Latest on the Leaker of the Government Surveillance Program Information
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. And we now know the name behind one of the biggest government exposes in modern history. Mild-mannered, soft-spoken, this man has rocked the U.S. government and possibly even your trust in it. His name, Edward Snowden, and "The Guardian" newspaper says he is the ex-computer tech who leaked the documents that showed the U.S. government is not only spying on your phone calls, but tracking the online communications of foreigners. Snowden knows just how much he has put himself on the line because he is now on the run, last seen in Hong Kong. There in a hotel room, he gave "The Guardian" this interview on camera about why he outed the actions of the NSA, the National Security Agency.</s>EDWARD SNOWDEN, NSA LEAKER: When you have to make a determination about what it is that's important to you and, if living "un-freely" but comfortably is something you are willing to accept, and I think many of us are, it's the human nature, you can get up every day, you can go to work, you can collect your large paycheck for relatively little work against the public interest and go to sleep at night after watching your shows. But if you realize that that's the world you helped create and it's going to get worse with the next generation and the next generation who extend the capabilities of this sort of architecture of oppression, you realize that you might be able to accept any risk, whether it's the CIA, I could have people come after me or any of their third party partners. You know, they work closely with a number of other nations, or, you know, they could pay off the triads, or any of their agents or assets. We've got a CIA station just up the road in the consulate here in Hong Kong. And I'm sure they're going to be very busy the next week. And that's a fear I'll live under, however long that happens to be. You can't come forward against the world's most powerful intelligence agencies and be completely free from risk because they're such powerful adversaries that no one can meaningfully oppose them. If they want to get you, they'll get you in time. If I had just wanted to harm the U.S., you know, then you could shut down the surveillance system in an afternoon, but that's not my intention. And I think for anyone making that argument, they need to think if they were in my position, and you know you live a privileged life. You're living in Hawaii in paradise and making a ton of money, what would it take to make you leave everything behind? The greatest fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these disclosures is that nothing will change. People will see in the media all of these disclosures. They'll know the lengths that the government is going to grant themselves powers, unilaterally, to create greater control over American society and global society, but they won't be willing to take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things to force their representatives to actually take a stand in their interests. And in the months ahead, the years ahead, it's only going to get worse until eventually there will be a time where policies will change because the only thing that restricts the activities of the surveillance state are policy. Even our agreements with other sovereign governments, we consider that possible a stipulation of policy rather than a stipulation of law, and because of that, a new leader will be elected. They'll flip the switch, say that because of the crisis, because of the dangers that we face in the world, some new and unpredicted threat, we need more authority. We need more power. And there will be nothing that people can do at that point to oppose it. And it will be turn-key tyranny.</s>BALDWIN: And this just in to CNN, the Department of Justice has launched a preliminary investigation. A law enforcement official says the FBI has begun its investigation with plans to search Snowden's home and computers and interview his girlfriend, co-workers, friends, family. The list goes on. CNN's Jake Tapper, I know, following the story very, very closely. In fact, you, Tapper, talked to "The Guardian" reporter who broke the whole story, interviewed Snowden on camera. Tell me what he said?</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: We talked to Glenn Greenwald. Again, we were the first to interview him last week, and we talked to him again today about exactly where Snowden is, trying to get to the bottom of his motivations a little bit more, talk about what he might do now that the U.S. is going after him. We also asked him a question about whether or not "The Guardian," since they are getting so many scoops from Snowden, whether they are paying at all for his room and board and just existence right now. Take a listen.</s>TAPPER: Is "The Guardian" helping him in any way to pay for room and board?</s>GLENN GREENWALD, "GUARDIAN" REPORTER: No, it never has, and I actually asked that question when I first spoke with him about how he was financing his stay at the hotel. And his answer was very convincing. He was making a great deal of money and has been for quite some time as an intelligence professional working for private contractors in excess -- or around $200,000, in excess of that.</s>TAPPER: The big question right now, Brooke, of course, is if Snowden is backed into a corner and he feels as though he needs to take drastic action or else he'll be extradited to the United States and tried for any number of crimes he could be charged with, would he take whatever remaining intelligence he has and sell it in an attempt to get asylum not for cash but for protection? And what Glenn Greenwald said is we obviously have no idea what might happen, but that does not seem to motivate Snowden up until now. He spoke at length about how he was releasing these documents, not for money, although certainly he could have made a very nice profit giving these documents to the Chinese or the Russians or any other number of countries but because he wanted the American people to know what was being done in our name. Brooke?</s>BALDWIN: Yeah, he made the point he could have sold them and he didn't so far. Jake Tapper, I look forward to seeing this interview on "The Lead" at the top of the hour. Jake Tapper, many, many thanks to you.</s>TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: And now, next, a doctor known as one of the top cancer researchers in the whole country, but today she is making headlines for a much different reason. You see, she's accused of poisoning her lover's coffee. The bizarre details, next.