Edward Snowden Biography

Introduction Edward Snowden was born on June 21, 1983 in North Carolina. He was a high school and community college dropout, who eventually obtained a GED. He was medically discharged from the Army Reserves when he broke of his legs in an accident. For the short time he was attending community college in Maryland, Snowden studied computers. He began working for the National Security Administration (NSA) as a security guard and, in time, through technical consulting companies, he secured a high paying IT position with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and eventually a classified program back at the NSA (Edward Snowden Biography, n.d.). Incidentally, to work on a classified program it is requisite to apply for a government security clearance first. Once the interim or final clearance eligibility is granted, the individual is required to sign a Classified Information Non-disclosure Agreement or a Standard Form 312 (SF-312). This form is required by the National Industrial Security Program
After being granted a medical leave of-absence from the NSA, he ran off to Ecuador and sought asylum while he released the top secret information he gathered. From Ecuador he ran to Hong Kong, and then to Russia, at which time the U.S. government cancelled his passport and sought extradition from Russia. Nevertheless, Russia refused, and still refuses, to turn him over to the U.S. As of today, he remains in Moscow, in hiding, and is in the protection of the Russian government. It is believed that he may stay there indefinitely and eventually apply for Russian citizenship (Edward Snowden Biography, n.d.). The fact that Russia is providing protection for Snowden and is may allow him a path to citizenship in the future is further vindication in his mind that he did the right thing by leaking U.S.