NSA leaker Edward Snowden calls himself a 'patriot'

REUTERS Edward Snowden says he may not be able to travel but at least he can sleep at night.

Serial security leaker Edward Snowden is a free American who cant come home but he sleeps with a clear conscience.

I may have lost my ability to travel, Snowden said in a Moscow interview with NBC anchor Brian Williams that aired Wednesday in New York.

But Ive gained the ability to go to sleep at night and to put my head on the pillow and feel comfortable that Ive done the right thing, even when it was the hard thing, the 30-year-old former national security analyst said.

Yet in the next breath, the self-declared patriot confessed to missing his family and his country.

I dont think theres ever been any question that Id like to go home . . . If I could go anywhere in the world, that place would be home, he said wistfully.

The North Carolinian, who sparked a global furor over U.S. surveillance techniques after leaking a massive trove of National Security Agency documents, told Williams hes being punished for his patriotism.

Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution . . . Adversaries dont have to be foreign countries. They . . . can be bad policies. They can be officials who, you know, need a little bit more accountability, he said.

HANDOUT/REUTERS 'NBC Nightly News' anchor Brian Williams (left) chats with fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden in Moscow

Snowden claimed to have been a CIA spy at one time and an undercover operative overseas for the NSA assertions that National Security Adviser Susan Rice denied in an interview with CNN.

Snowden also reassured Williams hes not a pawn to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who granted him asylum for a year.

Snowden insisted hed destroyed most of his stolen material before entering Russia and said he couldnt even access it online.

He said the NSA wouldnt know how many documents hed taken, anyway.

Their auditing was so poor, so negligent, that any private contractor, not even an employee of the government, could walk into the NSA building, take whatever they wanted, and walk out with it and they would never know, he said.

Snowden made clear that an offer of clemency or amnesty from the U.S. would be warmly received.

If Mr. Snowden wants to come back . . . well have him on a flight today, Secretary of State Kerry told the Today show of the man he labeled a fugitive.

gotis@nydailynews.com

On a mobile device? Click here to watch the video.

Click here to watch Edward Snowden call himself a patriot.

Click here to watch Edward Snowden talk about Putin and Russia.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nsa-leaker-edward-snowden-calls-patriot-article-1.1809422