In a recent interview, Edward Snowden gloated that by revealing the surveillance programs of the secretive National Security Agency (NSA), his "mission's already accomplished".
In a series of two interviews given to The Washington Post, Snowden said he was satisfied with his decision as the leak has led to massive coverage of the government's illegal collection of bulk Internet and phone records.
"For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished," he said. "I already won."
"As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated," Snowden told the Washington Post in the interview. "Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself."
Snowden has been charged with espionage and felony theft of government property in US and is has been granted a temporary asylum at an unknown location in Russia. The interview was the first one after Snowden leaked the documents six months ago.
After the leaks, the U.S. government was criticized a lot worldwide even as its nation allies distanced themselves on news that the NSA was spying on their leaders. In quest for better privacy, Brazil and members of European Union are now reportedly considering ways to shield their sensitive data. U.S. technology companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have also criticized the government for collecting the user data and are working towards blocking NSA.
Last week, President Barack Obama hinted the he would consider some changes to NSA's bulk collection program. A federal judge has already declared the NSA's collection program as "probably unconstitutional".
Snowden, who is a former NSA contractor, said he was not being disloyal to the country or NSA.
"I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA," he said. "I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't realize it."
