 Good morning. I'm Kristen Velletti and welcome to Newsdesk on SiliconANGLE TV for Monday, June 10, 2013. The whistleblower behind the Prism Program and NSA surveillance revelations has revealed himself. Join us now to share more as this controversial story unfolds is SiliconANGLE contributing editor, John Castoreto. Hi, John. Thanks for joining us once again. Thank you. Friday, we reported that six major tech companies were denying involvement with the controversial government prism program. Today we have information on the individual who is responsible for what is now being called one of the most significant leaks in U.S. political history. So, John, for those who haven't been keeping up, give us a quick review of the information that was leaked and why this is so controversial. Well, last week the world became aware of the data harvesting operations that are being conducted by the NSA. There were many of us that thought it existed or thought something like it existed. Some of us had even heard about it, but, you know, and certainly there were indications that some large-scale operations were underway by the government, but, you know, it really started to emerge as proof, had a name, we had a program, we had slides and a deck and things like that that came out, you know, that really put some substance around this that this NSA program existed. And in doing so, they basically described how they had this unfettered access to private citizens online accounts from Facebook, Google, Microsoft, the list goes on, all the big ones. And in order to do so, what they were constructing was this wide-spectrum data operation where they were doing analysis and intelligence gathering. You know, it's important to note, however, that some of the controversy surrounding this is really, you know, this whole notion of privacy versus security. And, you know, although it's design really was an intent on spying on individual citizens, a lot of people are concerned about that notion nonetheless. Have any of these accused tech companies spoken out more about Prism or are they still denying involvement at this time? Well, officially they are still denying involvement and, you know, that indicates what is probably a premeditated protocol in the event that such knowledge of this had gotten out. It's interesting, however, if you look at some of the statements from the president from different people that we've heard, the director of National Intelligence James Clapper, he blasted the information leaks, but, you know, he also stated that these programs are legal, limited in scope and necessary to detect these terrorist threats. The government hasn't denied it themselves and they're actually defending it as something that's necessary. Now, 29-year-old Edward Snowden is the individual who has named himself as responsible for the leaked information regarding the Prism program. What can you tell us about Snowden? Who is he? How did he have access to this information? Well, yeah, that's pretty interesting. It's something that we see a lot in the world of security. Edward Snowden was a former technical assistant for the CIA, currently an employee, a contractor, if you will, of these defense contractors, Booz Allen Hamilton, Dell. He'd been working at the NSA for the last four years and had been an employee of these various outside contractors, including Dell and Booz Allen. Now, after disclosing these numerous top-secret documents to the public, Snowden made the decision not to opt for the protection of anonymity. Why did he choose to reveal himself, John? Well, you know, he basically chose to reveal himself because he felt what he's saying officially is that he had no intention of hiding because he says that he has done nothing wrong. So he really wanted to be public about it and I think he feels that he's insulated from some of the things that he felt could happen to him by just coming out and saying, hey, it was me. In a statement about the life that he's leaving behind, Snowden said, I'm willing to sacrifice all of it because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building. John, how do you think Snowden's message is going to be received? Well, I believe it has a populist appeal and there's going to be many people from across the spectrum, politically, socially, people that are on the side of electronic freedom and so on, and they're likely to be accepting of it. As far as some of those questions are out there, this is something that has to be metered with some reality as well. The NSA ostensibly launched this tool to help protect our country. That's a big question of this whole freedom versus security argument and one that we're going to be dealing with for a long time. Essentially, the bottom line is that privacy is dead. What kind of consequences does Snowden face for going public and how is the government responding to his actions? Well, he faces a world of trouble. I was at the defense contractor at one point. We all take an oath. I think mine expires when I'm 112. It'll be a long time before I can disclose some of the things that I did, but there's a lot of rumors out there. There's talk today that this may even be an act of espionage, which of course, against this country, carries some significant ramifications. So we'll hear more in the coming days as far as what the government's official responses to what Snowden has done. I think we've heard a little bit from Clapper as far as the consequence, the great consequence of what's happened and what's been leaked and what it affects. But there's a lot of rumors out there. We're going to hear a lot of things that are unsubstantiated and we can't really verify very quickly. I think in the big picture, this will eventually get to like a Bradley Manning situation where we have a very public trial and we bring all these things out or at least some big discussions around the security of this. Now where is Snowden now and what are his plans? Well, he's holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong and he's remained there since releasing the documents. He actually left Hawaii, jetted out of there in anticipation of knowing when this was all going to be released. The word is that he chose the city because he felt that they had a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent. That's a quote. But here's one of the things Hong Kong is under Chinese influence. Although, yes, it is more or less independent. If you look at the big picture, a lot of people feel that this could be some type of flight to China. He's certainly not coming back here and extradition would be something that politically would be difficult. There would be all kinds of issues with all kinds of political ramifications and economic and just a whole bunch of things would really tie into. It's hard to say. I think that most people feel that he's going to definitely remain in China and not coming back or remain in Hong Kong and possibly going to China and seek protection in there. Do you think Snowden's choice to go public could benefit him anyway? Is there any chance it will make it more difficult for the government to charge him because of that? Well, I think he has hopes that the publicity will give him some protections. In other words, the people will cry out because they would have found him sooner or later. He also said that he felt that it would make it harder for them to get dirty. I think implying that they would just take him out somehow. If it was very public, if everybody knew who he was and all of a sudden he disappeared, this would be something that would be very public if he disappeared. I think that gives him some solace in terms of being able to protect himself. Do you think Snowden's whistleblowing is going to have any sort of effect on government actions? Is he going to see the change that he's hoping for? It's doubtful. As I said, there's a lot to wrangle with here as a society, as a country. The government of course feels that this is something that was legal and necessary. Private citizens are going to probably more gravitate to the side of them. They feel that their legal rights are slipping away. All the different things from privacy to search and seizure, the First Amendment, and so on, all able to be reached into and looked at by the government and different agencies. There's been scandals with the IRS and being pointed out for having individual perspectives on things. As we saw with the naked X-ray scanners, the public outrage can have some effect. Those have now been removed from these airports. Although the government never really admitted any overreach or wrongdoing in putting those out there, they have retracted these machines. They're controversial. I don't think that will happen here, though. This is just too well-rooted. There's too much intelligence that can be gained out of this. This is not likely to go away. I want to point out, though, that as far as the privacy issue goes, Jeff Kelly's piece on accumulo and protecting your anonymity in a way of being specific about these analytics and making these things possible. It's something to consider. They're not really looking at individuals. They're looking at patterns and then going down and getting down to that detailed level. There's just a lot of information to deal with. There's a lot of angles on this, political, technical. It's just a lot of things to look at, and we're going to be watching this for a long time to come. Well, regardless of the lasting effects, it's definitely brought this issue to light and definitely stirring up the conversation, which is an important one to have. So thank you so much for taking the time with us, John. Thank you. And on the way, Google looks to add to its mapping capabilities and a high-speed thumb drive that puts all others to shame. These stories and more are in your SiliconANGLE Daily Roundup. That's next here on Newsdesk.