Edward Snowden is still under asylum in Russia as he faces espionage charges in the U.S. for leaking classified National Security Agency (NSA) documents to various news outlets.
In an interview with The New York Times, the former NSA systems analyst says he could not get access to secret documents he obtained before leaving Hong Kong, and therefore did not supply any to Russia and China.
"There's a zero percent chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents," Snowden explained.
Snowden told the publication that all classified documents obtained were given to journalist he met in Hong Kong before flying to Moscow without making a copy. According to Snowden, taking the files to Russia "wouldn't serve the public interest."
"What would be the unique value of personally carrying another copy of the materials onward," he said.
Being familiar with China's intelligence abilities, Snowden asserted he was able to protect the documents from the nation's spies. He says that as a NSA contractor, he taught a course on Chinese cybercounterintelligence and targeted Chinese operations.
Leaks from Snowden resulted in numerous news stories about U.S. surveillance activities on both national and international levels. Discussions would open about the legality of those activities and American citizens' privacy implications.
The interview took place over several days in the last week and involved encrypted online communications where he also expressed his concerns about Americans not being told about the scope of NSA's reach.
"So long as there's broad support amongst a people, it can be argued there's a level of legitimacy even to the most invasive and morally wrong program, as it was an informed and willing decision," said Snowden. "However, programs that are implemented in secret, out of public oversight, lack that legitimacy, and that's a problem. It also represents a dangerous normalization of 'governing in the dark,' where decisions with enormous public impact occur without any public input."
Under asylum in Russia, Snowden declined to provide details on his living conditions, except that he wasn't under government control and could freely move around.
