09-11T13:48:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T20:48:11","slug":"edward-snowdens-guardian-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/09\/11\/edward-snowdens-guardian-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Snowden’s Guardian Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BY S\u00d6NKE IWERSEN<\/a>\u00a0HANDELSBLATT EXCLUSIVE\u00a0Courtesy\u00a0Handelsblatt Global Edition<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

From a hotel in Hong Kong, Edward Snowden shocked the world in 2013 by disclosing the extent of U.S. intelligence spying. Then he vanished ore flebefeing to Moscow. Handelsblatt found the people who hid Snowden — refugees with nothing, and everything to lose.
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\"Ajith,
Six refugees who sheltered NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 in Hong Kong, before he fled to Moscow. They wanted to be identified only by first names. From left to right: Ajith, a former soldier from Sri Lanka; Vanessa, a domestic helper from the Philippines and her daugher, Keana; Nadeeka, a refugee from Sri Lanka with her husband, Supun, and their daughter, Sethumdi. Source: Jayne Russell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Edward Snowden doesn\u2019t like vegetables. Nadeeka* smiled at this as she washed the dishes in her small kitchen. The guest who had slept in her room for the last three days may have been the world\u2019s most-wanted man, but when it came to his eating habits, he strongly resembled her daughter, Sethumdi. The meat disappeared, the side dish stayed on the plate. Now, on this hot summer day in 2013, Mr. Snowden and Sethumdi were playing in the hallway. Times like these, the American acted normal.<\/p>\n

Nadeeka, a petite woman with jet-black hair, finished the dishes and went into the hallway. Her guest had withdrawn to his room again. She knocked on the door, opened it and found him bent over his laptop, as usual. Nadeeka told him she was going shopping. She felt sorry for the young American for having to spend so much time in the stuffy room. He looked at her for a moment, without moving. Then he said: Nadeeka, I\u2019m alive in this room. I\u2019m dead outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world had never seen a spy like him before. My name is Edward Snowden. I am 29 years old. I worked for Booz Allen Hamilton as an analyst for the NSA,\u201d he said at the beginning of his interview, which was broadcast on June 9, 2013. Then he told viewers about all the things an analyst for the National Security Agency could do.<\/p>\n

The interview sent shockwaves around the globe. People were already suspicious of intelligence agencies but Mr. Snowden\u2019s revelations sent shivers down their spines. Here was a young man talking calmly about how the NSA was recording and storing every single email and text message sent anywhere in the world. Every telephone number in use was archived, as was every internet address visited and every online purchase. All of this was being done without court orders or political mandates. The world was outraged.<\/p>\n

One reason Mr. Snowden\u2019s revelations found such resonance was that he had prepared them so well. Weeks before his interview, he had traveled to Hong Kong with a collection of USB sticks in his luggage. The storage devices contained countless U.S. intelligence service documents. Then he set up a meeting with a journalist from British newspaper The Guardian and U.S. documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras.
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