Snowden: US Wants to Kill Me

But he's not losing sleep over it, he says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 27, 2014 4:06 AM CST
Snowden: US Wants to Kill Me
Former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden speaks during a presentation ceremony for the Sam Adams Award in Moscow.   (AP Photo)

Edward Snowden believes top American government officials want him dead—but he still sleeps well at night because he knows he did the right thing. In an interview with a German broadcaster, the NSA leaker said he was aware of "significant threats" to his life, Reuters reports. "These people, and they are government officials, have said they would love to put a bullet in my head or poison me when I come out of the supermarket and then watch me die in the shower," he said.

But despite the assassination threats, "I'm still alive and don't lose sleep for what I did because it was the right thing to do," said Snowden, speaking in a Moscow hotel. The interviewer said Snowden was "very precise in what he says, but naturally was also very cautious" to stay on the right side of his conditions of asylum in Russia, where authorities have said he can extend his stay, reports Deutsche Welle. During the interview, Snowden also claimed that the NSA is involved in industrial espionage. (More Edward Snowden stories.)

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