i wonder why we haven’t seen more snowden reveals in a while.

THE MESSAGE ARRIVES on my “clean machine,” a MacBook Air loaded only with a sophisticated encryption package. “Change in plans. Be in the lobby of the Hotel ______ by 13:00. Bring a book and wait for ES to find you.” ES is Edward Snowden, the most wanted man in the world. For almost 9 months, I have been trying to set up an interview with him—traveling to Berlin, Rio de Janeiro twice, and New York multiple times to talk with the handful of his confidants who can arrange a meeting. Among other things, I want to answer a burning question: What drove Snowden to leak 100Ks of top-secret documents, revelations that have laid bare the vast scope of the government’s domestic surveillance programs?

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