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NSA revelations: A timeline of what's come out since Snowden leaks began

Since Edward Snowden's first published leak about National Security Agency surveillance techniques appeared in The Guardian on June 5, new revelations have been steadily trickling out. Here's a look at what we've learned since June, broken down by 16 key dates. 

Nov. 1, 2013

Michael Sohn/AP
Opposition Greens lawmaker Hans-Christian Stroebele shows a copy of a letter to the media that he claims he received from Edward Snowden, prior to a press conference.

In his “Manifesto for the Truth,” published in the German news magazine Der Spiegel and passed to German officials via a liberal German lawmaker, Edward Snowden outlined his case for clemency in the US. Mr. Snowden, who has been charged with two violations of the 1917 Espionage Act, as well as with theft, made the case that he has furnished a meaningful and long overdue debate in the US and abroad about the ethics of federal spying. In the letter, Snowden also expressed his willingness to assist German officials in investigating blooming allegations of NSA spying on their activities. White House officials told the New York Times that they were unmoved by Mr. Snowden’s appeal for forgiveness.

Why is this important? Even as Snowden’s disclosures have spurred ever more high-octane debate about the ethics of the NSA’s spying, the US government has remained unapologetic, saying that most of the NSA’s activities are well within its rights. The government's un-yielding maintenance that Snowden committed a crime in revealing the NSA's activities has burnished its claim that its agency's spying was not illegal, as well aimed toward establishing a deterring precedent for would-be whistleblowers. 

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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