NBC News Exclusive with Brian Williams: "Inside the Mind of Edward Snowden"

I have long thought Edward Snowden to be a HERO, and I have heard his talks at some of the seminars you can find on YouTube and elsewhere, but TONIGHT, DO NOT MISS his exclusive interview on CBS. If you have any doubt about his motives, those doubts will be erased.

NBC News Exclusive with Brian Williams

"Inside the Mind of Edward Snowden"

In a wide-ranging and revealing interview, Brian Williams talks with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the global impact and debate sparked by his revelations.

http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/edward-snowden-interview/exclusive-edward-snowden-tells-brian-williams-id-go-home-n116756

"...Snowden said his desire to return to his homeland is foremost in his mind. “I don’t think there’s ever been any question that I’d like to go home,” he said.

But asked whether he would make a deal to return, Snowden said: “My priority is not about myself. It’s about making sure that these programs are reformed — and that the family that I left behind, the country that I left behind — can be helped by my actions.”

The United States charged Snowden with theft and two counts of espionage after he revealed the breadth of National Security Agency surveillance programs, including the bulk collection of telephone and Internet data from Americans.

The interview with Williams was conducted in Moscow last week after months of preparation and is Snowden’s first with a U.S. television network. Snowden maintained that the surveillance programs violated the Constitution on an enormous scale, and he said that he acted to serve his country.

“Had that not happened, had the government not gone too far and overreached, we wouldn’t be in a situation where whistleblowers were necessary,” he said.

Speaking of his own decision to leak the information and flee the country, he said, “I think it’s important to remember that people don’t set their lives on fire, they don’t say goodbye to their families — actually pack up without saying goodbye to their families — they don’t walk away from their extraordinary — extraordinarily comfortable lives — I mean, I made a lot of money for a guy with no high school diploma — and, and, and burn down everything they love for no reason.”...."