clearly, you and laura poitras led these teams. were in the articles that are cited in "the guardian" your name is on one after the next after the next and laura poitras is on both "the guardian" website and well as the "washington post." but technically, according to the rules of the pulitzer, you each will have to say you were the of the team that won pulitzer, that you can't be called a pulitzer prize-winning reporter. the we will cut you that here at democracy now! what about the politics of this? although the pulitzer prize for public service usually goes to institution, it often coming evening going to an institution, cites the bravery every particular reporter in reporting the series of stories. can you talk about that? >> i don't think there's any secret about the fact that the journalism that i advocate for and engage in is controversial among a large klatch of what i will call establishment journalist. i talked before about there being these unwritten set of rules that govern how you're supposed to speak and what you're s

journalist and laura poitras, a documentary filmmaker both of whom traveled to russia for our interview. in his recently published book "no place to hide" greenwald describes that moment he first met snowden in hong kong. >> what did you make of him? >> the initial impression was one of extreme confusion. because i was expecting to meet somebody in his 60s or 70s, very senior. i knew almost nothing about him prior to our arrival in hong kong. >> it was a really intimidating moment. you know, it was the most real point of no return because the minute you start talking to a journalist as an intelligence officer, on camera, there's really no going back from that. that's where it all comes together.

his new story with glenn greenwald and laura poitras is "data pirates of the caribbean." talk about your findings. summarize them step-by-step. >> our story details the nsa program called mystic, first detailed in a washington post story. it was developed by the nsa in 2009. it is variously sponsored through a number of subprograms which are controlled by the nsa's commercial solution center, which works with their secret partners. the nsa would not be able to function without their corporate partners that they rely on to gain access to communications networks. it is also cosponsored by the cia and the drug enforcement

his new story with glenn greenwald and laura poitras is "data pirates of the caribbean."k about your findings. summarize them step-by-step. >> our story details the nsa program called mystic, first detailed in a washington post story. it was developed by the nsa in 2009. it is variously sponsored through a number of subprograms which are controlled by the nsa's commercial solution center, which works with their secret partners. the nsa would not be able to function without their corporate partners that they rely on to gain access to communications networks. it is also cosponsored by the cia and the drug enforcement administration. as you mentioned, this program has gained access in mexico, kenya, the philippines, bahamas, and one of the country that the intercept is not naming at this time. >> is the government telling you not to name them? >> this is a conversation that we had four weeks as we have reported the story, trying to determine whether or not it was responsible to name the country. the nsa and government did not want us to name any of the countries. we named fo

he was soon exchanging emails with american documentary filmmaker laura poitras. >> she had been in contact for over a month with a mysterious source who had reached out to her using her encryption key and using anonymous channels, and said he had a big story for her. >> narrator: a few weeks later in new york, poitras met national security investigative reporter barton gellman at a greenwich village restaurant. >> this was something she wanted to be exceptioionally careful about. we agreed on a cafe to meet at. we also, i think, both understood that when we got there, we'd move to someplace else. >> narrator: poitras asked gellman to vet the source and meet him electronically. >> her source, who became also my source, needed to take very special precautions in the usual nsa style. and so he called me brass banner. and he called himself verax, which means "truth teller" in latin. >> narrator: through sophisticated encrypted messages, verax promised an unprecedented scoop. but it came with a warning. >> he believed he was risking his freedom and possibly his life. and he warned me as well th

>> snowden turned over the secret documents to glenn greenwald a lawyer turned journalist and laura poitrasocumentary filmmaker both of whom traveled to russia for our interview. in his recently published book "no place to hide" greenwald describes that moment he first met snowden in hong kong. >> what did you make of him? >> the initial impression was one of extreme confusion. because i was expecting to meet somebody in his 60s or 70s, very senior. i knew almost nothing about him prior to our arrival in hong kong. >> it was a really intimidating moment. you know, it was the most real point of no return because the minute you start talking to a journalist as an intelligence officer, on camera, there's really no going back from that. that's where it all comes together. >> also, you had this tangible evidence. in effect he was saying to you if i wasn't legit, where else would i have gotten this? >> right. that was certainly a good start to establishing his credibility and his authenticity was the fact he was able to produce many thousands of documents from the most secretive agency of the wor

the first reader spiegel broke about the nsa was done by laura poitras and several journalists in therticle was about spying and discreetly on the german population. the merkel government made clear they did not really care about that much. they issued some meek denunciations, but were very willing to ignore the story. only want to get reported that angela merkel herself was the target of surveillance didn't suddenly become a serious issue, but that has now created real difficulties in the u.s.-german relations because of the history of spying abuses in germany i'm a boat under the nazi regime and the stasi regime. >> your book also includes a a letter from a high-level australian official to spy on us trillion citizens. >> if you listen to these governments in response to the stories we have been reporting on, they will say, to their own citizens, you don't need to worry because therere all these restrictions on how we can spy on you. yes, we can spy on the rest of the world as much as we want, but these governments say when it comes to you, our wonderful citizens, we have all kinds

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. >> narrator: the guardian also sent a senior correspondent to vet their source. >> i asked him, do you mind if i tape the interview on an iphone? and as soon as he saw the iphone, it was like bringing out a microphone direct into the nsa headquarters. he was totally appalled. and he said, "get that out of the room as quickly as possible." >> narrator: even then, snowden still worried that someone might be recording them. >>

as capabilities laura poitras talked about her first interactions with snowden about beefing up her encryption knowledge to handle these these documents interesting thing there was hardly any other mainstream media at the events this was something that ralph nader brought up when i talked to him afterwards. it's significant isn't it that the the people who got the award today for blowing the whistle on destructive behavior by our government against our constitution against our laws were not interesting enough for any of the media to show up any of the u.s. media mainstream media to show up. there there was no audio or video recording allowed at the event of course that didn't stop us from being there but you know with edward snowden facing criminal charges there are concerns of lawyers of what might be might be said at these sort of events so there's a lot of caution about what was what sort of recording was allowed there. there we learn any new specifics about what the n.s.a. may be up to no nothing new as far as new documents or anything like that snowden did address a few important issues h

we disagree on this issue of what glenn greenwald has done and laura poitras on the some of the revelations but we certainly disagree on this one because the people. are the real victims here and they have a right to know that they are their rights are being grossly violates it's in it can be argued that it's a betrayal of journalistic duty not to reveal information to the public of going to so if you bring me to mike's point because chris i was also really wondering if it is there a line that wiki leaks would not cross because of the risk of going too far and really genuinely putting people's lives in danger of course there is online there it would almost always lead to some speculation we are the line. but. we have. been rather a. rather a conservative in the respect. the far more than we would have wanted that was because of all alliance with the mainstream media at that time but of course as a line i question what would you think is the future of wiki leaks now. will we go in with oh we're releasing information regularly and. or struggling financially because of the economic blockade we

as somebody who's been a journalist for for decades myself i think that intercept and certainly laura poitras and glenn greenwald going back to last summer have proceeded very wisely in terms of not holding back information that the public has a right to know but judiciously trying to determine what is in the public interest to know and we can't have informed consent of the governed unless the public is informed and i think that's part of the journalistic project to make sure that information flows so that we know really what's being done in our names often with our own tax dollars when wiki leaks has revealed that it will reveal the name within seventy two hours but if it could indeed have an extremely negative intended effect is that something we can read should really be weighing here or do you think they have the right to just release that information well you're referring now to wiki leaks yes we can leak said that they would announce that unnamed country that glenn greenwald and the intercept chose to leave out. well you know it remains to be seen how that unfolds i think part of the jo