to edward snowden?hee were pretty aware from beginning -- i think one of the important parts of the story is that we knew early on that what we were going to do was going to be at least as much about media and journalism issues as it was about surveillance. and the reason is, there is a set of unspoken rules that usually govern how media outlets handle stories like this. which is, if you get a lot of documents, what you do at most is you publish one or two stories, you don't publish any of the raw materials, you go to the government and extensively negotiate with them about what you can publish and what you can't. you take all sorts of guidance about what you should and should not disclose. you do one or two stories, then kind of walk away before you do any real damage or disrupt anything for real. you collect some awards, get some accolades, and just sort of leave the status quo be that show the country that you have done some real journalism. once we got the sense of how vast and sprawling this archiv

he met two journalists, edward snowden, from a hotel. "the guardian" published an exclusive on edward snowden's links. glenn greenwald's journey showed verizon was forced to hand over phone records. it was the first of torrent revelations and rehabilitations. the second revealed a programme called prism. showing the agencies had access to google facebook and others. >> president obama said: >> edward snowden went public: >> the u.s. soon filed espionage charms against edward snowden and tried to have him extradited from hong kong. within a few days edward snowden was in moscow. the pace of the leaks slowed. they didn't stop thanks to the collaboration between snowed where are and glenn greenwald. a disastrous story was a report published by the "new york times", "the guardian" - that the u.s. and british intelligence spied on germany, united nations, israel, france and other allies. glenn greenwald's new book includes more details about how the n.s.a. cop rates with allies and orptions. >> glenn greenwald niments and -- "new york times"

talk about who edward snowden was and is. what is his background? reveal things in his background that most people haven't talked about before. >> for my own personal experience, this is probably the most stunning part of the story. and it is what i spent a lot of time in hong kong trying to figure out and investigate through asking him questions. i still think about it, which is, what would lead a seemingly ordinary 29-year-old that his entire life ahead of him, someone very well adjusted by all appearances with a good job and a very good income and a great career and a girlfriend who he loves and a family who is supportive, to give up his entire life, to literally risk decades in prison, not to enrich himself or extract vengeance on somebody, but in pursuit of a political ideal? to confront an injustice he believes is taking place? what takes place in someone's mind and in their spirit and in their sole that leads them to engage in such an obviously self-sacrificing act? that is a really hard but important question to think about. what really stru

edward snowden is a coward. he is a traitor, and he has betrayed his country, and if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he can do so. >> an energized secretary of state john kerry who made those comments on the air today to our chief white house correspondent political director chuck todd. chuck is with us from the white house tonight. chuck, without exception, this is the position you hear on edward snowden where you are. >> reporter: that's right. here at the white house, he was channelling rage, frankly, that you sometimes hear from about edward snowden. i've had a similar experience with staffers, particularly in the national security wing, who when you talk about this, they want to have a sober conversation, and say, look, we're not going to get into a back and forth about edward snowden and you poke for just a second and hear that tone that secretary kerry was doing. that wasn't political theater. sometimes you hear anger that's political theater. that's real rage. the anger at edward snowde

which is at least as much of a felony as edward snowden is accused of.you cannot find a single politician who has interviewed james clapper who asked if he should go to prison or suggested that he shouldn't demonstrates this split in how we look at what the law is for. as for powerless ordinary people and not for people who yield power. as for smoking guns no matter what i demonstrate indictments in our current culture but there definitely are stories left that will shape how the story is formed. just to be clear those stories are not purposefully setting on -- which is in nobody's interest. these are the stories that are difficult to report prayed they involve incredible sensitivity about the lives of innocent people and how the report while protecting their interests? they involve all kinds of legal questions that will implicate the interest of our source and the journalists working on the story but the minute those stories are ready and we are working on them as fast as we can they will be published and i think they will significantly reshape how peop

who is edward snowden? here's how the administration and congressional critics described him when he first exposed the secret surveillance program. >> no, i'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker. >> reporter: and this from the leaders of the house intelligence committee. >> i think he was lying. >> he's a legend in his own mind. >> he clearly overinflated his position. he overinflated his access. he's even overinflated what the actual technology of the programs would allow one to do. >> reporter: what do the records show? from our reporting the defense intelligence agency said snowden was a guest speaker at three of their conferences on cyber security including one in japan focusing on the chinese cyber threat. critics and supporters acknowledge snowden is whip smart, able to get in the system, know what he was taking, cover his tracks, plot his escape. micah is an nbc analyst and serves on an nsa panel. >> the amount of information that snowden was able to take from the nsa is truly

we'll hear what edward snowden has to say about that. he arrived alone carrying only a backpack into our moscow hotel. he came up a back stairway into the elevator. the moment he sat down and our camera focused on him, it became clear that this was the first good long look at him the world had had. we saw him framed against the hotel window in hong kong and appearing from undisclosed locations on closed circuit video. he was here now, introducing himself as ed. a lot of people say you have badly damaged your country. >> can you show that? is there any dman vaemonstratio? i have been asking for a year now. if after a year they can't show a single individual who has been harmed in any way by this reporting, is it really so grave? is it really so serious? can we really trust those claims without scrutinizing them? i would argue we can't. we should be open to them. it's fair, the possibility. if this has caused serious harm, i plirwould like to know about >> keith alexander has said you have done, quote, significant and irreversible damage t

edward snowden, the nsa and the western real estate. we will get two calls. eric is waiting in georgia. on our line for democrats. you are on. caller: thank you. what snowden did -- i have a couple of points i would like to make. what snowden did, would you recommend that everyone who worked in this agency tell what they know? take it upon themselves to make themselves the king who determines what is constitutional and what is unconstitutional. all of these documents that you have brought -- these documents are national security issues. what makes you think you are the people who should disseminate the this this information? guest: there is a history in the united states that is extremely important where whistleblowers inside the government discover things that the u.s. government is doing and come forward. probably the most significant case prior to the ones of the last five years was -- he discovered classified information showing the u.s. government was systematically lying to the american people about the vietnam war ended upon himself -- and took it upon

. >> should edward snowden be brought back to the united states? >> he's not going to. glenn are greenwald has told us edward is a highly skilled operative. he has no real understanding of the intelligence business and it's very clear from the way these leaks have come out. no one in the inner circle here including glen actually fully understands these mountains of purloined powerpoint presentations they have. there is a massive amount of context that's missing that i'm not sure they even understand. >> why would edward snowden have been at that low level have access to this sort of information? >> well, you know, he was an i.t. person. your i.t. person, weakest link in any organization, including highly secretive ones. they have in theory access to many things, if one of them goes rogue terrible things can happen. this is a big risk in the private sector too. this is not just a governmental thing. i used to work in counterintelligence in nsa, and decades ago we were concerned about an i.t. person going rogue and having devastating consequences. >>

this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. ♪ >> there is a new twist in the edward snowden trial. den set down for his first interview with the u.s. television network. he told nbc he was much more than a low level systems administrator. >> it is no secret that the u.s. tends to get more and better intelligence out of computers nowadays than they do out of people. i lived and worked undercover overseas, pretending to work in a job that i'm not, and even being assigned a name that was not mine. >> a snowden story is now also the subject of a new graphic novel, a new comic up. it is called "beyond edward snowden," and it is published by one of the top independent makers of comic books, bluewater productions. join me is the writer of the snowden comic book. >> thanks for inviting me. >> we learned about edward snowden. you have a lot of experience writing and producing comic books. >> yes, i'm a lifelong reader of comics. i have written comics, i have worked for d.c. and other publishers, and i have worked as the editor of a comic book site for mtv. comics are my life. >> how does the

tonight here, brian williams' landmark interview with edward snowden from moscow. >>> tonight, edward snowden's first interview on american television. >> former nsa director has said you have done significant and irreversible damage to the nation. >> the man who stole nsa secrets talks about what drove him to do it. >> sometimes to do the right thing you have to break a rule. >> and how he ended up in exile in russia. >> people are going to find it hard to believe that president putin hasn't taken a run at you or what you know. >>> tonight, the man who insists he is a trained spy. >> i'm not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker. >> and is wanted for espionage while insisting he's a patriot. >> you hear often in the united states why doesn't he come home and face the music? >>> from nbc news, "inside the mind of edward snowden." >>> good evening. i'm brian williams. he is routinely called the most wanted man in the world. last week in moscow, cloaked in secrecy and after months of behind-the-scenes back and forth, we sat down with edward snowden for his first americ

music, he can do so. >> and that was, of course, john kerry on chuck todd's show reacting to edward snowdenh aired earlier, part of it aired earlier on "today." and on "morning joe." brian williams' exclusive interview with snowden is already provoking sharp commentary from top u.s. officials. joining me to talk about this and the president's speech at west point, political analyst and "washington post" columnist, and former moscow correspondent for the post, susan glasser, and msnbc military analyst and honorary recipient live at west point at the commencement. let's talk about the president's speech withdrawing, the deadline -- >> right. >> -- and for more covert training in syria. we're beginning to get more involved in one war, the civil war in syria, and pulling out of afghanistan. >> and pulling out of afghanistan. and, you know, the speech was billed as essentially the obama doctrine, laying out his foreign policy vision. the thesis of the speech was, there are a lot of different -- very diverse kinds of problems that face us. it's diffuse. not like the cold war. there are individual

business built for business. >>> whether you consider him a traitor or a patriot, 30-year-old edward snowdenas already gone down in history for the largest theft of intelligence data in modern u.s. history. it was one year ago that classified intelligence documents illegally downloaded by snowden began showing up in the media. in an exclusive interview with nbc's brian williams, snowden describes his work for the government that gave him access to this critical data. >> were you trained as a spy? it seems to me spies probably look a lot more like edward snowden and a lot less like james bond these days. >> well, it's no secret that the u.s. tends to get more and better intelligence out of computers nowadays than they do out of people. i was trained as a spy in sort of the traditional sense of the word in that i lived and worked undercover, overseas, pretending to work in the job that i'm not and even being assigned a name that was not mine. but i am a technical specialist. i am a technical expert. i don't work with people. i don't recruit agents. what i do is a put systems to work for the un

edward snowden the nsa and the u.s. surveillance state. >> i think if you look at the surveillance abuses of the past, the principle question has always been on whom is the government spying domestically and for what reasons, which who are their targets. and that's the missing part of the puzzle in terms of the public reporting taking place. >> rose: who the target are. >> who specifically are the target domestically, u.s. citizens, domestic persons inside the united states. the investigation we're currently working on the and when the reporting we're doing is to enter that question in a very comprehensive way. >> rose: we conclude this evening with writer christopher buckley. >> i was once speaking at a civic event in ohio. they're very nice. they're much nicer than we are in the east, although they're very nice in the carolinas. and it was one of those 11:00 in the morning things. the audience, a civic auditorium of a thousand blue-haired ladies and silver-haired ladies. my host, who was a sweet sweet person introduce

seemed like things couldn't get worse for the national security agency after former employee edward snowden stole and then leaked a trove of america's most sensitive secrets a year ago. but things did get worse. a torrent of damaging stories. in august, it's revealed the in august, it's revealed the nsa has broken privacy rules thousands of times. a few weeks later, the black budget is published showing the nsa pays u.s. communication companies for access to their networks. in the fall, news the nsa has been tapping the cell phone of german chancellor angela merkel and other world leaders. in december, a judge rules collection of american phone records are almost certainly illegal. more news in march, the nsa has the capacity to listen in on phone conversations up to one month after they happen. >> we have vital news tonight. for those of you who use the internet. >> then in april, another heartbreak for the nsa. a bug that can breakthrough a user's incryption and get at pass words, e-mails and credit card numbers. >> the nsa knew about the flaw for at least two years but kept it secret to

he has become the leading most vocal defender not just of edward snowden but chelsea manning and other whistleblowers. the reason he said he does that and he's devoted to doing it even though he's now 83 is because he said every single thing that they say about edward snowden and chelsea manning every single thing was said about me.

comcast business built for business. >>> after the snowden >>> after the edward snowden revelations, demnation of the nsa was widespread. it was clear that a day of reckoning was at hand. >> ed snowden let the american people know they were being spied on by their government. there is no transparency, no effort to have real accountability. the claims are even fraudulent. american people are getting conned by this nsa. >> former u.s. representative dennis kucinich does not mince words. >> the nsa has launched an illegal constitutional act on american's right to privacy. if you're a proud american, and i am, i say it is time to stand up for who we are as americans and get rid of the nsa and send a message to any other agency you spy on the american people, you're out of business. >> while few politicians were willing to go as far as dennis kucinich, there was no doubt major reform was in the air, which was why all eyes were on president obama when he made a speech on reform at the justice department on january 17th. >> regardless of how we got here, though, the task before us now is gre

maybe edward snowden's leg as where i will be to change that. >> snowden wasn't even working for theof this stuff is contracted out right now. >> you should do another segment on the problems of contracting. >> promise to come back. >> i'm in. any time, all the time for you. >> ronan farrow. matt sledge of the huffington post. thank you for being here. appreciate it, guys. we'll be right back. marge: you know, there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious, and an excellent source of fiber to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ >> give me your hand. let others have the privacy of touching words and love of loss of love. for me give me your hand. how do you explain maya angelou? you were a black girl growing up in america in the 1

. >> and you can see brian williams' exclusive interview with edward snowden wednesday night at 9:00/10:00 eastern on nbc. >>> president obama did something no other president had ever done. plus a good old fashioned duel. scrambled politics is next. i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase like 60,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account. and i ea 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at office supply stores. with ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. travel, gift cards even cash back. and my rewards points won't expire. so you can make owning business even more rewarding. ink from chase. so you can. but they don't yet know we're a family. we're right where you need us. at the next job, next adventure or at the next exit helping you explore super destinations and do everything under the sun. 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world. so wherever you want to be, whatever you want to do, chances are we're already there. save up to 25% and earn bonus points

edward snowden is a coward. he is a traitor, and he has betrayed his country. and if he wants to come home tomorrow to face the music, he can do so.

edward snowden speaking in his first sit-down interview on american television. snowden sat down with brian williams in moscow. stole secrets from the nsa and released them to the media. william showed snowden the cell phone and what can intelligence agencies do with information connected on that phone? >> any intelligence service in the world that has significant funding and a real technological research team can own that phone the minute it connect to your network. the minute you turn it on it can be theirs. they can turn it into a microphone and take pictures off of it. it's important to understand that these things are typically done on a targeted basis. >> snowden also talked about his life in russia and if he has a relationship with vladimir putin. we'll have that coming up in our next half hour. continuing coverage throughout our newscast including a live report from washington, d.c., about the one place he would want to go to if he could. we also have coverage on our website, nbcbayarea.com. >>> travelers across the bay area and the state are worried they

edward snowden, out of the shadows. the man responsible for the largest intelligence theft in our nation's history, giving his side of the story to brian williams, covering his actions and life in russia and 9/11 and even the smartphones we all carry every day. >> until now, it was largely theoretical for most americans but edward snowden's claims made the government's extensive capability very real. >> people at nsa analysts can actually watch people's internet communications, watch them draft correspondence and watch their thoughts form as they type. >> the law says targeting individuals for surveillance requires a secret court order. in practice, snowden claims that doesn't work. >> the problem is that the capabilities themselves are unregulated, uncontrolled and dangerous. >> i want to ask you about this device. what can the nsa do with this device if they wanted to get into my life? >> they can turn it into a microphone. they can take pictures from it. they can take the data off of it. that's pretty scary. >> it wa

a few days later, edward snowden met two journalists from the guardian nupt four days later the guardianublished its first yb article on snowden's elaboration. it was the first of a torrent of are information. prism showed the are nsa had direct access from google, facebook and other tech companies. president obama defended the programs immediately. he said you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience. snowden went public soon after. i have no intention of hiding who i am because i know i have done nothing wrong. the u.s. soon filed espionage charges against snowden and tried have him extradited from hong kong. within a few days snowden was in moscow. the pace of the are are stories slowed but they didn't stop. the collaboration between snowden and greenwald, a report published by the new york times the guard and why an der spiegel that the u.s. and british intelligence spied on germany the united nations, israel dprans and other allies. greenwald's new book exposes new details of how the nsa are cooperates with fbi and other agencies. >> all right

edward snowden, the nsa and the western real estate. we will get two calls. eric is waiting in georgia. on our line for democrats. you are on. caller: thank you. what snowden did -- i have a couple of points i would like to make. what snowden did, would you recommend that everyone who worked in this agency tell what they know? take it upon themselves to make themselves the king who determines what is constitutional and what is unconstitutional. all of these documents that you have brought -- these documents are national security issues. what makes you think you are the people who should disseminate this information? guest: there is a history in the united states that is extremely important where whistleblowers inside the government discover things that the u.s. government is doing and come forward. probably the most significant case prior to the ones of the last five years was -- he discovered classified information showing the u.s. government was systematically lying to the american people about the vietnam war ended upon himself -- and took it upon himself t

edward snowden, in my view, may have been very well intended. without question, there will be some very good things that come of the information that was released. and there was some criminal activity going on our government. i wasn't shocked by that. and there were things that were systematically criminal. and i don't think anyone in government was shocked by that. but i don't think it's responsible to do as snowden did. i don't approve of the way in which the wiki leaks was randomly blitzed. there are communiques between government and some governments, that are meant to mislead and they are taken literally. there are sensitive relationships that are going to save lives tomorrow that got decimated by that. you have to be very diligent. you have to believe it. and i think he believed it. i don't know. i think he believed it. but like anything else, it's where there is not the capacity and he certainly, bright as he did, did not have the individual capacity to have execute nooidz all that material and the nuances in ease case all that material a

about a story about the information that edward snowden released. it led to policy changes. we got congress acting with prohibiting certain collection practices that he revealed. some of the information he released, in my view, was damaging to u.s. policy interests without any clear policy reason why that information should have been made available to the public. information about specific operations, the way that we were spying on, you know, the russian prime minister and such. i think his record is mixed. we don't -- i don't think he is going to come back. we're probably never going to punish him. that's too bad. we should just deal with the information that he brought us. we should react to the things that we learned that were unnerve and change them. >> we talk about him like he is a hero. he can't come and face it. >> if we kept fewer secrets, we wouldn't need so many edward snowdens, so many people that aren't trustworthy. we have five million people with security clearances, in part because our surveillance state is so large. >> i think you'r

first, journalist greenwald has been working with nsa leaker edward snowden to publish documentation of the surveillance programs. we talked to him about edward edward snowden on the washington journal today. >> a look into the mind of the man who made the revelations. these are reasons to pick up his new book. will be answering your questions and comments. i want to start by a story that you lay out. it was the name he used when he first contacted me. he is a fifth century leader of rome. there came a time when rome was the siege by all sorts of enemies and was under attack and they needed a leader who they thought could lead rome to victory. they recruited him. he had gone off to his farm to retire and live a peaceful life and they persuaded him to come back to the bedroom. he led a successful war victory he was incredibly popular and had immense amounts of power and instead of keeping that power, he did what he said he was quick to do, which was relinquished voluntarily -- relinquished it voluntarily and he became this model of civic virtue. someone who uses power for the collectiv

edward snowden is a fugitive from injustice.e has no chance of getting a fair just trial in this country any more than any of the other whistleblowers who have faced prosecution more than i did 40 years and more. >> let me go into that because i want to ask you one of the things that snowden said is he wouldn't be able to defend himself and couldn't speak to motivations because it would be ruled by a judge as it was in your case in that trial reviewed as not sponsor as to why you took the pentagon papers and downloaded these documents. >> i'm sorry i can't see here. am i talking to andrea mitchell? >> yes, sir. >> i'm sorry -- >> i didn't know you didn't have return video. >> i remember your face which i recognized 43 years ago on this day i suspect on my first press conference after i came up underground after delivering the top secret pentagon papers to 19 different newspapers. and in that first press conference, your face stood out because you're already 43 years ago the most notable journalist significant journalist in this,

his stories are grounded in the classified documents lead by edward snowden -- leaked by edward snowden. the disclosures have unleashed a national debate about the balance between security and civil liberties. he recounts his story of the revelations in the new book. it is called "no place to hide -- edward snowden, the nsa, and the u.s. surveillance state." i'm pleased to have glenn greenwald at this table for the first time. welcome. let's start with the title, "no place to hide." >> the famous church committee of the mid-1970's that discovered when surveillance were in the government without transparency or oversight, it would inevitably be abused. nobody knew that this had been amassed and the mandate of the nsa was never talked about domestically. just the existence is so dangerous because if it were ever turned up against the american people, there would be no place to hide. directed at the american foreign population and abroad. >> do you believe these disclosures have changed the nsa? they've certainly change the debate surrounding the nsa. i believe they will change the authori

. >>> edward snowden speaks to nbc news.onight we have a story about privacy, technology, and your personal information. >>> then at 6:00, if you want to be mayor of the bay area's largest city, there's one thing that you have to do well. that is raise money. how much cash it will take to win. that's next at 6:00. gridlock. teacher layoffs. and a 60 billion dollar budget deficit. that's what john perez faced when he became speaker of the california assembly. so he partnered with governor brown to pass three balanced budgets, on time. for the first time in thirty years. today, the deficits are gone and we've invested an additional 2 billion dollars in education. now john perez is running for controller, to keep fighting for balanced budgets. democrat john perez for controller. >>> we can all rest a little easier tonight. scooter gates is over. hunter pence and his scooter have been reunited. there it is there in his locker this afternoon. pence's beloved scooter had been missing since sunday. someone turned it in today. in fa

. >> is a big reveal is a defining feature of the prankster is edward snowden a prankster? is julianne assange a prankster? i'm just curious to hear where are the limits of the prankster and other forms of subversive dissent? >> that's a great question. i don't really have a typology of cranking aside from distinguishing between pranks and hoaxes and cons. they all use the same strategies they're a different underlying motives of the perpetrators. i would think that what edward snowden did in terms of thinking about how he can use media to raise awareness about something that deeply concerned him, i wouldn't hesitate to call him a prankster but i think it still lines up with yeah the same tactics that pranksters use. maybe he is a prankster though. i will think about it. these are all really great questions. thanks so much everyone. [applause] >> both kembrew and d would be happy to sign some books. , peer and get some trading cards by buying a book or just sitting here. he drove in from minneapolis and is going to d.c. tomorrow so let's send them off right. thanks everybod

one year ago before edward snowden initiated the largest leak 06 documents in u.s.ry such a statement would have been almost unheard of. last night nbc news has brian williams interview with snowden, the first on american television should were you trained as a spy? it seems to me spies probably look a lot more like ed snowden and a lot less like james bopd these days. >> it's no secret that the u.s. tends to get more and better intelligence out of computers nowadays than they the out of people. i was trained as a spy and sort of the traditional sense of the word that that ied and worked undercover overseas. pretending to work in a job that i'm not. and even being assigned a name that was not mine. but i am a technical specialist. i'm a technical expert. i don't work with people. i don't recruit agents. what i do is i put systems to work for the united states. and i've done that at all levels from the bottom on the ground, all the way to the top. now, the government might deny these things and they might frame it in certain ways and say he's a low-level analyst but

coming up last night edward snowden said with n.b.c.'s brian williams for his first interview to american media what should we take away from last night's interview and did snowden successfully answer all of the american public's questions. it was a. very hard to take a. look. at that or how exactly would that hurt me here. please. please. please applause. this was in the washington well as submissive. is being suggested in the list of numbers of the. candidates for office even covering issues actually back to and doesn't do too much for ad revenue my own tech agriculture giant teeth on a seventy six year old american farmer based in india fallout do you think this is going to create the cia do you think this is what's triggering a race america's the largest economy in the world it's also the largest debtor nation in the history of the world breaking the set is mostly of alternatives to the status quo but one might give real alternatives before it's time to look for the american dream the next they were just trying to survive it's time f

earlier on the show, we asked how brian williams' new interview with edward snowden whether you see himtor. our producer has responses. >> our audience seems to be torn. madeline says, no, snowden is still a patriot in my eyes. #america. a guy says, he's a traitor. he didn't have any other means of reporting what he found. he really is a traitor. >> nbc will have more on the interview. >>> coming up on "way too early," a look at the stories we're talking about in the day ahead. and "morning joe" is just moments away. stick around. [ male announcer ] we're the names you know in the places you want to be. where you can explore super destinations and do everything under the sun. 12 brands. more hotels than anyone else in the world. save up to 25% and earn bonus points when you book at wyndhamrewards.com. save up to 25% and earn bonus points what's your favorite kind of cheerios? honey nut. but... chocolate is my other favorite... oh yeah, and frosted! what's your most favorite of all? hmm...the kind i have with you. me too. nbr: scott - we're concerned. you just fed your lawn earlier this

president's address at west point this morning at 10:15 eastern. >>> tonight, we will hear from edward snowden, the 30-year-old responsible for the most staggering theft in american secrets and the modern era. he is wanted on espionage charges. nbc's brian williams met with him in moscow. snowden has spoken about what he's never talked about before for government. right up until he put an end to it. >> were you trained as a spy? it seems to me spies probably look a lot more like ed snowden and a lot less like james bond these days? >> well, it's no secret that the u.s. tends to get more and better intelligence out of computers nowadays than they do out of people. i was trained as a spy in sort of a traditional sense of the world in that i lived and worked under cover, overseas, pretending to work in a job that i'm not. and even being assigned a name that was not mine. but i am a technical specialist, i am a technical expert. i don't work with people. i don't recruit agents. what i do is i put systems to work for the united states. and i've done that at all levels from the bottom on the ground

host: is this who edward snowden thought he was? guest: he did not think he was a roman emperor or anything like that. he admired what he did. he paid tribute to the relinquishment of power and the use of power for the public good by adopting his name as a pseudonym. host: you have been writing about these issues for many years. you have a lot of tips on different inks that people are willing to give you. what was it about the tips he got from edward snowden and made you trust him? guest: it took a while to establish trust. he first contacted me, he was quite reluctant to say anything about who he was or what he had. communicate in an unencrypted environment, there's a chance that others are listening to the things you're saying. it took many weeks before we could begin communicating. once we did, i can't say that i fully trusted what he was saying or who he was. not until a got to hong kong and was able to sit down with him at a room and subject him to six hours of extremely intense and nonstop interrogation where i asked him every

revealing details from edward snowden's first television interview. brian williams sitting down with the nsa leaker in moscow where he is currently living in asylum. williams saying snowden came armed with talking points ready to tell a story. no questions were off limits. >> to your knowledge, there is nothing in what you have handed over to the journalists materially damaging or threatening to the military or national security? >> there's nothing that would be published that would harm the public interest. these are programs that need to be understood, that need to be known, that require deep background and context for research that are difficult to report, but they're of critical public importance. >> in your mind, though, are you blameless? have you done, as you look at this, just a good thing? have you performed, as you see it, a public service? >> i think it can be both. i think the most important idea is to remember that there have been times throughout american history where what is right is not the same as what is legal. i think it's important

edward snowden is a coward. he is a traitor and he has betrayed his country. >> reporter: daniel ellsberg, the vietnam-era whistle-blower leaped to snowden's defense today. >> secretary of state kerry's characterization of snowden was actually despicable. he knows that he could not get a fair trial, and i fully agree with him. >> reporter: in fact, brian asked snowden about it. >> you hear often in the united states why doesn't he come home and face the music. >> when people say, why don't you go home and face the music, i say you have to understand that the music is not an open court and a fair trial. >> reporter: that doesn't preclude, of course, talks that could still come over a deal with snowden. but administration officials say tonight that the first move is his. brian? >> andrea mitchell in our d.c. newsroom tonight. andrea, thank you. >>> a high-profile billionaire making a play for the l.a. clippers tonight. steve ballmer who ran microsoft will buy the team for an astounding $2 billion. a move that may

bet source turned out to national security contractor edward snowden.hey created shock in the u.s. and abroad. he describes his collaboration and what he thinks of the a year ago, the name of edward snowden was unknown. did you ever dream that revealing the story of u.s. government surveillance would have such an impact? >> there was a time where i started to understand the scope of the archive. union thinking about the likely dreame, we really didn't that it would be this sustained global debate. >> and he almost passed on the entire story. to me inld only speak an unencrypted environment. quiterospect, he was rational but unwilling to share anything about it he had or what he was. they were very vague missives asking me to install sophisticated programs with out him sharing something with me. i did almost move on from the story. someoneere expecting taking a huge risk. to hugew he had access numbers of very sensitive documents. i also spent a long time talking to him online and his website were uniformly sophisticated. i knew he was ready to risk his

edward snowden is a coward. he is a traitor. is country. >> reporter: daniel elsberg the whistle-blower leaped to snowden's defense. >> secretary of state kerry's characterization of snowden was actually despicable. he knows he could not get a fairly trial and i fully agree with him. >> reporter: snowden seemed hopeful writing in his e-mail response writing the following. but as for coming home to, quote, face the music, snowden says the music is not an open court affair trial. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. >>> joining me again is ed o'keefe of "the washington post." you heard there secretary kerry and ambassador rice but you do not hear such direct and biting comments and usually couched in diplo speak. >> i think secretary kerry's comments really encapsuled best of all. you guys had a great thing going you were asking people to talk about whether he is a traitor or a patriot. i think in kerry's estimate at least patriot airs his grievances or willing to go to court if they broke the law. thinking back to the vietnam er

>> for one thing, edward snowden didn't want that. he came to me and actually demanded that we enter into an report reported. if he wanted to do that, he won't have needed me. he could have uploaded those to the internet, himself. i think his belief -- and it's actually a belief that i share -- is that the impact from these disclosures is higher because we took the time to report the stories one by one, explain to the public what their meaning was, did reporting around them and let the public digest each individual story rather than just dumping them all on one. >> is there information in there that could put people in danger? >> anything is theoretically possible. we have made the decision to with hold some information. >> because it was too sensitive? >> wasn't news worthy and had the potential to create halfway for innocent people. that was the process we engaged in for every document we released. as to weigh those considerations. >> how many more documents? >> many more stories to go. i can't quantify them for you. among the bigge

that's going to be a bill that we're going to have to pay for a very long time. >> for tom drake, edward snowdennted redemplgs. we needed to have the debate and whether or not we can actually be this kind of society. >> snowden had carefully studied what had happened to people before him who had tried to object to national security policies or practices. and snowden did particularly admire tom drake and what drake didn't have and that snowden decided he needed was to provide documentary evidence of what he was saying to reporters. that would force the u.s. government to take on the questions in a substantive way. >> and force the government, he did. coming up, general alexander and his say generalcy are -- and his say generalcy are dragged into the harsh life of public scrutiny. sfrs how can i ease this pain? (man) when i can't go, it's like bricks piling up. i wish i could find some relief. (announcer) ask your doctor about linzess-- a once-daily capsule for adults with ibs with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation. linzess is thought to help calm pain-sensing nerves and accelerate b

nsa contractor edward snowden was holed up deep inside the crowded kowloon district. he chose hong kong, he would say later, because he trusted the chinese would not betray him to u.s. authorities. before leaving his home in hawaii, he had downloaded a huge store of top secret files from the nsa's internal networks, and he had sent many of them through encrypted channels to a few journalists he trusted. two of them, glenn greenwald of the guardian and documentary filmmaker laura poitras, came to the mira hotel to meet him. greenwald and poitras wanted to be sure snowden's story was rock solid. and they needed to work fast. >> we knew that this was incredibly consequential and that it was super important that we get it right. um... but also, there was always this kind of uncertainty, one might even say danger, hovering over the room. because we didn't know what the nsa knew about what he was doing. we didn't know what the chinese and hong kong governments knew about him being there. so we thought it was very possible that the door could be barged down at any moment. >>

the obama administration has just released the only e-mails found from edward snowden's attempts to blowhistle about the surveillance programs. this is after a freedom of information request on the heels of snowden's first american tv interview since he went into exile in russia. >> they have found one e-mail quirly by edward snowden asking for an explanation of some material that was in a training course he had just completed. the e-mail did not raise allegations or concerns about wrongdoing or abuse, but posed a legal question that the office of general counsel addressed. there was not additional follow-up noted. >> that's jay carney. snowden said he did more than raise questions. here's a portion of brian williams' interview that hasn't aired in will now. >> the president and others made the point that you should have gone through channels, become a whistleblower, and not pursue the road you did. what's your response? >> so, i would say, i actually did go through channels, and that is documented. the nsa has records, they have copies of e-mails right now to their office of general cou