June 21, 1983:
In Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Edward Snowden was born.

Winter, 1998:

Snowden drops out of Arundel High School in Maryland in his sophomore year.

1999-2004:
Snowden develops a fascination with computers and technology, and he completes courses at Anne Arundel Community College and eventually at the Computer Career Institute.

May 7, 2004:
Snowden enlists as a Special Forces Recruit in the Army Reserves.

September 28, 2004:
As a consequence of breaking both legs in a training accident, Snowden is discharged from the military without completing Basic Training.

Fall 2005:
Snowden takes his last class at the Anne Arundel Community College, but he does not earn any certifications or degrees.

2006:
Snowden is hired by the CIA as an IT expert and thus receives high-level clearance.

2007-2009:
Snowden, under diplomatic cover, is sent to Geneva, Switzerland. As an IT expert and technician, he received access to millions of classified documents. Snowden later tells The Guardian that “[he] realized that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good”

Late 2009:
Snowden attempted to access documents without authorization; his CIA supervisor assessed his behavior and work habits and noted his observations in his personal file. Shortly after his supervisor’s scrutiny, he resigned and began to work as a NSA & CIA contractor for Dell.

2009-2012:
Snowden switches between NSA and CIA contracts for Dell, including an NSA assignment in Japan that lasted until March 2012.
December 2012 – January 2013:

Snowden contacts a lawyer and columnist for The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald, as well as a documentary filmmaker, Laura Poitras.
March 2013:
In Hawaii, Snowden worked as an infrastructure analyst for Booz Allen Hamilton (a technological consultant) for the NSA based in Hawaii. He lives with his girlfriend, a 28-year-old performance artist, Lindsay Mills, in Waipahu. The South China Morning Post was later told by Snowden that he did so in order to access additional classified documents with the intent to leak. Snowden downloaded up to 1.7 million classified documents; many of which have the potential to severely damage foreign relations and undercut military effectiveness.
May 2013:
He leaves his girlfriend, giving her vague excuses, and he tells his NSA supervisor he must take time off to treat his epilepsy (which he was diagnosed with the previous year).
May 20, 2013 – Early June 2013:
Snowden arrives in Hong Kong after departing from Hawaii. Lawyer and columnist for The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald, and documentary filmmaker, Laura Poitras, also arrive in Hong Kong.

June 2013:
The Guardian published an article revealing the NSA collections of domestic email and telephone metadata from Verizon. Snowden releases information through The Guardian and The Washington Post regarding the NSA’s highly classified intelligence collection software, Prism. Prism is the NSA’s top-secret surveillance program, and the PowerPoint that Snowden released contains information regarding when and how the NSA collects data (practically all major search engines and social media sites are used). Snowden also leaks information via The Guardian pertaining to Boundless Informant, a tool used by the NSA to gather intelligence. It is revealed that in February 2013, almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence was collected in the United States alone.

June 9, 2013:
The Guardian reveals that the source of the NSA leaks is Edward Snowden, who is already in Hong Kong.

June 14, 2013:
Snowden is charged by the United States Justice Department with violations, two of which pertain to the 1917 Espionage Acts: “unauthorized communication of national defense information” and “willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorized person”.

June 23, 2013:
Snowden attempts to depart Hong Kong for Ecuador in order to escape in Latin America; the United States rescinds his passport and he is trapped in Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia.

August 1, 2013:
Russian authorities grant Snowden temporary asylum while they consider his application for permanent political asylum. The Guardian releases information regarding NSA funding for British Intelligence (so that the NSA can receive data that would be illegal to collect on their own).

October 2013:
The Washington Post publishes even more documents. The documents reveal that the NSA collects data in bulk through fiber optic cables (which carry the world’s telephone and internet data). Additionally, the NSA is shown to have collected over 250 million email inbox views and contact lists from services such as Yahoo, Gmail, and Facebook.

January-February 2014:
Snowden documents reveal the methods of British cyber spies, including: monitoring YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter in real time, releasing computer viruses, spying on journalists and diplomats, bugging phones and computers, and many more. This could be used against anybody, ranging from suspected arms dealers, terrorist groups, governments, and even the common people.

March 6, 2014:
At a Congress meeting hearing regarding the defense budget, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Martin Dempsey, tells Congress that the Pentagon may need billions in order to overcome the leaked military secrets.

May 21, 2014:
Snowden has his first live interview with Brian Williams, an NBC News anchor. Snowden argues that he was not a low-level “analyst” as some government officials have said; rather, he was a spy who had done undercover work whose goal was to implement intelligence systems for the United States. He also told Williams that if he could leave Russia for anywhere, “anywhere” would be home. When asked why he was still in Russia, he replied that that question was for the United States State Department to answer (they had rescinded his passport a year earlier).

May 28, 2014:
John Kerry, the Secretary of State, said on the Today show that Snowden’s response regarding home did not make sense. If he wanted to come home, “we’ll have him on a flight today”.
In the unlikely event that Snowden returns, he could be tried and and could be charged 30 years for three felonies under the Espionage Act. Under the 1917 Espionage Act, Snowden would not even have the ability to argue that the documents never should have been withheld in the first place and that what he did served the common good.
He could also additionally be individually charged for every single document, and the charges for 1.7 million documents would substantially increase his jail time.

Snowden, #Patriot or #Traitor?

Sources:
Cole, Matthew, and Mike Brunker. "Inside the Mind of Edward Snowden." NBC News. NBC, Web. 5 June 2014.
"Edward Snowden: Title." BBC News: US and Canada. BBC, Web. 5 June 2014.
"NSA Prism Program Slides." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, Web. 5 June 2014.
"A Timeline of Edward Snowden's Life." The Washington Post. Web. 5 June 2014.