Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked details of US surveillance programs, tweeted: “Can you hear me now?” at about noon eastern USA time, Tuesday.
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Snowden spent part of his first morning exchanging jokey tweets and defending his actions as a whistle-blower.
“Surveillance never sleeps, and secret projects @FreedomofPress are keeping me busy”, Snowden said, “but I still find time for cat pictures”.
In his second, Snowden noted the recent news about the planet Mars and then quipped about the difficulty he had finding asylum after the USA government fingered him as the source of the NSA leaks.
In June of 2013, the US Justice Department accused Snowden of violating the Espionage Act and he was publicly labeled a traitor by the American government. Snowden tweeted. “Do you guess they actually verify passports with the outer reaches?”
Snowden is now living in exile in Russian Federation after first fleeing to Hong Kong, reported the Associated Press.
He posted an interview with American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson late last week.
PS: If you didn’t notice the hidden nugget on his account, he’s following only one user: the NSA.
“That sounds good, I think we’ve got to make it happen”, replied Snowden. But still, you kind of need a Twitter handle.
The world famous leaker quickly attracted a following on Twitter, and was welcomed in a tweet by co-founder Jack Dorsey. It does not matter whether one sees him as a patriot or a traitor, he just claims that he is a citizen with a voice.
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A spokesman at Twitter Inc. confirmed that it gave Snowden the @Snowden username, which was being used by someone else.
