Edward Snowden: mission accomplished

Whistleblower Edward Snowden said his mission has been accomplished, a report said Tuesday.

Snowden was speaking to a Washington Post reporter in Russia, where the former National Security Agency contractor lives at an undisclosed location under temporary asylum.

“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. 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 released documents to journalists revealing the bulk collection of telephone and internet records, and spying on foreign leaders’ mobile phones, prompting outrage from US allies and civil libertarians.

The revelations began in June with reports about the monitoring of mobile phone calls.

US prosecutors have charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government property after he fled the United States.

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