Update 6/10/13: NSA whistleblower says Manning is a classic whistleblower inspired by the public good

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Edward Snowden: ‘I don’t want to live in a society
that does these sort of things’

Edward Snowden is the NSA whistleblower who blew the lid on PRISM, a secret government program that created a database of American’s communications and which allowed secret wiretapping and surveillance of American citizens communications (phone, email, social media, and just about any online or cellphone communication).
In an interview he has expressed his full support for Bradley Manning, saying that Bradley is “a classic whistleblower” and that “he was inspired by the public good.” Snowden, like Manning, wants the public to know the truth, and he hopes that exposing the disturbing, and Orwellian PRISM spy program will motivate debate and reform. The program was so secretive, he says, and so powerfully controlling and invasive, that he could not support it without the American people making the decision to allow it for themselves. Do we not have the right to privacy? How has the government been willing to design and build such a massive surveillance machine without any public scrutiny? What happened to the Constitution? As Snowden explains, the program has almost no oversight, and few safeguards. He could listen in on anyone.
And knowing full well how the Government has treated Bradley Manning, Snowden is concerned for his future, “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.” Read the full story.
Daniel Ellsberg has come forward saying Snowden is a hero, and that “the machinery of our democratic government is broken and we need whistleblowers.” And Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story and interviewed Snowden, said earlier that “We need whistleblowers to come forward, so we have transparency on public officials.”

Watch Democracy Now’s coverage of the release, in an interview with Glenn Greenwald,

Thank you Edward Snowden. Thank you Bradley Manning.
The United States and the world need whistleblowers like you.