Edward Joseph Snowden is an American former technical contractor and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), before disclosing details of classified NSA mass surveillance programs to the press. Snowden shared classified material on a variety of top-secret NSA programs, including the interception of U.S. telephone metadata and the PRISM surveillance program.
Disclosures linked to Snowden rank among the most significant breaches in the history of the NSA. Snowden, broken his sworn non-disclosure contractual employment agreement with NSA has in effect broken the laws of the United States and hence must fully be prosecuted to the maximum extend of the applicable laws.