Today in things that shouldn’t really be news but we can’t help but enjoy: Edward Snowden took a selfie!
A photo has been released of the former NSA contactor-turned-whistleblower, whose leak of vast swathes of top-secret documents about covert U.S. surveillance operations have made him alternately revered and reviled the world over. He’s accompanied in the photo by journalist Glenn Greenwald and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras—to whom Snowden leaked the documents, and who have led the reporting on them—and Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda.
Greenwald has confirmed on Twitter that it is indeed a true selfie, and was taken by Snowden himself.
@free_snowden It was actually a selfie, taking by Snowden.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 22, 2014
The photo was taken in Russia, though it’s unclear where and when. It first surfaced this morning when it was posted to Miranda’s Facebook page.
Last week, Glenn Greenwald’s book, No Place to Hide, was released, documenting the story of the initial leak and the Guardian’s reporting of it, as well as providing more details about the NSA’s surveillance programs and arguing why readers should care about the operations.
Greenwald, who now reports at The Intercept, also recently revealed that the U.S. government is recording all telephone calls in the Bahamas, Kenya, Mexico and the Philipines—and one more unidentified country that Greenwald decided not to disclose the identity of because doing so would apparently lead to “deaths.”
Whistleblowing website Wikileaks claims to know the identity of this country, and is currently threatening to reveal it.
Photo via David Miranda/Facebook
