The question is: Particularly in the post-9/11 era, are societies becoming more liberal or more authoritarian?

Lawyers from the NSA, as well as the UK's GCHQ, work very hard to search for loopholes in laws and constitutional protections that they can use to justify indiscriminate, dragnet surveillance operations that were at best unwittingly authorized by lawmakers.

As I said before, [patriotism] is distinct from acting to benefit the government - a distinction that's increasingly lost today.

I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong.

Being confronted with the realization that work you intended to benefit people is being used against them has a radicalizing effect.

My whole model, from the beginning, was not to personally publish a single document. I provided these documents to journalists because I didn't want my biases to decide what's in the public interest and what is not.

We have these traditional political parties that are less and less responsive to the needs of ordinary people, so people are in search of their own values.