Edward Snowden: Cyber Vigilante or Villain? [VIDEO]

Edward Snowden, A 29-year-old former undercover CIA employee admitted on Sunday that he was the principal source of recent disclosures regarding top-secret National Security Agency programs, exposing himself to possible prosecution.

Snowden is a tech specialist who has also contracted for the NSA (National Security Agency) and works for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. He decided to unmask himself as a source of disclosures after a string of stories in The Washington Post and the Guardian that detailed previously unknown U.S. surveillance programs were released to the public.

According to Snowden, he disclosed secret documents in response to what he described as the "systematic surveillance of innocent citizens."

Durin an interview on Sunday, Snowden explained to The Post that he was willing to face the consequences of exposure.

"I'm not going to hide," Snowden said.

"Allowing the U.S. government to intimidate its people with threats of retaliation for revealing wrongdoing is contrary to the public interest." He continued.

When asked whether he thinks that his disclosures will do anything within the US, Snowden said, "I think they already have. Everyone everywhere now understands how bad things have gotten - and they're talking about it. They have the power to decide for themselves whether they are willing to sacrifice their privacy to the surveillance state."

"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," Snowden said in a note which accompanied the first document he leaked to The Post.

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a brief statement that the intelligence community is "reviewing the damage" that the leaks have done.

"Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law," Turner said.

Snowden is seeking "asylum from any countries that believe in free speech and oppose the victimization of global privacy," he said, but unfortunately for him the law appears to provide for his extradition from Hong Kong, to the United States.

"The fact that he outed himself and basically said, from what I understand he has said, 'I feel very comfortable with what I have done' . . . that's not going to help him in his extradition contest," extradition expert Douglas McNabb said.

According to the Justice Department they are in the "initial stages of an investigation" and declined to comment further

Check out what Snowden had to say HERE