The question of whether I, as a whistleblower, should be pardoned, is not for me to answer.

I've been a spy for almost all of my adult life - I don't like being in the spotlight.

Because, remember, I didn't want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.

What defines patriotism, for me, is the idea that one rises to act on behalf of one's country.

While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice - that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.

I believe strongly that Occupy Wall Street had such limits because the local authorities were able to enforce, basically in our imaginations, an image of what proper civil disobedience is - one that is simply ineffective.

I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded.