Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistle-blower, is in possession of documents that could expose every detail of how the NSA operates and would be devastating to the agency if he made them public, according to the Associated Press.
Glenn Greenwald, a columnist for the Guardian and confidante of Snowden, said in an interview with the Associated Press that Snowden does not plan to leak the most sensitive documents to the public. Greenwald said that the documents "would allow somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it," the Associated Press reports.
"But that's not his goal," Greenwald said. "His objective is to expose software that people around the world use without knowing what they are exposing themselves to, without consciously agreeing to surrender their rights to privacy. He has a huge number of documents that would be very harmful to the U.S. government if they were made public."
Greenwald explained to the Associated Press that he had to take the more sensitive documents that he does not intend to leak in order to prove the veracity of the documents he was leaking.
"In order to take documents with him that proved that what he was saying was true he had to take ones that included very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do," Greenwald said.
Snowden emerged from hiding for the first time in a month on Friday when he met with human rights groups and lawyers at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, where he has been stranded without travel documents to leave. Snowden said that he had hoped to be granted asylum in Russia until he was able to find a way to travel to one of the three Latin American countries that offered him asylum; Nicaragua, Bolivia or Venezuela.
As of Saturday Russian immigration officials have said that they have yet to receive an application for asylum from Snowden, according to CBS News.
Greenwald, who maintains contact with Snowden, does not ask Snowden about where he is planning on traveling to since that knowledge could have legal ramifications for the Guardian journalist. Greenwald told the Associated Press that despite being a man without a country Snowden seems to have remained calm.
"I haven't sensed an iota of remorse or regret or anxiety over the situation that he's in," Greenwald said. "He's of course tense and focused on his security and his short-term well-being to the best extent that he can, but he's very resigned to the fact that things might go terribly wrong and he's at peace with that."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Russia should do the right thing and send Snowden on a plane back to the U.S., according to Fox News.
"He is accused of leaking classified information, has been charged with three felony counts and should be returned to the United States," Carney said.
