The name of Edward Snowden, the scandalous whistleblower of the American intelligence services, still remains on the first lines of news sites. Such is the fate of this person - or maybe such is his choice - that each of his remarks implies a hidden meaning and entails certain consequences, from which not only other characters suffer, but he himself.
He said it's time
On his Twitter account, Edward Snowden posted a very original post that many called significant and even mysterious. The tweet is a kind of encrypted message to his former colleagues, and its meaning boils down to the fact that "the time has come." The message also contains a hint that it is time to contact him. And more than 2 million of his subscribers answered the call with likes. What does it mean?
Time for what?
Perhaps, in this way, the disgraced ex-intelligence officer warns like-minded people about an imminent meeting. In recent days, there have been reports in the press that Snowden's life in Russia is not so sweet, which, in principle, can be understood. It is difficult to judge a person who is deprived of the opportunity to live in his usual environment and do his job.
Although he is just doing business. All his work takes place online, and therefore he prefers to live and work according to American time. He even boasted that over the past year, while living in Russia, he earned 200 thousand dollars in America. Not everything is so smooth with the Russian language, he communicates with everyone in English, however, as Edward Snowden joked, he is quite capable of ordering food in a restaurant in Russian.
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Time to tell the truth
Both Snowden himself and his followers are unanimous on one thing: one must live by the truth at all times. And his unexpected appearance in 2014 - albeit in video mode - at a conference in Vancouver (Canada) was another declaration of this principle. Then Snowden announced that he had many more classified materials that needed to be made public.
And recently, reports have been made public that the most wanted spy intends to return to America and ask Barack Obama's forgiveness while he is still in power. But on one condition: that he will be given a fair trial and the opportunity to argue his position before the jury regarding the charges for which he faces a long prison term (espionage and theft of state property).
Why did this tweet appear?
The cryptic message on Twitter came a week after Snowden exchanged barbs with WikiLeaks here on social media. Perhaps this was Snowden's reaction to accusations that he supported Hillary Clinton's campaign program to help him return to his homeland and justify himself to fellow citizens, while guaranteeing the secrecy of his whereabouts and personal safety.
Snowden as the hero of the novel
Journalist and writer Burton Gellman is currently working on a book about Snowden. He sets the task of showing his hero from all sides, including that Snowden, who successfully worked in the intelligence community and himself provided surveillance of citizens and politicians, while knowing that he would one day tell the whole truth. The author posted on the networks an appeal to everyone who knew Snowden and worked with him, with a request to provide information of any plan: what he was while working in the CIA, or in the NSA, or while serving in the army, studying on computer courses - any information about the hero will be appreciated. The main thing is that it was true first-hand information, writes Gellman.
A biopic by Hollywood director Oliver Stone about the story of the famous whistleblower promises to be interesting. The film was promised to be released at the end of this year.
In 2013, Snowden, then an employee of the CIA and NSA (US National Security Agency), published data on the surveillance of American intelligence services on its citizens, as well as on wiretapping of leaders of other powers, and has since become an outcast. At first he hid in Hong Kong, in 2014 he moved to Russia and received a residence permit for three years. The residence permit has almost expired. And soon the whole world might find out what Snowden's cryptic tweet meant that the time had come.
Rose Narodnoe