Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who helped NSA leaker Edward Snowden expose state secrets to the world, is set to make his “biggest” disclosure yet — the names of Americans the government spied on, he told The Sunday Times.
Greenwald added that Snowden’s legacy will be “shaped in large part” by this “finishing piece,” which is based on information obtained in the nearly 2 million documents the former NSA contractor secretly stole from the government.
These newest revelations will arrive nearly a year after Greenwald first reported on the leaked documents that outline the US government’s controversial spying tactics at home and abroad in the Guardian.
“One of the big questions when it comes to domestic spying is, ‘Who have been the NSA’s specific targets?’” Greenwald said in a boutique hotel near Harvard University while on tour for his new book “No Place to Hide.”
“Are they political critics and dissidents and activists? Are they genuinely people we’d regard as terrorists? What are the metrics and calculations that go into choosing those targets and what is done with the surveillance that is conducted? Those are the kinds of questions that I want to still answer.”
The names will be published on The Intercept, an online publication funded by billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
“As with a fireworks show, you want to save your best for last,” Greenwald told GQ magazine. “The last one is the one where the sky is all covered in spectacular multi-colored hues.”